by Rebecca Ross
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: February 6, 2018
In this fantastic debut by author Rebecca Ross, Brienna is a girl whose only wish is to master her passion of knowledge and to be chosen by a patron. But after years of studying her passion--just one of five including art, music, dramatics, wit and knowledge--she is left without one. But when strange memories begin to appear and a secretive man offers her patronage, she knows that nothing good could come of it, especially when he takes her along to overthrow the king of a rival kingdom and restore the queen.
Wow, was the writing in this book amazing! Filled with eloquent sentences and immersive scenes, it was a constant struggle to put the book down. Everything that the author wrote felt fleshed out and real, making me truly feel like I was in the book with the characters. Her amazing world building went along great with this as she created neighboring kingdoms with one at the brink of civil war. Despite this being a fairly common setting, Ross found a way to breathe new life into it with hints of magic and great history that felt complete and very much real.
Another aspect of this novel that I really enjoyed was the plot. Despite it being one that is often replicated (a girl with faint ties to royalty finds out that she is key to taking down the corrupted government) the author still finds a way to put in several twists that will take readers by surprise. For example, her unique idea of passions brought a new dimension to the book as the main character struggles to master something that comes easily to most, a thing not often seen in books about royalty where the main characters are often naturally gifted at everything.
Not only that, but Ross also finds a way to differentiate the characters of her story from those in similar books! Going along with her familiar plot with a new twist, her characters were a new take on the typical cast of fantasy characters. The menacing second-in-command to the king is no longer one-minded, the passionate tutor is no longer the absent-minded teacher, the main character who doesn’t fit in doesn’t brood all day about her life and the rising queen is not obsessed with her looks more than her people. I loved each of these twists on the typical characters because it made the story feel so much more real as the characters no longer had flat and basic ambitions and goals. Instead, it made the reader constantly question what the characters might do next as they were unpredictable yet easy to follow through the tale.
I would recommend this book to fantasy lovers looking for a new twist on a familiar tale. For those looking for amazing world building and royal deceit, you will not be disappointed with this book. Fans of immersive writing like Sarah J. Maas' will be instantly in love with Rebecca Ross’s storytelling abilities as she spins a tale that you will not be able to put down.
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