Hmmm... I'm not sure what I think about this. A lot of people totally love it, and it is good, but it seemed a little slow to start and the whole thing just seemed... uninspired. Just.... I liked the characters and everything, but there never seemed to be any real emergency to their actions. And all the reviews I'd seen had made it seem like such an engrossing story.... 
 Other than that, though, taken without the hype, it is a pretty good adventure tale, definitely not your run of the mill romance with a quick chase thrown in; the entire thing is focused entirely on Elisa and her coming-of-age and her path to self-discovery and in that aspect it is a sweet, touching tale... There's no real cliffhanger ending, so I'm a little confused yet interested to see what'll happen in the rest of the series.