I feel like this is the type of book I would have been into as a kid had I found it then. Alanna is strong, clever, feisty, and speaks her mind. The book is written for young adults, but it has a mature tone (not mature content, though). There are some issues with it - there are never any consequences when people find out her secret, there is almost no way she would have been able to keep it a secret for so long and from so many, there is not a lot of character development, there is plot but nothing is really happening. 

Ultimately, the only reason I read this is so I can read book two. And that may seem strange (and it definitely is), but I need book two to complete a reading challenge I am participating in. The requirements of the challenge left me with a lot of not great options, so book two it is.