Sometimes you lust after that perfectly designed chocolate in the window at the chocolate shop. It looks simply gorgeous on the outside. You can't help yourself; you buy it. You nibble a corner, and it is sumptuous. Yum! You pop the whole thing in your mouth and chomp down on it. You chew once. Twice. You're still trying to convince yourself that it's that same gorgeous, delicious chocolate. But at a certain point, you can no longer delude yourself. There's a funny taste... this chocolate has a filling, and it's not a filling that you like. 
 That's the sort of relationship I had with this book. I adored the cover. The synopsis convinced me to give it a try. The first few chapters were simply luscious. I was immediately convinced that I was going to adore the book. Then we reached the intermezzo, and I started to get the feeling that this book was not going to go in the direction that would most appeal to me. The further I got, the more I realised that this wasn't the book I thought it was going to be. 
 I did like the writing, and how it was inspired by the music Liesel and her brother adore. If you pay attention to how they describe their music, you can see reflections of this in the way that the story is written. Often Liesel will repeat a word three times (except a couple of times it was twice, or even four times). It served to give the story its own personal flair. I really did like the prose. 
 I liked the Goblin King himself. His back story intrigued me, and I was hoping we'd get to learn more about him and how he came to be the ruler of the Underground. 
 I liked Liesel as a character, and how she was not your typical beautiful heroine. How her beauty was reflected in the music she created. However, there was far too much time and effort spent talking about how plain she was. I didn't need all that repetition. 
 I did not like the pacing. It was slow and meandering. This isn't necessarily bad, and sometimes it can work very well for me. In this case, it did not. It meant that parts of the synopsis didn't come into play until very late in the story. The whole of the intermezzo was a boring interlude for me. I'd rather have passed on that whole section, and gone straight to Liesel making her way to the Underground. 
 And finally, I did not like the ending. Luckily there will be a sequel, and it will take place not long after the ending of this book. The sequel may be able to redeem the ending of this first book. We'll see. I'll certainly be reading it, in the hopes that the author will be able to bring the story back around to that beautiful chocolate I was lusting after in the first place.