This is a romance.

And it's also every bit as good as people claimed it was, and I'm sorry I doubted them and put off reading it for so long.

This is a story about a girl out for survival and the protection of her family, and the boy down the street madly in love with her.

And something about a hunger games thing full of children out to kill each other. I know that the games is the driving plot, but honestly the romantic side of the story is what drew me in, and I can see how easily the people watching the games in-story shared my feelings. In fact, it's easy to sayI honestly cared more about Peeta and his feelings for Katniss than pretty much anything else going on in the novel.

The writing is smooth and while the present-tense threw me at first, after a few pages I eased into it and stopped noticing that anything was odd and before I knew it I had finished the book. Everything is detailed just enough, and the focus on food in particular really sets the moments. You can smell it and feel your stomach grumble along with the heroine. The violence, too, in particular wasn't all that bad--most of the deaths occur out of Katniss' sightline, so we only get to see a few (and even then they're not very detailed). I can't tell if I'm desensitized or not having seen much worse, but for a book about killing children it didn't seem all that violent. Then again, I read a lot of gory serial killer novels--so this really wasn't all that bad.

If I had any complaints about the story, it'd be Katniss. Character wise, she's sort of all over the place. She's strong when she needs to be, she's weepy when she needs to be, smart when she needs it, dumb when appropriate, ignorant of social rules or witty on cue both at the drop of the hat--and so forth. You do get a feel for who she is, but her only flaw seems to be not noticing Peeta's huge, gaping, authentic crush on her. And even that's sort of a plot point and wink to the audience.

But, any issues I have with Katniss are balanced out by Peeta--of whom pretty much stole all my fangirl giddiness the second he arrived. His heart is on his sleeve and it's obvious even through Katniss' point of view how much he adores her--even if she doesn't realize it herself. My favorite moment, that solidified his place as favorite character (After Effie, of course), was when he loses his cool during a session with Haymitch and shouts at Katniss about how capable she is and how even his own mother thinks she'll be the victor. The hurt at both his mother's words, and his own feelings playing against him are vivid and paint an amazing picture of him. Peeta's got his flaws, too, with his ignorance out in the arena itself and maybe being too open about himself, but his heart's in the right place.

Granted, I may be a bit biased when it comes to Peeta.

The rest of the cast is up to task as well, and I found myself liking just about everyone on screen. Katniss & Peeta's team were all fun and colorful characters. Cinna's too much fun (really he is.) The few tributes who got names were interesting, and I found myself attached the the Boy from District 3 even though his time in the book was ridiculously short--I think he left us all with a bang. wink Cato, especially, turned out to be quite the heavy-hitter and it was fun watching him go from brutal to flat out crazy with rage. And of course one can't forget little Rue, and Gale sitting back home waiting.

Good book. Good read. & Now, to brace myself for the depressing sequels (if what little I've looked into is any indication).