As I read the first few pages, I thought it had a Harry Potter feel to it - magic school, check; boy more or less ignored by living family, check; names that border on the absurd, check. It's full of tropes and cliches. It has an Austen feel to it, which didn't really work for me nor did the fake-European setting. Use the real world and tweak it or create a brand new world but this was a mish-mash and the non-magical world building was often confusing. It's mish-mash of poorly done alternate history, fantasy, romance, political thriller, and young adult. 
 It is an interesting world, despite it's flaws, and an interesting magic system that has potential but the writing style didn't really work for me. It was a pseudo-historical way of speaking and style of writing and I mainly found it irritating. Our hero and heroine both belonged to standard tropes concerning family and abilities; they were also the best developed of the characters. The secondary characters were interesting but could have been fleshed out more. Parts of the story were predictable and it has loose ends which will be presumably be dealt with in the next book or following books. 
 I'll keep my eyes out for the next book in the series, but I won't be rushing to get it.