The White Rose by Amy Ewing

This novel is the sequel to The Jewel. The action, suspense, and revelations all come together to make for an enthralling story that'll make you eager for the final novel.

Lucien's plans to help Violet escape were complicated when she tried to save Raven instead of herself. Things then became even further complicated when Violet is caught with Ash, the royal companion, which lead to the two of them being captured and threatened with death. When some unlikely allies show up, everyone manages to escape the confines, but face new challenges that might prevent them for obtaining their freedom. Along the way, Violet and her friends learn of a secret society known as the Black Keys, all working together to bring down the royalty and fight for those who are oppressed. Violet also learns that these Auguries which gave her power are only one form of power that she has. It is believed that she's strong enough to use her new found magic to break down the walls separating people and help them destroy the people in power. Everyone works together to build their army, but when the game starts to change, success becomes even more important to Violet than ever.

This is an excellent sequel. It starts off with wonderful amount of suspense as Violet and her friends try to escape the Jewel. You have a feeling that they'll all survive since it's only the second book in a trilogy - at least until the middle of the book - but the worry that something horrible will happen is fairly present in their escape. The novel slows down a bit when Violet learns the true nature of her power. Then it's all about getting ready for the next stage of their attack. There are a few more peaks of excitement but it's pretty steady until the last chapter when a bomb is dropped and another cliffhanger that has you salivating for the next book (not out until next year). Characters grow in this novel so that you fall in love with all of them and hope for the best. 

After reading this novel I'm even more invested in seeing where things go. It's going to be awful waiting another year. I hope it will be a solid payout, but if the first two novels are any indication, it will be worth the wait. 
MMK

The Jewel by Amy Ewing

This novel is the first of a trilogy that features a world of conflict between classes. With a romance brewing and desires to be more than your job developing, you can't help but root for the characters.

In a world where the royals are unable to carry babies, surrogates exist to continue the royal line. Not just any woman will do, though. Surrogates are special girls who have a power known as Auguries. There are three auguries - the power to change shape, color, and make things grow. Violet is a surrogate.When she was deemed to have these powers, she was removed from her house and raised in a holding facility. She has now reached her full potential and has been put up for auction for one of the royal houses to purchase. Once purchased, Violet becomes nothing more than the surrogate and her owner has big plans for her because times are changing and people are desperate to make their mark. While Violet may be nothing to her owner, she meets Ash, another person who is nothing more than the job he does. Despite the fact that their relationship is forbidden, together they find connections and life and desires that their positions try to strip away. At the same time, however, Violet meets a man who wants to save her from her life as a surrogate in an effort to start a rebellion. Going with him is not only risky, but it means saying goodbye to Ash. Violet needs to decide what is most important, especially when she learns more about future plans for surrogates. 

I picked up this novel because I enjoyed reading The Selection and felt this book had a similar vibe. It is definitely different (surrogates vs dating game), but there are a number of elements that are similar and classic to dystopian novels (at times I felt the novel was reminiscent of The Hunger Games, especially at the beginning - Lucien reminded me of Cinna). There are the different levels of society with The Jewel being the center and royalty, the Bank still being wealthy, down to the Smoke, Farm, and the lowest of low - the Marsh. Violet's rights are completely stripped away and she's put on display for the ruling class. Then, through it all, a rebellion is slowly brewing. You really feel for Violet and Ash. They're nothing more than toys to serve a purpose for the royalty and you want them to reach their full potential as people. It's easy to see the injustice in everything, especially when it doesn't have to be that way. 

The novel might be a little bit slow to get going - especially setting up this new world and way of life - but it is definitely worth the payout. I know that I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel.
MMK

Dawn by Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel is probably best known as a Holocaust survivor and author Night which tells the story of his experience in concentration camps. While his novel is taught in schools, it is actually the first book in a loosely connected trilogy. While Night is biographical, the other two novels, Dawn and Day (sometimes titled The Accident) are works of fiction about experiences after the Holocaust. 

