This book is a strange beast: normally I wouldn't rate a book that took me so long to read 5 stars, but I loved the writing and the magic system and the world and the slow burn romance (if you can even call it that?) so much that this book deserves it. It's also not entirely Novik's fault that it took me this long - I got a bit distracted by video games while reading this (damn you, Dragon Age!). But the long paragraphs and few dialog breaks definitely made this a slower read than most books I enjoy. 
 I felt lost about a few things, so I'd like to eventually give this a reread, but as for now I feel this is a solid 5 star book for me. I also love so much that it's a standalone - so many fantasy books are part of a series and it's nice to have a break from that now and then.