First of all I'm not a big YA fans. I try some books from time to time because the synopsis look interesting and and want to keep an open mind about the genre. That being said this book for me wasn't good at all. I get and respect the message of diversity in it. But the characters... big lack of originality here they're all mostly the same and there is a ton of clichés about them. Bringing a character to life is more of talking about her hair, her skin or the color of her eyes all over again again and again. The story was good at first, kind of original in the setting, not the poor girl from a lower class part, but the setting we the courtesan and all that was good. But then you realize nothing happen... this isn't fantasy, this is romance, with a touch of fantasy (maybe that's what YA is after all because it often come to that...). In the end I didn't love it or enjoy it while reading and that a problem. I still think that hardcore YA fans and targeted audience may like it (at first made a typing mistake writing, lick it, which is a very funny mistake I though) because it's very typical of the genre but like I already said I didn't.