I totally read this in one sitting - cause that's exactly what I wanted to do with my free time over the Holidays. It was wonderful. I spent 4.5 hours getting lost in this story, in Arin and Kestrel's world, and it was exactly what I was looking for. Nothing super original here. A pretty formulaic story as far as dominant, high bred girl buys slave that intrigues her, relationship develops because girl is a special high bred person, there's a baby love triangle and some disappointment where parents are concerned, a big event turns everything around completely, trust is lost and needs to be regained, and each makes decisions with the benefit of the other in mind, with little regard to their own safety/situation or what the other person wants. However, the writing was solid (no "talking down" to the YA crowd) and the pacing was on point. There was also one point that I really enjoyed, different from most YA in this genre: Kestrel is NOT the best fighter ever, she cannot beat the guys and people are not afraid of her...but she keeps hers eyes open, using information to her advantage, and is a pretty solid strategist (plus the music thing and she's fairly empathetic). I appreciate that a different kind of strength can make a female a fighter and a heroine. At the end, of course, we are left with a girl torn between feelings and duty (plus, of course, a need to make her father proud and follow through on promises to a friend), who chose duty to save the person for whom she has those feelings. And a boy who feels betrayed by that decision because of course he'd rather fight his own fight and have the girl too - it's a whole have your cake and eat it too situation. But of course, with a trilogy, you know there's more to come, girl will probably second guess her decision, so we'll see what happens there. Regardless, I was entertained through the whole thing, which is of course the point, and I'm excited to keep reading.