My Rating – 3 1/2 of 5 stars
I received a digital copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for a fair review.
On Serena’s seventeenth birthday, she is waiting to be tested for the magic in her blood. This is her duty as a daughter, to be married off and produce sons.
Well more like sold off.
If she has strong magic in her blood, she will be quite literally sold off to the highest bidder. The women in Serena’s country are little better than slaves. They are owned by their fathers and husbands. They are forced to call them Master and submit to their every whim. They have no rights, there only job is to be a subservient wife and produce as many sons as possible. They are often beaten or hexed by their fathers and husbands (and Serena is beaten and hexed by her Father pretty regularly. He’s a douche-nugget). They are barely educated and the only book they are allowed is the Women’s Canon, which teaches them how to act.
And if they happen to severely misbehave, they are tarnished. Which means they basically become slaves and are forced to undergo a spell that makes them bald and barren and subject to be sacrifices.
It is discovered that Serena has quite powerful magical blood and she quickly obtains a suitor, Thomas. A rich and powerful Chancellor and very cruel (another douche-nugget). By a strange twist of a fate, her ownership is transferred to an Envadi named Zade. A man from another country that her people see as barbarians.
Zade is nothing like Thomas. He’s quiet and treats Serena with an amount of respect that is unheard of in her country. The only problem is people are not happy with this arrangement. They don’t want an outsider on their council. There is a bounty on his head and Serena constantly pushes the limits of her new found freedom. Which causes even more trouble for Zade and may end up costing both of them their lives (dun dun duuuunnn).
Okay so, I read this book in a day! I actually really enjoyed it. Serena is pretty stubborn and headstrong for a girl that gets constantly beaten and hexed by her Father. She sometimes doesn’t think before she acts, which gets a little annoying (come on girl, do you have NO sense of self-preservation?!) But then again she is only seventeen and what seventeen year old girl actually thinks about their actions? However she is also super protective of her sisters and friends, taking the blame for things they have done wrong. And she also wants change and is willing to fight for it. She hates how the woman in her country are treated and is so used to abuse, she is very shocked when Zade doesn’t punish her but also tells her that the women of his country are not treated that way.
Her world is terrifying to me, how woman are so easily abused and disregarded. Several times I wanted to reach through the book and strangle her Father.
Cynthia is Serena’s sister and very loyal to her. She has seen what Serena went through with Thomas and has taken her own abuse from her Father, yet she has a fanciful idea of marriage. Which I thought was rather silly, though again, teenage girl.
Zade was kinda of mysterious, and kind but he does have his GGGRRRR moments. We really don’t see much of him to be honest. I wish there had been more.
The book was good though Serena does have the clichéd moments of “does he like me?” “Oh well he must like this other girl. I’ll just step aside…” Chick, you are headstrong enough to go out without a chaperone but you can’t ask what his relationship is with a certain girl!?
I wish there had been a bit more romance between Zade and Serena and a little more action at the end. I feel like the book was resolved a tad too easily. I would have like to see the magic in the blood thing explored a little more, maybe in the next book? (It’s in Cynthia’s POV)
Anyways, I enjoyed and will more than likely be checking out the next book!
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 - Janeal Falor)
