I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I enjoyed Once Upon a Broken Heart despite it not being a masterpiece, but this really fell short. The love story doesn't really feel earned, and it feels a little naive for all these characters to fall in love so fast, not to mention constantly forgiving and forgetting shady behaviour. I know they're quite young, but after a while it feels a little contrived. The most interesting character is Legend. He seems the most intricate and intriguing. Initially I had half expected him to be the love interest and was rather disappointed that he isn't. Julian just doesn't feel very strong as the love interest, though he wasn't uninteresting. I can't stand Donatella. Even once her motives are understood, she's just incredibly frustrating and also very boring. Their father and the Count being the "villains" also falls a little flat. They, especially their father, is meant to feel like a threat but aside from being disproportionately pyhsically violent, he doesn't feel like a true villain. As for the Count, his purpose seems so disjointed. There could have been ways to leave him out without the story really changing much at all. A lot of backstories that tie in with Legend & Caraval would have made for far more interesting books than the one we ended up getting. Some seem very twisted and dark, but I found the past stories of Caraval and also the different tales about Legend just way more fascinating than what we got. I also don't mind the fairytale like and magical way of writing and drawing comparisons to emotions as different colours. It's not exactly new. However, it had no other way to write something descriptive without immediately drawing colour comparisons to emotions. In general, there was a sense of repetition that just felt very poorly executed. All in all it's just a very average book. I'm not sure if I'll read the next one, though I want to because Jacks from OUABH features and he was my favourite part of that trilogy. I'll have to see.