Review Detail

For anyone who lives in The Jewel, it means a life of wealth, luxury, royalty. For girls like Violet, it means a life of servitude away from her family. She was born in The Marsh, the poorest district, and taken from her family to be trained and one day sold to a family in The Jewel to be their surrogate. It doesn’t take her long to see the truth behind the wealthy facade, polite and proper in public and planning downfalls in private. Now the surrogate for the Duchess of the Lake, Violet finds herself falling for the boy hired to be the companion for the Duchess’s niece. If their relationship is discovered, the consequences would be devastating.

This was a book I’ve had on my anticipated reads list for a while and I was happy that it didn’t disappoint. The plot and world-building was really interesting and disturbing, the pacing moved well so I never felt like it was dragging, and I really enjoyed the main character.

Violet was my favourite part of the book. She could have easily decided to throw herself a pity party at what has become her life and I would have completely understood. Instead she found ways to deal and survive. She was smart and caring but could also be impulsive and rebellious, which showed in her actions. The secondary characters were good as well, and some of them I wish we’d gotten to see more of. Violet’s friend Raven who was sold to another house, The Duchess’s son Garnet, Violet’s maid Annabelle, a stylist Lucien, the companion Ash, all characters who added something to the story. Even the ‘evil’ characters like The Duchess showed that they weren’t one dimensional and that they had their own stories that could be revealed.

The concept was easy to understand and the world-building was vivid enough to get a clear picture with the different areas(The Marsh, The Smoke, The Farm, The Bank, The Jewel). The descriptions of life for these girls were appropriately horrifying and the more that was revealed, the more disturbing it got.

The romance was sweet but it did feel a bit fast. In some ways it was understandable that Violet and Ash would latch on to each other given their situations but he was introduced late in the book and soon after, they were in love. I could believe them as a couple but maybe if the romance had gotten a little more development, I would have felt stronger about them.

It was easy to fly through this book. It seemed like I’d just started it and then I was done(and wanting the next one). There were some things that were predictable but others that did surprise me. There did feel like there was a lot of set-up done in this book, which hopefully means more action in the next ones.

Lastly, the cover is absolutely gorgeous and I can’t wait until a physical copy of the book is released so I can see it in all its hardcover glory.