It's a good book and I liked the fact that it could be a stand alone even though it's the first in a trilogy. Which is great because I'm not sure I want to read the second and third book in the series. The characters are interesting, I did like Lucy. I felt she was actually a girl with a brain, and she actually learned from her mistakes. I loved the scene where she accidentally sings herself to Lord Scargrave's Fortress (although the name is interesting could you make it any more obvious he's the villain?) instead of whining and going woes is me, she formulates a plan and later takes responsibility for her actions. She's actually sorry that's she's done something that got her in trouble for disobeying. (view spoiler)[(I cannot tell you how many times a MC has whined over the fact that no one told them anything so of course it's their fault the MC is in this mess. If they (usually the parental/guardian figure) had just told them what was going on then everything would have been fine. Me I tend towards letting the kid know a little of what's going on, not full on details but enough to let them know, life will get dangerous if they don't follow the rules. Although in books it doesn't seem to matter, if the MC knows or not they will inevitably do something stupid to get the plot rolling. (hide spoiler)] Lucy I think stuck out to me because she quickly comprehended it was her fault, felt remorse and took proactive motions to get herself out of the situation. But then it went downhill from there, I would have been happier if she had stayed proactive. Once she met up with Nat and the others, she became very passive very quickly. However I did like the fact she worked hard at her magic. (view spoiler)[ And it was great she didn't go for the wild magic version just because it was easier and felt right. Especially once she learned the consequences for using wild magic. Although the fact the consequences were mitigated at the end totally brought the stakes down. I mean it would have been more interesting to have her loose her powers completely at the end like she was suppose to instead of slowly gaining them back. and then have the next book be more like there's more to magic than just singing or something, or you know, fall back on science with Nat (hide spoiler)] 
 Nat was an interesting character as well even though he wasn't on screen much. which was fine since the romance wasn't the focal point of this book. Added bonus that. And her godmother Lady (who's name escapes me at the moment) I knew from the beginning she had an agenda, very obvious about it. But yeah. 
 Overall plot wise, everything was predictable and slow with very little action, (view spoiler)[particularly on the part of the heroine. I mean after her singing herself to the fortress and I'm like alright at least the girl kept her head, it went downhill, she simply followed. She followed Nat who's conveniently there that night to steal a book, and is luckily part of a revolution to dethrone the man terrorizing the country. Her maid and her godmother come to her, so she doesn't even have to try and track them down. (although that was on the back burner anyway once she fell in with the resistance) and for the majority of the book she's in a basement learning how to breathe and even her big action scene is basically her having a debate with a book. I guess this will all change in the second book, since I'm guessing that since we've gone through basic training with her we won't have to slog through pages of her learning how to breathe correctly. (which was actually an interesting thing, because I know singers have to breath a certain way in order to sustain high notes and long drawn out ones, so I can see the logic behind her learning how to breath right in order to sing properly.) (hide spoiler)] Everything happens conveniently for the MC so she doesn't have to do anything but show up and sing a song. 
 Still I managed to finish the book and I wasn't trying to rip my hair out or anything, so yeah, I think this is a fair representation of your typical YA/OT fiction nowadays. 
 Recommended? Sure why not 
 Buy/Borrow? Borrow it