It’s the kind of romance that I either love or hate and it’s just lucky that I loved it this time round! If Romeo and Juliet can get away with it after all these years, I’ll forgive it. I’d got 180 pages in before an eligible boy even turned up, so I was pleased that half the book had transpired without romance, but oh my goodness, yes, the relationship between Ash and Violet does escalate from just meeting to ‘I can’t live without you’ pretty quickly. The one things I was nervous about was insta-love, because some lovely girls on Goodreads commented on my status warning me that it was coming up. I didn’t know if it was like regular world IVF or completely magical, so I couldn’t wrap my head around the science of it, but that didn’t stop me being completely absorbed by Violet’s caged existence and desire to rebel.

I loved the concept but the actual ‘how?’ behind it tripped me up. Surrogates are forced to carry the children of the royal families, who can’t have children of their own because of a genetic defect. So, Violet, our main girl, is a surrogate, who at the beginning of the book is auctioned off to the highest bidder, wanted because of her beauty and mastery of all three auguries. Auguries of Colour, Shape and Growth seemed well thought out for the world they were set in. While I thought the first few chapters of this book were a little too expositional, what dystopian series isn’t? The Lone City itself was well explained, easy to imagine, and the magic system was simple to grasp. I wasn’t expected magic to play a role in the series, just because that’s outside the box of what I’ve read before, but it was so cool. The first thing I have to praise is the world building. I love The Selection by Keira Cass and Wither by Lauren DeStefano, and The Jewel fits perfectly into that category of girl-in-pretty-dresses-doing-badass-things.

This was the perfect dystopian style book for me. Luckily, The Jewel lived up to every expectation I had of it, and was one of the most lovely reading experiences I’ve had all year! I’m so pleased to have found another favourite series in The Lone City and it’s time to share the love! It’s been nearly a whole year since I read my last dystopian series, and I was reading to get sucked into a world for a few days and love every second of it. In our Last Minute TBR video, I made a list of five books I couldn’t finish 2016 without reading, and this was at the top of that list. The Jewel is one of the books I’ve had on my shelves for ages and have been dying to read. The Jewel, The White Rose and The Black Key by Amy Ewing

Amy ewing the jewel series