This was a good read, though I don't fully understand the hype. I did enjoy it and I'm super excited to order the sequel soon. But the book did have one major flaw that splintered out into several small irritating flaws; the main character's immaturity. It read as though she was being geared toward teen readers, which doesn't make sense because she's around 22 yrs old. I think her cranky foot stomping type attitude and random outbursts are supposed to be seen as cute, but to me they just felt unrealistic considering she was facing a life of slavery. Then when the love interest starts kissing her, she shoves him away and shouts things like "Gross!" "Yuck!" "Disgusting!". I had to roll my eyes every time. What, is she eight and he has cooties? What grown woman acts like that? I'm not saying that she had to throw herself into the hot guys arms, but there are better reactions and stronger emotions that the author could have pulled on in order to draw things out as she intended. 
 The author's strong suit was clearly the action scenes. She made the main character a badass and that was so much fun for someone like me. I loved seeing her kick ass. There was no shortage of intense action with intense outcomes. I also enjoyed the emphasis on dialogue (when the main character wasn't being immature) over scenic descriptions. I actually tend to get bored with long room descriptions, because I don't care. I care about the characters, not the decor. I would have liked a bit more narration along with the dialogue though. Like character movements and the like. 
 A few other pet peeves that came up... Exclamation points! Lordie! My critique partners constantly tell me to cut the exclamation points. Use them rarely for a big impact. If you use them constantly, they lose their power and can make it seem like your character just walks around shouting everything. Show the character's tone and emotion through the dialogue and the dialogue narration-- not the punctuation. This book made me realize how very true all of that is. The author also tended to do this: 
 I hate his kisses! I hate them! 
 Sort of. 
 Not really. 
 Gah! I'm so messed up! 
 That happened a lot. Too much. There are better ways to show her internal battle. That almost read like the author was telling me that the main character was having an internal battle, instead of showing me her internal battle. Walk me through it, let me feel it. Instead of feeling for the main character I ended up resenting her immaturity and her constant "Gah!"s. That word, in my opinion, should not be used in a novel--certainly not that often. Maybe a contemporary teen novel. 
 It may seem like I hated this novel. I didn't. I read it in record time, for me. Aside from the parts where the immaturity caused me physical pain, I loved every second of it. The characters are interesting and well-defined. I loved that the main character has depth, she has things from her past that affect her now. The immature reactions gradually faded as the story progressed and those three-tiered inner dialogues also faded. This leaves me very excited for the next book. I wanna know what's going to happen next and I want to keep rooting for these characters. 
 Recommended 
 Yes/No Checklist 
 Sex: Yes 
 Gore: Yes 
 Rape: No 
 Magic: Yes 
 Drugs: Magical drugs 
 Star Categories 
 Romance: 4 Stars 
 Action: 5 Stars 
 Pacing: 5 Stars 
 Writing: 3 Stars 
 Plot: 4.5 Stars 
 Overall: 4 Stars 
 Protagonist Meter 
 Damsel----------*Badass 
 Come on, she's awesome.