I had really high hopes for Aurelia- interesting sounding plot, pretty cover, new author for me. Thankfully, I was not too disappointed. Overall, this was a quick and interesting read. The characters are well developed, and fit well into the "who done it" mystery of the book.What I liked: I really enjoyed Aurelia as a heroine. She is spunky, quick witted, and very intelligent. She is definitely my favorite character of the book. One thing that I really appreciated from Osterlund is that her characters stayed true to who they were. For example, at the ending, Aurelia stayed true to who she was as a character, and acted in the way she should have. That action made me like the book a lot more. I also enjoyed that person behind the attacks was someone that I did not fully suspect. That was refreshing.What I did not like: For me, this book had its ups and downs. It started off really strong, then the plot became a little repetitive and slow in the middle only to finish strongly. (I almost gave up on it a little past half way due to the slowness of the middle.) In regards to characters, while I really like Aurelia and Robert, I did not care for them as a couple. There are some sweet moments, but overall, I got the brother-sister or friend vibe more than the everlasting love one. My major complaint with the novel is the ending --no justice is served, the attacker's motive was not really explained... it just did not fit for me.Despite some flaws, this was a really good book-- strong characters, interesting plot, good chemistry between Aurelia and Robert. Regardless of Osterlund's debut author growing pains, I am still really looking forward to reading her next novel, Academy 7.
