~3.5 stars. I found this to be an entertaining read, but not of the same caliber as Rutkoski's Winner's Trilogy (which is not too surprising, considering this book was written before that series). The plotting in the Winner's Trilogy is more clever, and there's a lot more complexity in the political maneuvring. It's also darker and more mature than this book. Nevertheless, I liked the protagonist Darcy and her hot-cold relationship with Conn, and the whole notion of these two parallel universes based off of one historical event. There are definitely some questions around worldbuilding that never get answered (where did Shades come from in the first place, for one), but that didn't bother me a whole lot.