Wow I LOVE THIS! This book was recommended by Liberty on Book Riot's "All the Books" podcast. Now I completely understand why she was ranting and raving about how amazing this book was! It was amazing! I love that it was based on a Polish fairy tale. It felt like I shared some sort of secret with the book, recognizing the fantasy-morphed names of locations around me: Polnya, Rosya, Kralia, Varsha, Gidna. I loved recognizing allusions to the legend about the Krakow Castle, and the classic Polish names of the characters Agnieszka and Kasia. 
 But most of all, I loved the story Naomi Novik created! It brought me back to my childhood, when I consumed all the fantasy and magic books I could get my hands on. The plot kept me guessing throughout. There was absolutely no way for me to predict what would happen next, which I find refreshing in a book. I thoroughly enjoyed the voice of the Dragon, who spoke with such melodramatic exasperation yet with such eloquence. I love the style of magic in this world, yet I love how everything also made sense. There were explanations for all the sorcery, there were motivations for each character's action, and Novik brought around the whole story to a perfect, unexpected, satisfying finish. 
 Novik has mastered the shift of tone. I found myself with actual somatic reactions to the action scenes, tachycardia and shallow breathing and reading as fast as I could. Then during the serene scenes I felt myself calm down and read at a peaceful pace. Naomi Novik had me hooked every step of the way. 
 I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a fairy tale with a twist, who likes magic (but it's a very relatable fantasy novel!), and maybe if you have a Polish background you would even catch on to more references than I did. Actually, now that I think about it, I recommend this book to everyone! I love it!