I would have given this book four stars for the beautiful setting and world-building alone, except for one small detail at the end of the book. I loved the cliff hanger and the set-up for the next book, but I think that one event distracted from the bigger arc of the story. It is a familiar emotional manipulation device in literature(especially juv and YA) that, frankly, I'm just tired of. I will read the next one because I'm interested to see what happens with the witches, but overall I'm feeling a bit disenchanted with the story right now.