Mare Barrows– pickpocket and trouble maker. Red blooded. Inferior.
As is customry, the officers are Silvers, and Silvers have nothing to fear from us Reds. Eveyone knows that.
She’s always going to be inferior, she knows. That’s why the Red blooded people don’t have powers. That’s why they’re the slaves of the Silver blooded. There’s no jobs that she can find… everyone has taken one so that they aren’t conscripted into the army. Which leaves her.
When everything goes wrong and her best friend is about to be conscripted, she tries to pick the pocket of the wrong… or maybe right… person. Either way, he catches her.
“Thief,” he says, a strange surprise in his voice.
I blink at him, fighting the urge to laugh. I don’t even have the strength to protest. “Obviously.”
And instead of getting her into trouble. He gives her coin and asks about her life. For some reason, she opens up. Tells him about the hard stuff. The next day she has a job in the palace of the Silvers. When Evangeline attempts to kill her as part of her show, she finds out that she has powers too.
And her life flips upside down.
I opened it up and started to read. First I thought it was going to be a simple twist on The Hunger Games, but it was not so. Then I thought it would be The Hunger Games and The Diabolic mixed together. But that was not so either. Then I realized it was a wonderful collection of dozens of stories all mixed together and topped with awesomeness.
The only reason I’m giving it a four is the love triangle thingy. First, it seemed a little wishy-washy. You’re surrounded by Silvers, you’re scared out of your wits, you… have plenty of time to ponder whether you like Cal or Maven better? Wouldn’t it be much better to think about how to avoid, um, brutally dying? Then, <spoiler>once she and Maven are engaged… are we supposed to feel happy when she’s kissing Cal? Uhhhhh…Even if she didn’t love him, she still agreed to a commitment. End of story. But I guess the fun of this story is backstabbing. <end spoiler> Yeah, okay, whatevs, Mare.
Other than that, I loved it. It’s 383 pages long and the only reason I didn’t finish it in one afternoon was because we had company over. I would most definitely pick it up if you ever get a chance.
Country Girl Reviews 