This book is great. It has all the good characters: the sad, neglected rich girl, the feral orphan boy, the genteel orphan girl, etc. there is magic in the book, but the book isn't about magic. It is about redemption, and finding love in all the wrong (and right) places. The plot, while timeless, is like nothing I've ever read. So many books these a days are copies of other successful formats. This was not.