I should have stopped reading. Look, the setting was terrific (New York near the Hudson Valley, in the mountains, in an art institute with summer storms and so on. Lovely!) but I could have cared less about the characters. I felt that they were spectacularly self-involved, including the female protag who didn't impress me one whit. Also, there was a lot of dead space in the book. Take out 100 pages and i would probably like it better. Maybe. This is a series. I will hunt throughout my house and ensure I don't have any others.I wanted to add something else. I hate when a book wants me to love and admire another character in the book and shows me constantly how everyone loves this character. It can work, especially in the hands of a gifted writer who has labored on producing an interesting character. Simply telling me I must like/love/admire someone doesn't cut it, and in fact, gets my back up. ugh!