I was so excited when I found out that I won this book and I am so glad I did. I went into the story new to Margaret Owen and never having read "The Goose Girl" as a child. I really enjoyed the world-building and the characters. Now don't get me wrong, some characters I hated in the story but not because they were poorly written, the opposite, Ms Owen did such a good job of making them come to life that you couldn't help but get invested in them. I like Vanja, she was a good MC but I have to say I did not care for her at first because she was kinda pushy but as you get to know her that is something you like about her. I enjoy when an author can make me love a character I may not bond with at first by slowly building their story as you go, I prefer that to the information dump you get at the beginning because I feel like you get to "see" the character grow into who they are.