Book Blurb:
The thrilling first book in a YA fantasy trilogy for fans of Red Queen. In a world where social prestige derives from a trifecta of blood, money, and magic, one girl has the ability to break the spell that holds the social order in place.
Sixteen-year-old Anna Arden is barred from society by a defect of blood. Though her family is part of the Luminate, powerful users of magic, she is Barren, unable to perform the simplest spells. Anna would do anything to belong. But her fate takes another course when, after inadvertently breaking her sister’s debutante spell—an important chance for a highborn young woman to show her prowess with magic—Anna finds herself exiled to her family’s once powerful but now crumbling native Hungary.
Her life might well be over.
In Hungary, Anna discovers that nothing is quite as it seems. Not the people around her, from her aloof cousin Noémi to the fierce and handsome Romani Gábor. Not the society she’s known all her life, for discontent with the Luminate is sweeping the land. And not her lack of magic. Isolated from the only world she cares about, Anna still can’t seem to stop herself from breaking spells.
As rebellion spreads across the region, Anna’s unique ability becomes the catalyst everyone is seeking. In the company of nobles, revolutionaries, and Romanies, Anna must choose: deny her unique power and cling to the life she’s always wanted, or embrace her ability and change that world forever.
My Review:
4 Out of 5 Stars
Genre: Another-World, Mystery, Royal-Court, Supernatural, Witches--
Anna is Barren, which means that she has no magic and fairly useless in a world that places status on how magical a person is. During her sister Catherine's debutante ball, her jealousy causes her emotions to break her sister's spell, totally ruing Catherine's big reveal to society. Now the ruling magical Luminate society has their eye on Anna, leaving her no option but to travel with her grandmother to her ancestral home in Hungary. Without her even trying, Anna finds herself in the middle of unrest that threatens everything she knows.
Hands down, the world building the author did was epic. Not only did she create a believable alternate history full of magic and rules set across Europe, but there is a darker, scary and more hidden world the author crafted as well that will play an even bigger part in the next books.
I thought the story had a slow start to it where the setting and expectations were set up, but after about a third I found myself lost in the pages, totally submerged in what I was reading. The descriptions were so vivid that I felt like I was part of the book, I could see the story unfolding around me. Be it the costuming, the building and cities or the magic, it all felt so real that I could reach out and touch it.
And there was romance as well, the prim and proper kind where a chaste kiss could ruin a girl who is well bred, or force a marriage. The illicit romance may have started the action of the book, but it was not the main focus of the story. Instead the book dealt with magic, and the strict structure and place that people have in society, how isolated a person can feel, as well as what it takes to create a rebellion and what makes a person's soul. The story was pretty dark, with betrayal and death around every corner, but geez I am so glad that I had a chance to read it.
I really did not have any expectations going into the book, just the fact that I thought the cover was gorgeous and that the story was about magic and a rebellion (the title gave that part away). I can say that I was incredibly pleased with what I received and I don't know if I can patiently wait to see what will happen next. Sure there was a brief moment of happiness at the end, but something big is brewing and I want more. One book was enough to make a fan girl out of me.
I received this title from the publisher in return for my honest review.
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