I really enjoyed Ash and can't wait for Malinda Lo's next book. She got a slight backlash (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/09/01/the-big-idea-malinda-lo/) over the fact that there was no homophobia in her world, with people citing it wasn't 'realistic enough'. (While some of the arguments are interesting, others crash into familiar headdesk-inducing territory.)

I also wish it had been longer and there had been more focus on the romance, but I also loved that her faeries were genuinely inhuman beings (never thought I'd be excited about that) and really frightening.