I've read Melissa de la Cruz books before and while it has been a long time I remember enjoying them. This book is a bit of a hot mess. There is a huge info dump at the beginning that made my eyes glaze over because it was just so much information poorly shoved in my face. Then the prologue with the Queen was just awful writing, the dialogue felt so forced and awkward. Shadow seems to be an interesting character but there's nothing about this I love that makes me want to read more. It feels like a very basic YA fantasy.