It's taken me quite a while to sort out my thoughts on this book. 
 I'm a huge sci-fi fan, so naturally I was quite excited about the premise. Genetically engineered bodyguards! Space! Yay!! 
 Let's just say I was disappointed, but I'll start with what I liked. 
 The Good(ish): 
 -The main character in the first half of the book. Nemesis is somone I really rooted for and understood. At least until the second half, more on that later. 
 -The other characters. All were fully developed, even the side characters 
 -No info-dumping! I could actually keep straight (most) of the alliances, planets, characters, etc. 
 The Bad: 
 -Description. Where was it? Sometimes I felt the only thing ever actually described was a certain male character's body. Eck. I get trying to avoid over-description, but seriously. None of the ships were described AT ALL, except the Chrystanthemum. Scenes would take place and I would have no idea where. The first section of the book, which takes place in Sidonia's family's fortress, has next to NO DESCRIPTION AT ALL. I kept trying to picture said fortress, but that didn't go well as suddenly the author would mention "OK, so now they're in the tiger enclosure." WHAT?! What does the place look like? Color? How big? Shape? Structure? Anything? Anything at all? 
 -The entire second half. Suddenly it turns from a half-way decent sci-fi story about a genetically engineered humanoid trying to protect her "owner" and only friend and struggling with her own mistakes and wants, to a half-assed love story that frustrated me as a science fiction fan and reader in general. You do not just take a character who struggles to feel emotion for more than one person, and suddenly make them fall head-over frickin'-heels in love with some wierd prince guy. No. Nope. I'm not okay with that. 
 Possibly more to come. 
 TLDR: Not so great. I won't be reading the sequels.