Gosh, this doesn't deserve the poor 3.5 avg rating. It's a fun, quick read which can stand ground next to many other YA Fantasy.

The main couple of characters are fun and likeable, the female mc is a girl pretending to be a noble, but still has habits from her old, very non-noble life, which creates some quirky moments, and the male mc is a sweet guy despite some stupid things he did when he was younger (at least he's not your usual boring brooding hero). The romance doesn't go beyond kissing, so it doesn't have this very rushed feel many YA novels have, and I imagine there's still the sequel to develop further (which I haven't read at the point of writing this).

I saw people complaining about worldbuilding, but I didn't have an issue with it. It takes place in a city which 2 empires want to grab into their spheres of influence (one Empire sounds like China or Japan, and the other one like India), it isn't the usual "hey this is fake China / India with fantasy names" and maybe that's why people take umbrage that it's more of an inspiration than a carbon copy.

4.5 stars rounded up.