At the beginning, I thought I was going to absolutely hate this book. The pace dragged, the children are written like they are from the 50s, and if I had to hear about a female character's breasts one more time, I would have exploded. But then I got to around page 200 and every issue I had with it lessened. It became a very enjoyable and addicting read. I ended up coming out of it happy that I read it, which I definitely was not expecting when I started.