I'm not entirely sure whether this book was just not that great or if it just wasn't for me. When I was a kid, I loved the story of Jane Eyre, probably because of her harsh childhood and because I found the whole Rochester part to be very romantic. After rereading the novel as an adult, though, it lost a lot of its charm, to the point where I'm not really sure how I feel about it. 
 Unfortunately this fey-fantasy version did not convince me that it's time for me to reread Jane Eyre again. I found myself skimming through the last one fourth just to get through the book, even though it ended predictably enough. Initially, I thought the fey war and Jane's curse of rage, plus the mask aspect, would make an interesting combination of Beauty and the Beast and Jane Eyre. Something about it just never really came together for me though. Jane in her role as governess seems alternately spiteful and ineffective, far more concerned with controlling Dorie than understanding the child, even though supposedly she is sympathetic and at least doesn't give up like the other governnesses. Considering this is a storyline that takes up a large part of the book - despite the low page count, it feels like a much longer book - it's just too dull to retain my interest. 
 As for whatever I remember liking about the Jane/Rochester romance, it is definitely not here in this book. From the beginning, the author seems determined to characterize Jane as desperate for affection or attention. Right off the bat, she's obsessing over whether or not she can or will be touched because no one has touched her voluntarily since she was 14 or something like that, aka since the war. I mean, what romance? Apparently what Jane sees in him is that he's the only one who has shown her interest... As for what he sees in her, I never got any sense of that from the book. This romance was as dull as it was unbelievable. 
 There is a lot of obsessing about beauty or lack thereof, but whatever themes could have been developed from this never got past the most shallow exploration. The fey magic aspect of the masks might actually be more interesting if it was about actual plastic surgery. I expected some sort of point about inner strength over shallow beauty but at the end, it seems like the author was too tempted to have the cake and eat it too, which negated whatever theme about beauty or appearances there might have been. 
 I am honestly not sure where the praise for this book is coming from. I would say that maybe it's just not suited for me but given the ratings both here and on Amazon, there's definitely a discrepancy between the glowing official reviews it got - "astonishing" and "evocative"? - and what readers experienced.