So I love Beauty and the Beast, but with the new movie coming out this spring, we've all been talking about the whole Stockholm Syndrome issue. This book definitely solves that problem in a satisfying way for me and tells a really satisfying story. (view spoiler)[Yeva fights her attraction to her captor and constantly reminds herself of who he really is. Only when her attempt to kill him fails and she realizes that he wasn't responsible for the death of her father and why he's been keeping her there does she let herself care about him. I'm not overly familiar with Russian folktales, but I loved the interweaving of the Firebird with the traditional Beauty and the Beast. I loved how the sisters and even the suitor were kind, good people. I got a Katniss kind of vibe from Yeva's hunting skills, but she wasn't annoyingly coldhearted. I was thrown off by the little one page Beast POV scenes, but after (view spoiler)[he lets her go home and they're separated for all that time (hide spoiler)] I was glad to know what was happening to him! 
 One thing I loved was that this story wasn't really about romance as YA usually goes, no heated kisses, no jumping in bed together, but it was about two soul mates talking and growing into the kind of friendship that you suddenly realize is love. The author has already touched on this type of relationship in the Skylark series, I think, exploring whether love can help you hold on to your humanity, and I think it's an even deeper, more mature treatment here. 
 I enjoyed it. It was clean enough to let my kids read eventually. I really felt that the epilogue was unnecessary. Of course we always want to know what's going to happen, but Spooner had brought us to a good place, and I didn't need the little strings tied. (hide spoiler)]