** spoiler alert ** 
 Three and a half stars, though this one was a taste thing more than a problem with the book, at least as compared to some of my other three star ratings. 
 The writing is interesting, I enjoyed the beginning premise, and I really had trouble putting it down. Usually if I'm hooked on a book, I can stay up reading and just finish it, but this one took me two late nights to finish up. So it's long, and it kindof feels that way. While the author mentions Tolkien as an inspiration, I somehow find his brand of fantasy more palatable than hers. Hers is not bad fantasy, it's just not quite the kind I enjoy. This wasn't as suffocating to me as the Farseer books, probably because there was some hope that the unbeatable Wood could be beaten (I gave up on the aforementioned series after two books and hundreds of pages had things continuing to get worse and not better), but the second half in particular was a bit much for my tastes (eg, the tower siege that left thousands of soldiers dead after the bloodbath of the chapter before in the palace). It wasn't bad writing, and it was consistent with the story, but I was enjoying the magician-learning-her-powers plotline in the first half and felt jarred by the rapid expansion of focus once the heroine goes to the court. I just don't enjoy court infighting and tons of blood and guts and gore, so the increasingly bloody scope was not as enjoyable. Other reviewers said this could have been two books, and I can see that. 
 I enjoyed the friendship between Agnieszka and Kasia, and it's great to have two female characters whose friendship is not spoiled by love triangles. Kasia was a great secondary character; I could see another book following her adventures after this one! I was not as convinced by the romance. The Dragon is 150 years older than A and always cranky; I wasn't ready for them to cast a spell together and then start groping each other in passion. And the heroine is 17. I think the author intends for us (and her) to see him as lonely and attractive behind his cranky mask, but I didn't necessarily see enough of that before Agnieszka falls in love (though the final scene did put a smile on my face). Also, as far as ratings go, they do end up in bed, pushing the PG-13 boundaries for a couple pages. 
 I do kindof agree with other reviewers that our talented heroine is a bit of a Mary Sue. Her own special magic that no one else can do! The youngest wizard in ages! I didn't notice it as much while I was in the book, but after finishing, she did strike me as sortof a special snowflake. She does have some humanizing flaws, but it's hard with books about magic to accurately judge someone's relative weakness. So while this book is definitely better written and engaged my interest more than many of my other three star books, I can't say that I want to read it again or am chomping at the bit to read more of the author's work.