3.5 stars. 
 This book actually exceeded my expectations! I'd heard a lot of good things about it, but for some reason always kind of assumed it wouldn't be for me. But I nabbed a free copy of it a little while ago and just got around to reading it, and was pleasantly surprised. 
 It was much more modern than I expected. Sounds weird since it was published in 2011, but I was expecting one of those fantasy books that's written almost medieval-y, which always bores me, but this one wasn't. 
 It is a bit long-winded at times. And there is a lot of detailed descriptions going on - of wine, food, architecture, alchemy, history, smells, you name it. I mostly didn't mind this but it didn't get a little tedious occasionally. 
 But overall it was an interesting, exciting book with smart, likeable characters and I will read the next one one day.