This is young adult novel, so don't expect any sex or many romantic moments.
However, closer to the end of the story, there were confessions and a few tender kisses.
I would recommend this for my 13-year olds (that's roughly the age of the characters, anyway) without hesitation.
The Academy in this book houses many professions: military, healing,magic, law... However, there is virtually no magic of any sort in this book, save for a couple of healing episodes.
Despite being true "young adult" novel, the book was pretty interesting to me and I really enjoyed the characters and the plot.
There are a few bumps in the writing style, but one that annoyed me most was the author's inability (or fear) to use pronouns. "Sentinel trainee" or "mage trainee" started to drive me (excuse my language) nuts by the end of the book.