I liked it alot. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. It was an easy read..but the book itself is pretty slow paced, the definition of a slow burn. I think Ahdieh is a talented writer; the world building she was able to craft was beautiful, the descriptions are lush, but plot development is minimal until the very end/last 20%....it set up for a very very good sequel which I am looking forward to reading, but this one however didn't hit the mark as well as it should have. For a book promoted as a vampire story, there really weren't many traces of vampires til the last quarter of the book. I think this story has a lot of potential, and just could have been executed better, but it was good enough that I would read the next one.