It took me until the halfway point of this book to care about the characters or their situation. After that, the book did get significantly better, but still not what I would call "good". The plot was convoluted, often confusing, and weighed down by purple prose. Here's an example:

“He tasted like midnight and wind, and shades of rich brown and light blue. Colors that made her feel safe and guarded.”

What does that even mean?! How does one taste midnight or colors? And how would he taste like all of that at once? This isn't putting any sensory details in my head. Did Garber just choose these words because she thought they sounded good together? There are other examples of this kind of ridiculous writing, but this one stood out to me enough to remember its location. Prose like this takes me out of the story, and I don't care for it at all. I'm sad to see it's becoming popular in YA writing.

The ending also had a strong feeling of deus ex machina. I won't go into spoiler level details, but the convenience of the happy ending and the way everything lines up is simply ridiculous. After finally buying into the premise of the book, I felt completely disrespected as a reader by the last 10% or so of the book. The "big reveal" onward made me roll my eyes so hard that I swear I saw my brain a few times.

I'll read the sequel, but only because I hope Tella's story won't be as clandestine as Scarlet's.