The name Dessen sounds really familiar... seems like she was recommended to me by someone. And yet from your description, the book sounds too realistic for my tastes. As I was an abnormal teen, "real" teen stories were not my thing then, or now.
I liked Privilege a lot. Ellen Kushner, during her Riverside talk at WisCon, did express uncertainty about writing this old-school world for modern readers, perhaps concerned that younger women wouldn't be able to relate to it or something (it's being marketed as YA and in the SF/F section). But I really enjoyed it--it was like Jane Austen except way more accessible and fun. I also like the fact that Katherine, at first, is really a typical product of her culture and accepts her role in it. She's forced to reevaluate by the Duke and by her circumstances. The same could also be said of Artemisia, who at first is kind of unlikeable, but turns out to be pretty cool. (You may already know this--Swordspoint and The Fall of the Kings are set in this same city, with some of the same characters.)
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I liked Privilege a lot. Ellen Kushner, during her Riverside talk at WisCon, did express uncertainty about writing this old-school world for modern readers, perhaps concerned that younger women wouldn't be able to relate to it or something (it's being marketed as YA and in the SF/F section). But I really enjoyed it--it was like Jane Austen except way more accessible and fun. I also like the fact that Katherine, at first, is really a typical product of her culture and accepts her role in it. She's forced to reevaluate by the Duke and by her circumstances. The same could also be said of Artemisia, who at first is kind of unlikeable, but turns out to be pretty cool. (You may already know this--Swordspoint and The Fall of the Kings are set in this same city, with some of the same characters.)