This took a little while to get into. Yet another 1st person perspective following a teenage girl. This girl, however, actually has some traits to recommend her, other than an aptitude for getting into dangerous situations (she's pretty good at that, too). 
 Neryn is a girl with abilities that could get her killed. She watched her grandmother be turned into a gibbering idiot before her very eyes by mind-scrapers working for the king (it was accidental, they meant to take her grandmother's will and turn her into a loyal servant to the king, but because there aren't any teachers for this sort of thing (magic being outlawed and all), sometimes they mess up). She has been on the run with her father, her only remaining relative for three years. 
 When her father loses her for a few pieces of silver in a gambling game, Neryn's fragile world shatters completely. The man who "won" her is grim and mysterious, but promises that he only wants to help her get to wherever she is going. When he leaves on an enigmatic errand, he asks her to wait for him to return. However, Neryn does not trust anyone, and the second he is gone she sets out on her own towards the fabled safety of a place called "Shadowfell." 
 I really enjoyed the book once I got into it. It was written in such a different style than the last book I read that it just took me a while to really get into it. However, once I did, I enjoyed it. This story is a bit darker than Marillier's "Wildwood Dancing" but is every bit as well-written. There are a few moments where I cringed a bit because I felt that she was about to cross the line of what was appropriate for a YA novel in the relationship that develops between Neryn and Flint - but she never really did. There were hints of a more adult romance scattered throughout the book that it knocked my star rating from a 5 to a 4, but there was nothing truly inappropriate about the story.