Oh... oh, I wanted to like this a lot. But I just... didn't. 
 Part of me wonders if I'm being unfair here. Objectively, this isn't a bad book--fairly standard YA fantasy. But I sort of wanted this book to change my life, y'know? Like, be so amazing and fresh and different that it would leave me reeling. Because hello, the premise here is amazing. But with everything else being so mediocre I just... struggled with it in the end. 
 The characters were mostly flat and bland. No one was particularly fleshed out and the character development felt weak. There was a lot of exposition, but not enough worldbuilding or backstory. 
 The pacing in general was very inconsistent here. But the romance especially suffered because of it. It was like: nothing, nothing, nothing, maybe friends, a teeny glimmer of some amazing pining, oops now we're kissing. Listen, I need 1000% more tension and pining please. There were a few shining moments, but not enough to salvage the rest of this unfortunately. 
 Which is such a damn shame. We desperately need more queer fantasy and I really wanted to love this. I'm sort of heartbroken that I didn't.