The Jewel by Amy Ewing

The Jewel by Amy Ewing

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis: "Today is my last day as Violet Lasting. Tomorrow I become Lot 197."

Sold for six million diamantes, Violet is now Surrogate of the House of the Lake in the centre of the Lone City, the Jewel. Her sole purpose is to produce a healthy heir for the Duchess – a woman Violet fears and despises.

Violet is trapped in a living death, her name and body no longer her own. She fights to hold on to her own identity and sanity, uncertain of the fate of her friends, isolated and at the mercy of the Duchess.

Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was really fast paced which kept me engaged throughout; there was never a moment where the action or suspense really let up, there was always something happening which I thought was actually a nice change from most books and was something a little bit different. In most books, you have high and low or fast and slow paced moments, which can sometimes mean you becoming disengaged from the plot or the characters. In this book, you really don't have a chance to lose interest! I didn't feel like the plot was being rushed though - it just bumped along nicely, until the end. At the end of the book, it did start to feel a little bit rushed; like there was so much that needed to happen in such a short space of time, but overall I think the pacing of this book was amazingly well done.

I thought the characters in this book were really well developed and complex. Violet is a really strong protagonist and powered through all the obstacles and challenges thrown at her in the best way that she could. I actually really liked the Duchess. I thought she was such an interesting character because you're never sure whether you can trust her or not and, although what she's doing to Violet is horrible she does take care of her, a lot better than Raven's mistress looks after her, so you're left feeling a little bit confused about the Duchess and her true motives when it comes to Violet.
Lucien is essentially Cinna in The Jewel. He gets Violet ready for the auction and then helps her fight the system. I think Lucien is the one character that I just wasn't that interested in because of this similarity.

I loved the world building and specifically, the hierarchy of the houses. It was so interesting to see how the houses interacted with each other and the competitiveness of the lower ranked houses to get a good surrogate in order to move up in the social standing. Those scenes were some of my favourites in the whole book.

The romance was good, if a little rushed. It happened very quickly but, I did like the romance aspect of the book. I enjoyed finding out about Ash's past and how he ended up in the house under the Duchess' thumb like Violet. He was a really likable character and I loved the scenes with him and Violet, even if their romance was the definition of a whirlwind romance!

The only reason this book didn't get 5 stars is because the end was predictable. Not enough to stop me from reading till the end, or putting me off, it just was very predictable because most first books in a dystopian series end in the same way. All in all though, this was a really enjoyable book and, if you enjoy reading YA dystopia then I would really recommend it.

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Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Rating: 4.5 stars

Synopsis: I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero. But when you're whole life gets swept up by a tornado - taking you with it - you have no choice but to go along, you know? Sure, I've read the books, I've seen the movies. But I never expected Oz to look like this. A place where Good Witches can't be trusted and Wicked Witches just might be the good guys. A place where even the yellow brick road is crumbling. What happened? Dorothy. My name is Amy Gumm - and I'm the other girl from Kansas. I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked, and I've been given a mission:

REMOVE THE TIN WOODMAN'S HEART.
STEAL THE SCARECROW'S BRAIN.

TAKE THE LION'S COURAGE.

And then: DOROTHY MUST DIE.

Review: So it's only taken me three months to get started on the pile of books I got for Christmas, but I've finally finished the first one and I really enjoyed it. Dorothy Must Die was probably the book I was most looking forward to reading and it didn't let me down! We follow Amy Gumm, the other girl from Kansas, who has no friends besides her mothers pet rat and even then it's a rocky friendship. Her mother is a drunk who would rather go out on the town with her friend than stay behind with her daughter when there's a tornado warning in force, leaving Amy to force the wonderful world of Oz alone. Great - what could go wrong in Oz I hear you ask. Try just about everything...

