Actual Rating: 4.5 
 This was so hard for me to rate. The way I felt about this book was pretty much akin to the way Finnikin felt (view spoiler)[when he discovered the truth about Evanjelin, (which I pretty much suspected about almost halfway into the story) (hide spoiler)], like you came across a gem that you didn't know until later. 
 Usually, with my favorite books, I can usually tell within the first 20 pages or so if I'm going to love it. But that was not the case with Finnikin of the Rock. I thought it started slow, which I guess is expected anyway because Melina Marchetta had to provide a foundation for her story. I'm just someone who usually doesn't have the patience to enjoy the time it takes to lay out that foundation. I want the foundation but at the same time, I want you to be able to grab my attention while you're building blocks. So while the prologue did grab my attention, the beginning dragged a bit for me. And if I'm honest, it mostly did drag until the middle. 
 However, this book sort of came out as a surprise, and when I truly got into it, I could barely lift my eyes from my ebook. I like books like that. 
 I got to enjoy the characters so much. From the beginning I already fell in love with Evanjelin, though I knew she was hiding something. I liked how she was almost portrayed weak at first glance, but then you looked at her again and realized she was such a strong character, even stronger than Finnikin. The road she took to get to her goal, the challenges she faced, everything she did must have taken a toll on her but she kept going forward because as she always said, she had to do "what needed to be done". 
 In addition, I also liked the fact that she wasn't such a good character. I felt like that made her more interesting. I mean, you read so many YA books (excluding Eon, Divergent and such), who have their heroines having this holier-than-thou attitude, where they want to save everyone or they're extremely generous or something. So I actually liked the portrayal of Evanjelin. The fact she seemed to lie by omission made her intriguing to me, as well as, more realistic...and human, I should say. We're not all perfect, even though we strive to be. 
 Finnikin was also a very interesting character. I loved seeing how he grew and then went from almost despising Evanjelin for joining he and Sir Topher to accommodating her, then to liking her and then loving her. It was delightful to read. Especially that end scene, I almost sighed when I read it. Their romance, though it was there, didn't overwhelm the story. 
 Ugh. And Froi? I loved Froi. Granted, he wasn't a very lovable character at the beginning of their journey but he did grow, and he, too, did learn how to think of someone other than himself. And his love for Finnikin and Evanjelin, especially Evanjelin snapped at my heart. I liked reading his point of view, I liked his character's voice. It was adorable. 
 The description of the world Marchetta created was rich and vivid, almost as rich as Eon. With each character I got introduced to, I developed an attachment. I hadn't even met Beatriss but already from the stories Finnikin shared about his father's love for her, I already grew to like her. Tesadora also made me laugh. 
 Most of the story was also written by dialogue, so you got to know more about the plot through what the characters were saying. I haven't read a book like that for a while now so it took a while to get used to but it was refreshing. Sometimes, you read books and you're tired with the author's long descriptions that you just want to skip to the character's dialogue. With Finnikin of the Rock, that was definitely not the case. 
 In conclusion, I really enjoyed it. And I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the Lumatere Chronicles.