Lady Averie Winston has led a fairly sheltered life in her native country of Aeberelle, so she is ecstatic to travel to its new colony of Chiarrin. She looks forward to avoiding her uptight chaperone and experiencing many adventures in a strange new land. Enthralled by the exotic sights and sounds around her, she commences a carefree life of socializing, flirting, and learning a little bit about the native culture. However, Averie soon realizes that some Chiarizzi aren’t thrilled to be living under the rule of Aeberelle, and violence becomes a constant threat. Meanwhile, Averie’s relationship with her fiancé becomes strained as they disagree on the best way for Aeberelle to deal with the “rebels,” and she turns more and more to the handsome Xantish soldier Ket Du’Kai.

This is a young adult book, and its writing style is definitely geared toward young teens. However, I still enjoyed this book very much. Averie is a rather typical YA heroine – rebellious and unconventional, but still attractive to men – and her reactions to the plight of Chiarrin are very predictable. Yet Shinn does try to show the political situation from many different points of view, avoiding a black-and-white resolution. The same is true of the romantic triangle: although one man is obviously going to win Averie’s heart, the other is still portrayed as a good person. I also really liked the mythology of Chiarrin – its capital is called “city of broken gods” – and I only wish it had been developed more. I’d definitely recommend this book to teenage girls or fans of YA.

After reading a review of this book on genrereviews, I had to get it. So I ordered it through the local B&N, got it late Wednesday night, started it on Thursday, and finished it on Sunday morning. It was a lovely story.

It's not precisely a fantasy book. I'd classify it more as speculative fiction if anything because it takes place in a fictional world. It's about a girl named Averie who is the daughter of a general of Aeberelle. Her father is leading the conquest/occupation of Chiarrin, a foreign country that is well placed to be the launch point of other conquests. Averie comes to Chiarrin to be with her father and her fiance (another military man) and while she's there she comes to love the culture, question her country's purpose there, and find herself with a very different outlook on life than her husband-to-be, all the while becoming more and more attached to another soldier from another conquered land.

This one is pretty much a romance with political overtones, which I quite liked. I enjoy romantic themes in books, but I need a bit more than that to keep me interested. This book delivered. I think it was very well written, using a tone and language that seemed very appropriate for the imperial Aebrian culture. I didn't really have any quibbles with this book. I enjoyed it immensely as a sweet story with some weighty political issues. One thing that's interesting about it is that there really are no bad guys. No villains, no evil schemers. The events in the book are realistic and pretty much every character inspires sympathy. You can understand where they're all coming from, even the sometimes violent Chiarrizi.

Overall, an excellent read. I'll definitely be rereading this one. ( )

predictable ya romance though i liked the general politics of it, the anti-imperialism angle, though wow, it really could have been much more explored. also the twists at the end - jalessa, etc - were a bit much to believe, but still overall enjoyable. i'd like to see a sequel, that's for sure. ( )

I really enjoyed this latest young adult fantasy from Shinn. The topic of colonization is an interesting one to me and was dealt with very well while still informing the overall world building and characters. ( )