The premise of this book reminded me a little of The Night Circus - two innocent children chosen to take part in a game that would ultimately destroy them. I loved The Night Circus so obviously, I'm already sold on the premise. 
 This one is a little different - the puppetmasters in this case are Death and Love and, as we follow the lives of Henry and Flora (the 'players' in the game), we simultaneously follow Death and Love's manipulations of their lives in order to try and win it. I enjoyed this book - it wasn't amazing, but I really enjoyed it - 1930's, jazz, tragedy, magic, forbidden romance, true love - it was like tick, tick, tick, tick on a list of all my favourite things. The lead characters of Henry and Flora are likeable and engaging - they feel real, and their struggles feel real and there is a really wonderful secondary character, Ethan, who is Henry's friend...his storyline was written wonderfully and tragically. He got sacrificed by Love and Death for the game, and that was one of the points of the story that I was most sad about...I wanted to see more of him, and to find out that his life turned out better than it seemed like it was going to. 
 My one complaint, if you can call it that, is that I think we saw a little too much of Death and Love, and for the most part, neither felt particularly sympathetic. I just wanted to spend a little more time with Flora and Henry and a little less time watching Death be awful to people. 
 The epilogue of this book was actually one that worked well - usually they destroy books, but in this case it was genuinely touching and moving and was the perfect ending for these characters and that is all I can ask for from my books.