I really enjoyed this book. The way that Danielle twisted the world and characters that we (think) we know and love was so different and kept me hooked right till the very end. Everything you think you know about Oz is essentially flipped in this story but even then, nothing is as it seems. Just because the Wicked Witches are working together to stop Dorothy, it doesn't mean they can be trusted. They're called the Wicked Witches for a reason after all. Everyone in this story has an agenda and everyone has secrets and that impacts how the story unfolds because Amy, our heroine, is only told enough information to keep her alive, which means Amy (and therefore us as readers) are kind of on our own in this story because you can't trust anyone, which is different from a lot of books I've read before. There's usually one character, or a group of characters that the main character can trust, but not in this book.

I loved Amy as the main character. I thought she was strong and witty and clever. All too often in YA books, the main character has moments of what I like to call great stupidity - where they do the one thing they're not meant to do, purely for the sake of proving someone wrong. What was really refreshing in this book was that Amy was smart about pretty much everything. For me, there wasn't really a moment of great stupidity - everything she did made sense to me as a reader. Even deviating from what the Order of the Wicked told her to do (which wasn't much to be honest) still felt like a smart move, even if it did put the original plan in jeopardy. It gave both Amy and us as readers more information about Dorothy and her 'friends' and what they're reign is like. She doesn't pull her punches either. She knows that the witches aren't telling her everything, and that she's at a distinct disadvantage next to Dorothy, and she lets everyone know that she's not happy about it. It's refreshing to have such a perceptive main character who understands the position she's been forced into and immediately starts thinking about what happens next rather than someone who lets themselves be dictated to by those in a higher position of authority.

I really enjoyed the scenes with the Order of the Wicked. The idea that the Wicked Witches have banded together to help overthrow Dorothy was really interesting and I loved how each of their distinct personalities helped to prepare Amy for her time as a spy. I loved Glamora who is Glinda's sister and how she had tried to turn her room in the caves into a boudoir kind of place. Her talents seemed rather useless at the time but, once the story moves on, you realise that actually, what she taught Amy was as useful as the fight training she was given. It kind of reminded me of the phrase 'don't judge a book by it's cover' because Amy kind of dismissed Glamora when she met her but she actually taught her some valuable information. I also loved Gert. She seemd to be the most human of the witches and could empathise in some way with Amy's situation and really tried to help her. Her methods could be a bit shady at times (she is a Wicked Witch after all) but I really liked her character and the part she played in preparing Amy to take down Dorothy. Mombi however, is the wild card of the bunch. Even now, I'm not entirely sure what to make of her. She definitely has something up her sleeves and seems to be the most wicked out of all the witches. I think she's only with the Order to save herself and, once Dorothy is overthrown, Mombi will make a move to take over herself. That's what I think will happen anyway.

Oh Nox. Nox is a complete mystery to us, to Amy and even to himself. It's alluded that the witches have done something to him to make him into such a good fighter and you can definitely see them doing that. He's very focused on the aim of the mission. Everything he does is about killing Dorothy - that is the only thing that matters to him - but, you can see something changing in him, especially towards the end of the book. I'm really interested in seeing how he develops over the rest of the series and how he's going to grow as a person. Another prediction of mine (or wish, depending on how you look at it) is that Nox is going to realise that the witches have done something to him and will rebel against the order and go to find Amy to help her. That's what I want to happen.

The Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and the Lion are terrifying characters. You wouldn't want to run into any of them in a light alley, let alone a dark one! The 'modifications' that the Wizard gave them have changed them in ways you can't even imagine. What I loved about these characters was that Danielle built them up to be these terrifying characters who will do anything for Dorothy but then, she also showed their weaknesses. Specifically, in this book, the Tin Man's weakness. As the story progressed, I found myself feeling sorry for him because he just wants Dorothy to notice him as something more than a guard. The Scarecrow and the Lion not so much - we saw more of them being cruel than not, but the Tin Man - yeah, I definitely ended up feeling sorry for him.

This book was so amazing. The only thing that let it down a little for me was the ending - it did seem a little abrupt BUT book 2 is already out and book 3 is coming out this year so it's not too much of a problem for me. Plus, there's a book of novella's as well set in this world that Danielle has created which I can't wait to get my hands on. The world, the characters and...just everything about this book was so interesting and engaging and it really lived up to my expectations. If you enjoy retelling's of stories then this is one to pick up!

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