I picked this book in an attempt to get into romance, a genre I had generally been disappointing by. So I was surprised when I really liked this book! But upon reflection, this makes a lot of sense; this is more of an urban fantasy with a romantic subplot than it is a pure romance novel. Perhaps that's why I could tolerate it. The pacing was excellent, and the command of language was exquisite. While I may not personally have been terribly interested in the main character, the setting and quality of writing were more than enough to make up for it.