While I soon discovered there was a lot of hype over this book, I had not even heard of it when my husband (who manages a book store) brought the ARC home from work. The description sounded like something I'd like -I loved the Night Circus and the focus on devotion between two sisters sounded promising. This just never took off though. 
 I assume the hype started because the film rights were bought by 20th Century Fox and in truth it might make a decent movie. Many of the things I dislike (such as clunky, boring, and awkward prose) won't translate on film. And others (like the protagonist who I also found boring and impossible to care about) would be an easy fix with a decent script and a likable actress. The one thing this book does well at is creating and maintaining the mystery of the plot and the intentions and identities of those surrounding the protagonist Scarlett. 
 While many superficial elements are Night Circus-inspired, the similarity ends there. It's hard to see why anyone would want to attend this particular circus, instead of whimsy and magic you get annoying head games and pretty much everyone who works there is a jerk. Come the end, clarity on why Scarlett's experience played out this way is provided, but getting there was a drag and I found the characters all so shallowly developed that I could not have cared less what happened to Scarlett, her sister Tella, their mystery guide Julian, or Master Legend himself. 
 I'm not going to spend a lot of time going over what I didn't like about this book. I forced myself to finish it because I already quit one upcoming release I received recently and it really isn't my wish to diss and DNF my way through all the new YA releases. I really wish I liked it better, many early reviewers seem to. It will be interesting to see what readers think once it's released.