This was between 2 and 3 stars for me, but the end picked up enough that I gave it 3. It started off well - you are just dropped into the magic part (a NYC neighborhood inhabited by warlocks, centaurs, etc), and you learn about it as the MC does (a regular human). The MC has no powers of her own, other than a healthy trust fund, and she does not in any way kick ass. She is a sculptor who works with metal and machine parts, so she has some talent, just nothing of the warrior woman variety. It's kind of nice to have a non-magical heroine, but I have to say that even though its written in first person, I still felt like I only got a superficial connection to her. That was my problem with the middle of the book - there was this whole world to discover, but I only felt like I got a small look at it, until the very fun ending. At one point the MC makes the comment that her flirtation and possible romance with the hunky warlock was "high school" and I couldn't agree more. That's ok in YA that's actually in HS, not in UF with characters in their mid-20s.It was OK, and I really wanted a lot more - more about the neighborhood, a deeper connection between characters.