Violet Lasting will no longer be Violet Lasting. She won’t be able to see her friends again, nor her family. She will have to leave her past and her identity behind. Who she will be all depend on The Auction. Tested and chosen to be a surrogate at a young age due to certain abilities that only a select few have, she was taken away from her family to learn how to control these abilities, the auguries of color, of shape and of growth. As a surrogate, she becomes property. She has to dress a certain way and act a certain way. She becomes a mere object in the Jewel and treated as such with no say in anything. If she could go back and be with her family, she would. But how can she escape the path that has been chosen for her? And why are so many surrogates dying?
This book really surprised me. I will firstly admit that this was probably a cover-buy and after reading so many bad reviews, I’ve been a little hesitant to pick it up. I really regret not picking it up sooner. The story was really unique and had a great picturesque setting and you really got to see what kind of world it was. It starts off to seem very pretty, grand and simply beautiful until you start to notice all of the dark undertones with what is really going on in the place called The Jewel. The world is set in a kind of circle with The Jewel at its center. After The Jewel, we see The Bank followed by The Smoke, The Farm and The Marsh. The Marsh is where Violet is from and so The Jewel is incredibly different from what’s she’s known.
As for the characters, I really liked that the focus wasn’t mostly set on the romance. I felt as though the focus was more on the setting and Violet’s friendship with her best friend, Raven. Even though they were meant to leave their friendship in the past, they still found ways to be in each other’s lives and they just had such a strong bond with one another. I will admit that I wish that this book would have contained a little more character development as I feel as though there is just so much more to Violet than what we’ve seen, but, in a sense, I felt as though it was meant to be that way. She was meant to give up who she was and had to be who they wanted her to be. I’m hoping I’ll get to find out more of who she is in the next two installments. As for Ash and the forbidden romance, I will say that it kind of felt like instant-love but once again, I feel like it makes sense in this particular book. They both have the loss of self-identity in common and the way that they can be true to themselves kind of makes their moments together very special and fun to read. It’s like you get to see the people underneath the gem-encrusted masks.
I cannot even begin with the action in this book. When I started reading it, I thought it would be more based on the development and getting to know everyone and everything but there’s always something going on and keeping us turning page after page to see what happens next. We all thought it was definitely more action packed than anticipated. And I’m not used to seeing a world where everything seems to be ruled by powerful women. I mean, the husbands are there but everything going on seems to be controlled by the wives.
I also feel like this book might have a lot of similarities to The Hunger Games. Not in the sense where there is an arena, but the idea of the strong female lead being taken from her home and thrown into this extravagant world where she has to dress a certain way and say certain things and be who she is expected to be. I feel like I got to see more of that in this book and it was simply eye-opening.
Cat and I both give this book a 4 out of 5.
B gives this book a 5 out of 5 rating and he’s already flown through the second installment before we even got to the last page!
I highly recommend this one!
Oh, and I would like to thank everyone who participated in my little scavenger hunt! The winner and book of the month will be announced on Monday along with the August Announcement!
À bientôt!
Mel.