I loved so much about this book. The writing, the setting, the source material -- this is a Rumpelstiltskin retelling-- all of it is really well done. I love that this is a book with several examples of strong women. They are all smart and brave, loyal and honorable.

There are a couple things that knock the rating down for me though.
This is a multiple perspective novel, which I tend to love. The problem comes when perspectives are switched without any indication of who we are now following, several times each chapter. It gets confusing, especially if you listen to the audiobook, like I did for the first half of this book until the number of POVs went from three to six. The audiobook doesn't even pause when switching from one perspective to another, so I would have no idea we had switched protagonists at first. Also, while I like multiple POV novels, I didn't think Irina's nurse was necessary at all, and I wasn't super excited about Stepon either. I would've preferred more of Irina's or the Tsar's perspective, especially to tie up their story at the end.

I also thought it took awhile to get to the main plot of the story, although I enjoyed the writing in the beginning as well. I can see some people saying that this book is slow or has pacing issues. It just depends on what you value in your storytelling. I tend to really enjoy these kind of character-driven stories.