I really loved this one: it was one of my favorite YA reads last year, and I was so pleased when it ended up being a Printz honor book. I actually thought it had a strong sense of place; yes, it's vague on certain details of the setting but those weren't the details I cared about. It's like the made-up countries in Ruritanian novels: I'm content to think that they're somewhere on the edge of the map in my head.

That said, I think of this primarily as a book where characterization, atmosphere, and romance are the chief appeal points. It may technically be a fantasy, but it's not necessarily a book that I'd automatically recommend to my hardcore teen fantasy readers.