I feel like I'm not going to do this book justice. It's marketed as a YA, but I'd happily hand this over to a middle school reader who wants to tackle something different.
The writing is really, really good, but it's written on a slightly more juvenile level than the YA I normally dip into. So we have a well plotted story, very solid characters, a well-researched setting and time period, and characters that come to life on the page. Once I got past the opening scene's silliness, the story moved along for me at a reasonable clip. But instead of wanting to rate it 4-4.5 stars at the end, I was just left trying not to use the word "cute", and I think that's a reflection of the reading level the book is written in.
Overall, I thought it was good, definitely not a waste of time or money, but I'm just *sniffle* a little too old to give it the kudos it deserves.
(Summer Book Bingo for either YA or Romance; I haven't decided which yet.)