Maybe I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't read both Starling House and For the Wolf this year, too. As it was, I did read those two first and didn't care for them all that much. I liked this one better, but the whole "woman trapped inside a house with a grumpy guy who eventually falls in love with her and her with him" bit is tired and played out. Even though some are adult and some are YA, they all work out in very similar ways and I just can't find myself enjoying them all that much anymore. I tried to read Uprooted this year too and couldn't even get into that one at all, but it was basically the same thing as these three.

Despite the lackluster story structure, though, I did enjoy the characters in this and the overall atmosphere was nice. And my melancholy is not due to this story being bad, just the repetitive nature of the narrative that I've already seen twice this year.