Hi all!
My name is Chiara and I am a Bookworm.
Have you ever read a book where you got to the end and have absolutely no idea what you have just read but want to read the next one anyway?
Yeah? Me too!
In fact I have just finished a book just like that and I’m here today to review that book. It’s called The Jewel and it’s by Amy Ewing.
“Today is my last day as Violet Lasting. Tomorrow I become Lot 197.”
The Jewel is a shocking and compelling new YA series from debut author, Amy Ewing.
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.
I downloaded this audiobook from audible over a year ago. Actually I think it might have been two years ago. I am reasonably convinced it came up as a recommended read rather than something I went searching out for because it is not the sort of thing I usually listen to on my audible … paperback definitely, but not audible.
Having finished the book so long after having downloaded it I am not sure what persuaded me to buy and it and listen to it. I think this is the third attempt I have made to listen to this book. I never stopped reading because it was bad, but because there was other stuff that was better, other stuff that attracted and held my attention more completely.
It took me several sittings to get through this and more than a few bed time listens but I must say the last five or ten chapters has held me more completely than I could possibly imagine. I could hardly switch the thing off. I didn’t know where or when it was going to end and how they were going to get there, but I also knew it was ending and that when the narrator announced that that was officially the end that I would want to pick up the next one straight away. It was a big cliffhanger! However on the other hand it just took so long to get there. A lot of thing happened, many that even now seem to have zero importance, I just hope somewhere in the next two books that they gain some clarity.
I honestly don’t know what to say about the characters. The Duchess I didn’t find harsh enough and then at moments too harsh. Violet … I don’t know in what away I found her lacking. Not enough backbone, I think but then there are moments were I thought “You go, girl!” I cheered for her all the way, I want her to get her happy ending
And then there were characters that you meet and you thought that they were going to be so important there going to be absolutely everywhere … and then you hardly see them. I won’t give the character’s name away but he/she/they came into play right at the very end. I think it may very well be that very last line of speech that truly makes me want to go straight to audible and download the next one.
Overall I would say that this book is very … middle-ish. (I know that isn’t a word. I don’t care). The characters were believable, but not cry your eyes out, I want to be them believable. The writing wasn’t mediocre, but neither was it shout from the root-tops amazing. As I said … middle-ish.
Would I read it again? Yes, probably, but mostly to get a better grasp on what the hell I just read.
Would I recommend it to a friend? Not sure. Honest simple answer. I am not sure I would recommend it to anyone.
Bookworms Anonymous 