I wanted to love this. Heck, I did love it, up until the last few chapters of the book. 
 It was gorgeously written, characters with depth and personality, a touch (well more than a touch) of magic, and overall a fantastic storyline and reading experience. 
 But, for me, the ending was lackluster. It too easily came together. It was anticlimatic. It was 'oh, well, yeah, ok, that works'. I felt like maybe Morgenstern wrote herself into a corner and found a cheap way out. 
 I will say though that every.single.person I've talked to has nothing but fantastic things to say about this book. So I gifted it to the brother-in-law for Christmas. I'll give him my warning that I didn't care for the lacking ending, but he may feel different. From the rave reviews (and lack of comments on the ending) maybe I am in the minority.