Rating: 1.5/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 Lady Witmore's family fortune is slowly dwindling, and if she doesn't marry another noble soon, they'll be unable to support their extravagant lifestyle. Elizabeth Witmore is Countess of Rothford - a descendant of one of Osfrid's founding fathers. However, she only has one option for a husband at the moment, and her grandmother has already accepted. She never expected to marry for love, but once she meets him she doesn't like him at all. When a man named Cedric comes to the Witmore residence in an attempt to recruit one of Elizabeth's lady-in-waitings, he offers the maid, Adelaide, a chance to go get an education and move to Adoria, where she will be able to marry someone rich and live well. However, once Adelaide gets cold feet, Elizabeth gives her the funds to return to her family and secretly takes her place, taking on the persona of Adelaide. She now needs to go through a finishing school for things like etiquette and dance (things she already knows but shouldn't since she's supposed to be Adelaide) and make her way to Adoria, all while hiding her true identity. 
 As a fan of both the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series, when I learned that Mead would be venturing into YA again, I knew I needed to read this. I had high hopes, mostly because I loved Vampire Academy so much, but I couldn't help it. I was disappointed, unfortunately. I didn't like this book very much at all. There were so many different things going on, but at the same time everything felt so dull. I guess I just didn't have the connection with Adelaide I would need to enjoy this book. I wasn't that interested in the romance either. I actually sat down with this book for an hour to do a reading sprint starting around 70% in, and I found myself counting down the minutes until I could stop because I found it so boring and predictable (at least, at that point in the book). Those definitely aren't things you want to experience when 70% in. 
 I also had a problem with the ending. It feels like we spent so long with not much action and then Mead shoved all this action into one chapter and then declared the book finished. It felt almost as if some sort of limit was being approached, so all the action and hasty explanation was shoved into 20 pages. I also found it extremely confusing. There wasn't an explanation for what went on with (view spoiler)[ Tamsin (hide spoiler)], Mira's secret wasn't even mentioned, and I had no barely any idea what that thing with Warren meant. I wish it wasn't so hasty and things were explained better. I don't like having so many questions at the end of this book. 
 Overall, I considered this a pretty big disappointment. I had high hopes for Mead's next YA book but this series really wasn't for me, and from other reviews I can see that I'm not alone in that opinion. It was too much and not enough all at once, and the ending was really dissatisfying. I doubt I will be picking up the next book unless it gets much better reviews than this one. I wouldn't really recommend this book, especially if you enjoyed Vampire Academy/Bloodlines and are looking for the same enjoyment from this book. It doesn't really have the same excitement, suspense, surprises, or witty characters that I was looking for here that I loved from VA.