Dawn is a heavily philosophical book. The narrator - Elisha - is the sole survivor of his family after the Holocaust. He joins a group of Jewish terrorists trying to reclaim Palestine from the English. It seems as though part of their philosophy is that they were good people before the Holocaust, but that didn't save them, so what's the point of being good? Their movement has reached the point that one of their followers is being held hostage (David ben Moshe). In response to the English having one of their soldiers, they have taken an English officer as their hostage (John Dawson). Despite attempts to free David, the English plan on executing him, which has the Movement planning on executing John. Elisha is the one chose to pull the trigger, a fact that his conscience struggles with after everything he's already experienced. Dawn is Elisha's struggle to bear the weight of his role as executioner.

This book is very deep. Although it was written in 1961 and only 80 pages long, it is very powerful and still relevant given the world's constant state of conflict. It questions whether or not the Movement's actions are justified. It asks what right man has to kill and play God. Elisha thinks about how executing a man is different than killing a man in war. It also looks at the change of one's soul when one becomes a killer. There is a very powerful image of Elisha seeing the ghosts of his loved ones who with him because if he becomes a murderer, then they are murderers too. Is that how he wants his parents to think of him because he is essentially a reflection of them. This book only takes place within the hours before dawn - the time of the execution - but his internal battle is very thorough. The end results leaves him forever changed.

Dawn is not a book to be taken lightly. It may be small but it is very powerful. 
MMK

The Heir by Kiera Cass

When I read the third book in the Selection series, I thought it was the end of the trilogy and series. I was wrong and the series continues twenty years later with the story of their daughter in much of the same addicting fashion as the first few books.

After everything that America Singer and Prince Maxson accomplished at the end of The One, things in Illea aren't perfect. They've eliminated the caste system, but the people are having trouble adjusting to the new way of life and the fact that their next ruler will be a woman. Eadlyn is the firstborn of four children and the future ruler, ready to do what needs to be done to prove that a woman is capable of leading the country. With the unrest of the people, the king and queen feel that a happy distraction is called for, so they create a new Selection for Eadlyn to find a spouse. Although she eventually goes along with it, she's an independent and stubborn woman who doesn't want to get married and doesn't believe in love. While she initially planned to push the guys away, slowly a number of them start to work their way into her heart, including Kile, the son of her mother's best friend whom she always thought was annoying, Henri from Swendway who doesn't even speak English and his translator Erik who seems to understand Eadlyn even though he's not even a contestant, but then there are the others who have her questioning what her grand plan is with this competition like Ean who is more than willing to her forever companion without demanding love. The Selection is not without its bumps, but if Eadlyn can stop being so scared, she might be able to find the same kind of love that brought her mother and father together during their Selection.

This is the second to last book in the series - there will supposedly only be five books. While it is helpful to have read the first three books, one can pick up this book and work their way through it without complete knowledge of the prior novels. While it has much of the charm of the first books with the whole teenage "Bachelorette" dating game, Eadlyn is a bit of a brat and unlikable. It has been a year since I read the first novels, but I felt like I could root for America and the other characters, whereas for most of the novel Eadlyn is annoying. She comes off as stuck-up, too good for their entire process because she doesn't want a man. She can do it all on her own. Then she starts to grow and you start to like her and in the next breath she's back to her old ways. It's nice to see her come around near the end and it'll be interesting to see how things turn out in the conclusion. Knowing there's only one book left, though, I wish the love connections were a bit stronger come the end of this book - that it was down to the final four so that we could see who really mattered to her. There's a lot going on that it's hard to think it will all get the right amount of attention in one book. Yes, there are the four or five who she keeps gravitating to, but I wish it was a little clearer who she was thinking about (the first three books had the clearly defined love triangle with America). The author has a plan, so who am I to really say anything. I know, though, who my top three are and it'll be interesting to see if that's the direction Eadlyn goes.

