Somehow, however, over the series, along with all the other characters, you come to love Gen's ridiculous lies and his flaws and wait to see how he'll turn you on your feet with his resourcefulness, determination, loyalty, and cleverness.

He's not a Gary Stu he's quite flawed - condescending towards those he perceives are fools, whiny, lying, cocky, brazen. I don't think I've ever been as entranced by a main character as I am by Gen.I also love the twists on Greek mythology that Turner added to round out their characters and bring a wry note of humor which connects back to her themes.

They have completely different ruling styles and different cultures for their countries, but they each are characterized well, willing to make the hard choices and do whatever they can for their people.

You know how I'd said that I liked reading about the Victorian era because something about that setting gave female characters a chance to show their fire? This isn't the Victorian era, but the female characters are no doubt fighting sexism and coming out strong, fierce, and formidable. This is a mostly male-centered world, and yet the two queens are (except for Gen) the stand-out characters who make their country strong.

This is the kind of humor that's not going to feel dated in time because it's established within the text. This series has humor founded in our understanding of the characters - this is the kind of humor you get when you know the author has a complete understanding of the characters she's created. While I enjoy a great deal of it, sometimes I think that it's not appropriate for the series in question, or it seems that the author has thought of the jokes and then given them to the character (rather than the other way around, which is what it should be).

One thing that I've noticed about YA is the abundance of one liner humor.

It has wonderful dry humor that feels authentic.

Right now the only series I can think of which also does this really well is Harry Potter. They make for rich insight and wonderful humor for readers who continue with the books. It's not just that the characters continue to grow and our understanding of the world increases but also that there are references to character histories and events introduced in the previous novels across the entire series.

This series does one of my favorite things: it folds back in on itself.

The queen's thief