DNF. But I'm counting it towards my reading challenge for the year because I read a little over 200 pages and still couldn't get into this one. The writing style was nice and descriptive, but everything was so slow. I didn't know what was going on half the time, and it's easily forgettable for me. I'd put it down after reading a few pages without the desire to pick it back up when I was ready to. This wasn't a good sign. I will not be reviewing this one on my blog, just making my notes here. The rich visuals that Noel provides through her descriptive writing is the only redeeming quality I could find about this book from what I've read. Well, that and the very pretty cover. A good chunk through and I still didn't seem to find enough story to grab my attention. Sad to say, I can't make myself finish this one. Maybe some other time in the future? The plot really is intriguing. It's just slow. 
 Really appreciated that I won this through the LibraryThing First Reads giveaway from St. Martin's, but unfortunately it disappointed. I have a feeling someone else will enjoy it though. 
 <3 
 Pixie 
 EDIT: Okay, so before I sent it off on a book swap, I decided to give it another chance and go back and try to finish it. Normally, I don't bother to take the time to this sort of thing with books I mark as "DNF" so this was a rare case for me, but I should make some points. The imagery in this book is absolutely stunning. It's what ultimately made my decision to go finish it. And in the end, I'm glad I did. The story finally came out in the last bit of it, and I did enjoy it after all. It's slow, and that's my warning. I think since this is the first book to a series of books that St. Martin's will be releasing every six months for the author, it was pretty much just a major set up of the plot and characters. Not much action, and it still is a bit confusing toward the end in my opinion. Perhaps the second book will run more quickly, and I think I'll get it to see how it does. I definitely thought the ideas were intriguing too like I said above previously. I strike my first comment about it being forgettable, because I couldn't forget it in the end (obviously, since I decided to finish it). Not bad after all. Look forward to the next in the future and seeing where this all goes. The visuals still get me. Definitely a lot of showing. Love that. 
 So now, I'm giving it a proper rating and taking it off my DNF shelf. Not a favorite, but I enjoyed it.