This novel succeeds like the previous three to pull the reader in. It creates a dating game scenario and then gives you unique contestants for you to root for as the main character grows and realizes that love does not make one weak. With the conflict of her heart on top of a country uprising, there's more than enough pull to bring the reader back for the hopefully stellar conclusion of this entrancing series.
MMK

The Selection Series by Kiera Cass

Publishers Weekly captures the my initial reaction to this series: "A cross between The Hunger Games (minus the blood sport) and The Bachelor (minus the blood sport)." While it doesn't have the action that the Hunger Games has, you see similar qualities in the main characters. This is a captivating trilogy that constantly pulls you in different directions but always back for more.

Book One: The Selection
In a future version of the United States (after two World Wars and now known as Illea), the Selection has been established to find a princess for the prince of Illea. Girls of a certain age are encouraged to enter a lottery to be one of 35 girls chosen to be candidates for the Prince's heart. America Singer, has no desire to be a princess. Although she is only a Five, she is currently in love with a Six - a boy named Aspen who is in the caste below her. Everyone knows, though, that getting chosen for the Selection would change everything for her family, so her boyfriend and family both urge her to enter. When she is selected and Aspen breaks up with her, everything does change and a trip to the palace is the perfect escape for her heartache, even though she has no interest in Prince Maxon - a fact she makes clear the first time she meets him. So rather than fighting for his heart, she becomes his friend, which seems to be the perfect solution until Aspen shows up at the palace as a guard and she realizes that she just might have feelings for the prince after all...

Book Two: The Elite
After the Selection was cut down to six, the competition became more serious, as does the conflict America faces between Maxon and Aspen. The decision of which man holds her heart faces multiple obstacle - just when she seems committed to Maxon, something happens that makes her question his true character, but then she also realizes the real consequences of what being caught with a guard in a compromising position. It doesn't help matters that five other girls are monopolizing Maxon's time and affections. How can she be certain of his love is he's also sharing his love with others? On top of the drama of the Selection, the rebels are unhappy with the palace and repeatedly attacking, leaving behind immense destruction and fear. Their displeasure is related to the caste system and how poorly the lower castes are treated, something America is well aware of being the only candidate from one of the lower castes. When given a chance to speak her mind, America finds herself making an enemy of the king who wants her out of the competition, but what about Maxon?

Book Three: The One
America's antics have her walking on thin ice as she has to prove she's worthy of being a princess, despite the fact that she's growing in popularity with the public. After Northern rebels (less violent compared to the Southern rebels) contact Maxon and America, the truth about how little they know about their country's history comes to light and what needs to be changes to create peace. With the king's displeasure mounting against America and the stress of running a country growing, it's time for the Selection to come to an end. While the answer seems clear, it won't be easy.

To be honest, I don't know what it was about this series that I loved so much, but it hooked me and I couldn't put the books down. Even thought the books take place in the future, it feels like the past with kings, queens, princes and a caste system. Whether past or present, it all works to create setting and drama. The first book does a good job of setting America apart from all of the other girls. Come the end of that book, there is the love triangle which initially made me fear that it would be a constant back and forth of who she chooses and it would just make her a wishy-washy character. I thought, though, that the series does a good job of making realistic obstacles for whatever wishy-washiness that arises. She's not just in love with two people, it's history with one and the responsibility of being a princess with another and the fact that he's sharing his "love" with a number of other girls. It's real to be torn and you sympathize with America's struggles. The first book felt the most fluffy - just a romance, but there hints that it would be more and the series delivers in the final two books. The stakes are upped and it's no longer just a competition to win the Prince. Before you know it, you're fully invested in all of these characters, wanting to see a happy ending for everyone and the just desserts for the enemy.

I really enjoyed the series. The first book is nominated for an Abe Lincoln award, which is why I picked it up in the first place. I'm glad I did. This was one of the most enjoyable series I've read in a long time.
MMK