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I wasn't at all familiar with this author. This was an excellent surprise! A book that focuses on the lives of the poorest inhabitants of a fantasy city, for whom eking out a living is at least as important as whatever intrigue goes on in the palaces of the upper class. The perspective was extremely well done. It's not uncommon to ifnd books that feature lower-class characters; however many of these also have a strong focus on what happens in the aristocracy, in the end. Here, most of the plot is seen through the viewpoint of poor girls who live hand-to-mouth and are mostly concerned with their own lives; and yet it's never made to seem petty or naive. On the contrary, the details of what it's like to live in a pseudo-medieval city through the year are prominent: where to find foo, how to stay warm in winter, how to get a roof over your head... This doesn't mean that there's no plot; quite the opposite. But the focus is successfully different from many fantasy novels, and the characters, who often have better things to do than watching aristocrats squabble, are particularly vivid and memorable.