To say I've been thinking about this book since the last time I read it is an understatement. I got to hear the author speak at a signing in Nashville back when I first got it, and was so bumbed after that I didn't get the book signed. I related to the author a lot and really loved what she had to say, so it's not really a big surprise that I enjoyed this book so much.

The romance is what surprises me most, however. This story is primarily a love story, and I'm not normally won over by the lovey-dovey novels. But this was so much more than just a passionate insta romance like in your typical YA novel. This felt so raw and human (ironically, ha) and /real/. The characters were so well developed, and watching Isobel grow over the course of the novel really touched my soul. I just reread this in a flash, analyzing as I went and trying to pinpoint why I loved the story so much, and I came upon this passage that I'll end with, because I think it really conveys the heart of the story.

"An extra twenty-four hours was nothing. Yet, it was everything. I might live more tomorrow than I did all the years of the rest of my life combined. How much was I willing to risk for it? The old me, the one who'd hidden Rook's sketches in the back of her closet, would never have asked that question. But that was the problem with the old me, I was coming to realize. She'd accepted that behaving correctly meant not being happy, because that was the way the world worked. She hadn't asked enough--of life, or of herself." (pg 205)

Isobel is so practical and clearheaded right from the beginning, asking for logical and effective enchantments instead of entertaining follies and dreams. She doesn't even realize how little she's living until she meets Rook and discovers that life can't be lived hiding from everything that may possibly hurt you.

And then, of course, there are exchanges like this that have you laughing the whole way:

"Stop being melodramatic! I am not going to /kill you/ in my /parlor/!"
He stared at me in disbelief. "Did you just sit on it?"
"Yes," I said mutinously.
(pg 276)

I said I would stop, but gosh. There are such good conversations about consent in this book, too. Isobel takes absolutely zero nonsense, and she calls Rook out multiple times on inappropriate behavior. She's practical, and warm, and passionate, and real. I just ... gah, go read this and see for yourself.