The magic system was unique but the characters and romance fell very flat for me. Lore is meant to be this amazing spy and throughout the novel she proved she was actually a terrible spy. So much information was revealed at the end that it was just a lot and we could have been sprinkled throughout the plot. Bastian was a better spy than she was and he was supposed the be a write off. 

The romance felt very fated with things like "she felt like she knew him her whole life" and things like that. And the dialogue between the characters didn't match the theme/tone the descriptions were setting. It felt very juvenile.