I read this all in one day, guys. Seriously. Okay, so I read twelve pages of it this morning... Also, is it already June??? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN??? 
 The Good 
 -The characters. Oh my gravy, Peder. Can I just steal him? And Miri and Britta and Knut... Bascially, I just want to kidnap all the characters. 
 -The setting. Basically, the setting was just plain awesome. I WANNA MOVE TO MOUNT ESKEL. 
 -Linder/Quarry-speech. That was sooo awesome. From the blurb, I wasn't even expecting that. But then again, I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting... 
 -Plot continuity. Shannon Hale's pretty good at dropping early hints of plot twists without being too obvious. And yeah, I missed most of them, so I ended up with a ton of "Aha!" moments. 
 (view spoiler)[-Steffan. He was a wonderful "stone pillar"! I loved when he opened up to Miri. ;) 
 -My shipping. It held up very, very well. BASCIALLY ALL MY SHIPS WERE RIGHT. Except maybe Knut and Olana, but that was an iffy one... (hide spoiler)] 
 The Bad 
 -Surprises. This book actually did not surprise me all that much. I predicted pretty much everything. (view spoiler)[Except the part about the bandits. (hide spoiler)] 
 The Ugly 
 Very little romance, more violence than anything else. Someone falls off a cliff. 
 So... I'm not sure if this book really intrigued me yesterday or if I just was procrastinating writing... I really enjoyed it though, I must say.