Amy Ewing is the young adult author of THE JEWEL, the first in a trilogy from HarperTeen, coming out September 2014.
The Jewel by Amy Ewing
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Great story but holy major cliffhanger!
The Jewel by Amy Ewing was one of the books I knew I had to get at BEA and thankfully I got my hands on a copy. I love this cover and I know what you’re thinking…another girl in a dress. But in my opinion, it completely fits the tone of this book and for real, it is lovely!
The book opens with an introduction into Violet current situation. Violet has been living in a surrogate facility called Southgate and today is her last day there. Tomorrow she goes to auction and will be sold to the highest bidder. As a surrogate in training, she has been living in the facility for years learning how to use the auguries (more to come on this later) and how well she has done is reflected in her final auction lot number. The higher they are, the better they have scored on the testing and of 200 lots, Violet is ranked 197.
I was immediately pulled into Violet’s story and felt sad for her. Despite the care and training she has had available to her, we find out that as a child growing up in the Marsh, she didn’t really have a choice of where she ended up. Once a girl is tested, if she is found to be a surrogate, she is immediately taken away from her family and put into one of the facilities. As such, Violet was torn away from her little brother and sister as well as her mother. The day the book begins is the first time she is allowed to visit/see them since she was taken and will be the last time before she is auctioned off…basically her last chance ever.
It is clear Violet truly wishes she wasn’t a surrogate. She struggles with her lack of identity and the fact that she has to give up everything to make things better for the royalty that will purchase her…with no say in the matter. Of course, I don’t blame her at all and her smaller rebellions are the ones that make her stand out more as a character.
As Violet is prepped for the auction, she is assigned to Lucien. I mention him because he is the first person who is nice to her during the entire process and he comes back into the story later on. As Violet is auctioned off, it is obvious this is a form of slavery. She is bought by the Duchess of the Lake and referred to as “Surrogate” or 197. Violet’s maid isn’t allowed to say her name and her identity is basically erased as she isn’t supposed worry about anything but helping the Duchess have a perfect baby.
This leads me into the auguries. These are the things that make someone a candidate for surrogacy and as Violet has scored high on her testing, it shows she has strength. The auguries affect color, shape, and growth. It is up to Violet to use the auguries to help the Duchess have a healthy child and the Duchess has been waiting for someone as strong as her for a while. The Duchess has an ulterior motive here (other than having a healthy child) and with the help of her physician, Dr. Blythe, she expects Violet to use her auguries to not only make her child healthy and beautiful, but she also expects her to use the third augury to ensure the child is born faster than any of the others…specifically, she wants her to carry the child to term in 3 months instead of the normal 9 months.
As I mentioned, there are some underlying objectives that the Duchess has. As the story progresses, we find out quite a bit. First, the Electress and Exetor (who basically run the city) recently had a son and most royal families are trying to have the best daughter in order to have their child be betrothed to the young child. The Duchess is no different but we also find out things about her past that make this an even more important goal to her. As these royals compete to have the first and best daughter, Violet and other surrogates are constantly in danger and because of this as well as the fact that they are owned by the royals, they are kept under lock and key with very little freedom.
Ewing did a good job of building this world. She gives enough background on the structure of the rings (The Marsh, The Bank, The Jewel, etc.) which helped me picture this world. I do wish we had gotten more background on the auguries. There was some information on the royalty and the reason behind why they no longer had their own children but I didn’t really get what really happened that got everyone to this point. Also, what was different in Violet than other girls – what made her such a strong surrogate and gave her these abilities?? I need to know more!
The secondary characters add a lot to this story. Raven is Violet’s best friend at Southgate and as she is sold off, they are expecting to never see each other again but little did they know, they are actually living right next door to each other. As the story progresses, Raven’s situation has a huge impact on what happens to Violet. That is all I can say without giving anything away but I have hopes that we will see her again in the next book.
Lucien becomes Violet’s only hope. I won’t give anything away but he is the one person who gives her hope for a different life and one that will be on her terms. Garnet, who is the Duchess’ son, is interesting. Again, I won’t give anything away here but I am so excited to see what happens next with him.
This leads me to Ash. There is a bit of an instant attraction between Ash and Violet…that is my warning to you. With that said, I liked him. He gave Violet someone to connect to and be herself. Unfortunately he wasn’t really in charge of what he did himself as a companion and this definitely created a strain on their relationship. Despite that and the many other challenges they face, they are able to secretly form a relationship and ultimately this is what turns things horribly wrong for these two.
One thing to note is that this book ends up on a major cliffhanger so if that isn’t your thing, go into this being warned. If you enjoy the dystopian genre you will definitely want to check this one out. The surrogacy piece is a new spin in this type of novel and although it is pretty horrific, it is what I think makes this book stand out amongst the sea of dystopians out there today. I am absolutely looking forward to book two of this series as I need to know what happens next for these characters.
Thank you to HarperTeen for the review copy!
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