This was such an interesting concept that unfortunately underdelivered what I wanted out of the story. The writing was lovely and had a wonderful fairytale feel to it. But that same aspect made it a struggle to completely connect with the characters because it all felt like it was taking place in a snow globe. It's a very pretty snow globe! But I wanted to be down in there with them rather than on the outside.

The book is less than 350 pages and spans over a decade of time and I think that's the real downfall. We don't get to experience a lot of what the characters go through and end up seeing little snippets as Violet tries to find her mother. The scale of the story is too big for the scope we're seeing it through, and Violet isn't a strong enough character to try to carry all of it. Aleksander's story and experience seemed much more interesting to me, but he got the Romantic Interest treatment. There was so much potential with the world that just ended up being... nothing.