I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book, and aside from a few errors (which will obviously get fixed in the final version), I freaking loved it!
The characters are really great (in the sense of how they influence the story, not necessarily as people), being super believable and live. The themes of freedom/feminism/abolitionism, family/loneliness, and over coming adversity also help to make this book "readable" for any and everybody. The settings are also really interesting, especially towards the end of this book. All of these characteristics mixed with the historical/magical-realism aspects of this book give it a powerful impact on the reader (at least, it did for me).
I'm not sure if I would say this book blowed me away, I don't think any book has done that to me in a long while, but it was definitely an enjoyable read and is going to be in my top three books of 2015.
If you enjoyed Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns, than you will love this book. If you didn't, this book is different enough from that series that you should still give it a try. And if you haven't read anything by Rae Carson, you have made a grave mistake.
I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars on GoodReads.