The Jewel

This was a pleasant surprise. Violet's story is actually a shocking tale of slavery, survival, and forbidden love, but I was intrigued from the early pages. I found myself thinking back on Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. In Violet's world, there hasn't been a religious war or a breakdown in government. Instead, The Lone City is focused on maintaining the organized lifestyle they've built for all the social classes.

The highest class, the royal wives, are consumed with politics, strong family bloodlines, and power...especially augury power. To become the best and most powerful family, they have to scheme, manipulate, keep the royal gene pool pure, and make a good marital match for their children. But most important of all, they show more need a surrogate with the highest augury skills to bear their child.

If you can get past the whole slavery thing and the way these girls are used as broodmares, there is a deeper story here. It's worth reading to see where the author is going with the overall plot. I will definitely be moving on to the next book.

This is shelved as young adult, but due to the subject matter it's better suited (IMHO) for the more mature (16+) show less

It's [b: The Handmaid's Tale|38447|The Handmaid's Tale|Margaret Atwood|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1294702760s/38447.jpg|1119185] for teens...and I'm not sure how I felt about this book. The brutality forced upon these girls in such an intimate and yet clinical manner. I mean the protagonist is literally sold as a slave on an auction block, used for her "special abilities" and uterus with very little gratitude from her "owner".

The characters are fine, by that I mean one can tell the good guys from the bad, though there is a nice twist at the end of this one, and as others have noted it does leave you hanging... I just wish the subject matter had been handled with more deftness. I hope that it will show in the next installment.

Seemingly a retelling of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Ewing submits a beautifully-covered tale of young girls groomed to become surrogates for rich patrons who reside in the “Jewel,” a coveted inner circle of royalty and wealth.

Violet is auctioned off as an enviable surrogate and becomes subject to the cruel whims of her mistress, who slaps/hits her and leashes her like a dog. The action does not pick up until about the middle of the book; until then, it is all just backstory and preparation for the auction.

If you dislike a cliffhanger, then be warned: this book has quite a cliffhanger, almost guaranteeing that you will be waiting and waiting for the sequel.

Violet Lasting is no more. Now she is lot 197, which is better than lot 53 if one has to be known only by a number. lot 197 is part of the surrogate auction. She is property. For the rest of her days she will be poked and prodded, then inseminated, give birth, and then she will die. Childbirth always kills surrogates.

There are five rings and a center in this world. The Marsh, where 197 is from. The Smoke, where her father worked. The Farm, where her brother works. The Bank, where 197 hopes she will go. Finally, The Jewel, where she will likely end up. Most surrogates go to The Jewel, the center where the royalty lives. Royals, are, after all, a dying breed...

This book was surprisingly good, I really connected with Violet; I was show more absolutely enraged several times at what is done to her. the imagery was quite good, though, for the life of me I couldn't settle on what certain characters looked like. show less

This was a really interesting world with genuinely intricate and fascinating politics... that we hardly saw any of. I was constantly frustrated, trying to peel back the edges of our viewpoint character's narration to see more, since to my mind the main character is actually one of the least interesting people in the whole thing. (An interesting element of the world, but she herself is not the most fascinating thing going on here.)

And so I am left in something of a dilemma. Do I keep reading to see more, including the intriguing elements unveiled in the steep cliffhanger of an ending? Or do I not reward this sort of nonsense? Hmm.

Anyway, it's sort of "Cinderella: the Hunger Games", so if that sounds like a great time, you'll probably show more enjoy this. show less

Warning: This book includes a cliffhanger ending which left me asking questions and ready to delve into the sequel (which unfortunately isn't likely to be released for quite some time!). Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, set in a dystopian city surrounded by ocean. Violet, the narrator, is a surrogate, a class of girls with a genetic condition that allows them to carry the children of the city's royalty (who cannot have their own children without birth defects), and through the course of the novel, she finds herself plunged into a deceitful and dangerous world with limited options for escape. A great read, although I wish I had waited to read it until the sequel was published so that I could go straight into the next book!