I enjoyed this book, for the most part. It's a quick and easy read that tends to stay interesting throughout, except...boy, could I ever do without the romantic subplots. If you even want to call them that. There's two of them going on in this story, with neither one given much flesh. First, you've got Romantic Interest #1, Beau, who is just so horrendously boring that every appearance he makes threatens to put you to sleep. His interactions with Anouk are just as dull and I could really, really do without them. He's about as basic and vanilla as a character can get. Then there's Romantic Interest #2, Rennar. Who is...marginally more interesting due to his moral ambiguity, but his character is frustratingly inconstant for no logical reason (at least, not one that's explored beyond more than a paragraph or two) and who never really feels like a true contender since Anouk is perpetually hung up over bland-as-unsalted-butter Beau. So I don't know if this set up was actually supposed to be a love triangle or....anything, really, but I do know that it distracted from the plot and detracted from the story as a whole and if we could have just skipped all that nonsense it would've been cool. But maybe not YA enough? Always gotta have that romantic conflict nonsense to keep the kiddies entertained, I guess.

Honestly, the plot of this story wasn't that strong, either, and the resolution seemed pretty straightforward. Not a lot of surprises here, which isn't always a bad thing but in this case...well, it just made the whole narrative seem a little simple. The best part of the book involved Anouk discovering herself and developing her abilities further; once you get past that part, it becomes a bit of a drag. Still good, though. Just...not as good as it could have been.