This is basically the ideal first book in a YA fantasy series. I adored the characters, with Tea becoming one of my new favourite protagonists, and the different relationships they have with each other. The world is absolutely fascinating and feels so lived in; I love that at the end of this first book, I feel comfortable with my understanding of the world but I also feel like there's so much to explore in the future. Rin Chupeco's writing is quite beautiful, and I think they structured this book brilliantly with the little future snippets from an unknown character's perspective at the end of each chapter. My only criticism is one that I have of almost every YA fantasy first book in a series, which is that the plot is somewhat lacking. The beginning was quite slow and it took a while for the book to start working for me. However, compared to most YA fantasy first book in a series, this suffers the least from this due to it's fantastic characters and world. The ending... MY GOD THE ENDING. It's what bumped this up from a 4 to a 4.5. What the ending means for the future of the series in terms of plot and more importantly romance make me want to start the sequel immediately. I've been meaning to read from Rin Chupeco for a long time and I'm so glad I've finally done it, because I can see them becoming a favourite author of mine and one of the few who can make me read fantasy.