I wanted to love this book, and Queenie herself, but I just couldn't get myself to connect with her story. So much of the development happens in the second half of the novel, but without the back story, it's difficult to get that far. The cover artwork is beautiful, and in the end the moral of the story rises to match it, but it requires a certain degree of perseverance to get through the painful moments at the beginning to find the light at the end. Some of the characters, such as Cassandra, I felt were never developed enough at all, and for many I found myself wondering about them as they exist separate from the character of Queenie. I would give this book a B- score - the premise is a good one, but the story could have been told in a much more powerful way.