I borrowed the audio version of this book from the inimitable Dr. Karin Perry, YA guru. My intent was to stretch myself a little bit because I am not immediately attracted to books about imaginary past worlds. I like historical fiction better. But there have been notable exceptions, and I need to broaden my horizons, so I decided to give this story a chance. Early on it irritated me enough that I considered ditching it but I decided to soldier on and be a good sport. It did get a bit better but I am not recommending it unless you like the idea of a YA book that is romance lite. Maybe you want to raise your kid to read paperback romances. If so this is great training for her. I grew out of reading romance novels a long time ago but I remember enough about them to see the parallels. Selfish spoiled girl buys surly slave boy, then doesn't know what to do with him (duh, he's super hunky) and they then get sucked into a rather inevitable Romeo/Juliet fix.  Well, I thought I'd hang in till the end and was UNPLEASANTLY SURPRISED to find the story just cuts off abruptly and if I want to know how they work things out I gotta read another lite romance. No thanks. I don't like reviewers who treat a YA book like an adult book and criticize it for not meeting their standards for such, but geez. I wouldn't have liked this book as a kid. Smarmy. I know, I'm in the minority here because many folks seem to think the book is enthralling and are eagerly waiting for the next one. Not me...I'm out.

All that being said, a YA librarian should read at least this one, the first of the trilogy. It is getting a lot of hype and there are gonna be teen girl fans of the series. A movie could certainly be forthcoming, in fact that's probably a part of the book's raison d'etre. It just didn't win over this slightly out of step and curmudgeonly reader.