This was quite an interesting book! At first I was a little reluctant to the main-character-who-is-both-a-countess-and-a-librarian idea but I actually ended up liking it! Putting the story in a medieval-ish settings but with modern inventions (called "Devices") was also a pretty neat idea. There were still horse-drawn carriages but they also had some modern stuff, apparently, like humidifiers, guns, and even folding chairs!

Just a warning that there are quite a few suggestive comments (e.g. about women's breasts (mostly the MC's), crude joking, etc.), men often ogle and leer inappropriately at women, and in one scene a man and a woman are naked waist up and kiss passionately. One character has engaged in quite a bit of premarital sex before the book started but there aren't any sex scenes at all in the book itself and the character in question paid for his actions and is meant to have redeemed himself.

Overall, a well-written book with well-developed characters and some action mixed in. Wouldn't recommend to anyone under the age of 15 though, just to be safe. ( )

Okay, so the first 25% were dull, boring, and maybe even somewhat confusing. The rest was amazing. The plot was intricate and real and engaging( at least after the beginning few chapters. The writing was good.
As for the characters, well, before reading the book, I went through some reviews and most were critical and frustrated by Alison. However, somehow, I felt that I could perfectly relate to her, and she's one of the most amazing heroines I've ever read, in my opinion. Anthony, I didn't have any particular issues with him but he somehow didn't leave that big of an impression on me. Zara was so amazing, I can't wait to start her book. The Dowager, I didn't really like.
Liked the author, definitely gonna read more of her books ( )

Nope, still don't like romance. ( )

Okay, so the first 25% were dull, boring, and maybe even somewhat confusing. The rest was amazing. The plot was intricate and real and engaging( at least after the beginning few chapters. The writing was good.
As for the characters, well, before reading the book, I went through some reviews and most were critical and frustrated by Alison. However, somehow, I felt that I could perfectly relate to her, and she's one of the most amazing heroines I've ever read, in my opinion. Anthony, I didn't have any particular issues with him but he somehow didn't leave that big of an impression on me. Zara was so amazing, I can't wait to start her book. The Dowager, I didn't really like.
Liked the author, definitely gonna read more of her books ( )

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

This book. I can't. It's so bad.

So Alison is the most perfect perfect to ever perf and she's a countess and not just any countess but a fucking rich one, just rolling in money. But her dad is also a publisher (?!) somehow? It's a business? And Alison works there? Even though she's a countess? Like why?

Also Alison wears pants but then for dresses she has to wear a corset and at this point Melissa McShane is taking any kind of remote historical parallel and throwing it out the window and then pissing on the remains from said window.

BUT ANYWAYS. Alison is so ungodly beautiful it's really a curse. She never wears makeup because just because she knows she's a stunning goddess doesn't mean she's vain, of course not. But she still looks like Aphrodite and Helen of Troy spliced their DNA together because she has such flawless, dewey skin.

The villain of part 1, by the way, has acne. Because she's evil. Bad people get acne as a sign of their villainy.

(FUCK YOU ALISON AND YOUR PERFECT SKIN I HOPE YOU GET LEPROSY AND YOUR NOSE FALLS OFF)

(In totally unrelated news, I had bad acne as a teenager and to this day the skin on my face openly despises me and occasionally revolts in protest of my existence. I may have unresolved anger towards people who never had to deal with the utter shit of having pimples.)

(BUT ALSO FUCK YOU ALISON DIE IN A FIRE)

But Alison cannot stay in her publishing countess world for long because she's been summoned by the queen to be a waiting lady person for the queen's mother. This is a dull as fuck job that involves Alison wearing boring fancy clothing and going to boring fancy balls and I can't, I swear to shit I can't.

BUT THEN. Alison meets the queen's brother, Anthony, and he's royalty and therefore hot and fuckable. Also he's a gambling, drinking playboy. Anyways, he insults Alison with a rude comment and she slaps him in front of everyone and now they must hang out every week to show that they are so friendly and therefore avoid scandal.

And then Anthony the Royal Fuckboy has a complete 180 and becomes such a nice guy I started to fall asleep in parts. And just for hundreds of pages the only thing that happens is Anthony and Alison going out on dates. Like they finish a date and then "Four days later, Alison and Anthony went and did another thing together." Like nothing of import even happened in those four days. Because at this point the plot is Alison and Anthony having the most milquetoast boring romance ever and I really can't.

And then other shit happens and Alison gets to zing off a few good one-liners. And maaaaybe this book might get somewhat decent.

AND THEN PART 2 HAPPENS. Part 2 is the worst, y'all. It's the most boring piece of writing ever. There's meetings and bureaucracy and more meetings. Alison doesn't even know how her shit government works. It's all so stupid and petty and none of it makes sense and I want to slap everyone. And then push them out the window and piss on their remains.

But this isn't just lame YA, this is lame fantasy YA. And holy motherfleepers. It's bad. It's so bad. You don't even know how bad. There are these Devices that do what the plot needs them to do. Nothing is explained. And then halfway through when Alison comes down with A Serious Illness (oh my god, so Alison overhears some bad shit and immediately develops a 102 degree fever and a coughing fit. Instantly. I'm not making this up) and the doctor shows up and is like "Hai I have healing magic" and everyone nods and are completely unsurprised. Yes, there's healing magic and also other magic (?!) and no one mentions it until halfway through. And to be honest, the doctor comes back once later on but healing magic and the fact that PEOPLE HAVE MAGIC POWERS IN THIS WORLD doesn't get brought up again.

I have never seen such lazy worldbuilding. Fantasy YA isn't usually great at worldbuilding so I don't have the same standards that I do for regular fantasy novels, but this is so special.

This book is such shit. It's an embarrassment to books. ( )