Review: The Jewel by Amy Ewing

Title: The Jewel

Author: Amy Ewing

Publisher: HarperTeen
Publishing Date:   September 2, 2014

Pages: 358
Genre:  YA Sci-Fi/Dystopian

Series: The Lone City #1
Source: Audio

  

The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Not just any kind of servitude. Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty—because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring.

Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence... and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.

This was one of my most anticipated reads for this year and I finally got to it. Another book I waited for the audio and I am glad I did. I really liked the narrator. I was a bit disappointed in the read though. Overall I enjoyed the book and would love to read more, but I had more hope for his series. The premise is awesome. The idea, the story, I loved. The characters were OK. I didn't like them as much I hoped for but what really didn't set well for me was the romance. It just wasn't believable for me. It didn't kill my enjoyment just kept my from fully investing into the book. Like I said, overall I liked the book and can't wait to read more when the next installment comes out.

This book is set in a world where royalty cannot have babies, they either can't get pregnant, lose the baby, or the baby dies shortly after birth. The only ones that can have the royal babies are the lowest in society. The poorest. Somehow where they live, in The Marsh,  mutates their genes and enables them to carry and deliver the baby healthy... much more than that they can control a bit about to determine physical and mental attributes of the child. So The story is about Violet from the Marsh who is bought to be a surrogate for royalty. Within her time in the Jewels she learns much more about the surrogacy program and the royals. Betrayal and conspiracy are around every corner.

So many good things about this book a few not so good, but more good than not. I loved the story. The idea felt very fresh to me and I felt it was very thought out. Everything fit together to paint me a complete picture. I was able to grasp everything that was going and didn't have any to question. It made sense, it was freaky, it was believable. There are so many dystopians out there and they tend to flood my shelves and feel like the same story over and over. This one did not feel that way. I was intrigued, I was mystified. I really did love the story. 

The pacing was good but the writing lacked just a bit for me. I find that most books that are very fast paced have issues with depth in the characters and the world building. The world building did not lack, it was very well written, the character building was well done too. I felt I knew the characters very well, my only issue with the characters was the neediness of the characters. The main character, our heroine, wasn't as strong as I like my female leads in these type of books. She was a bit whiny and really just lacked backbone most of the time. She kind of just fell into whatever everyone else wanted int he moment, then after she walked away from the situation she seemed to turned a bit self righteous. She was a bit to wishy washy for me. 

The love interest Ash was OK. Again not as charming or confidant as I like my love interest. I didn't dislike him but didn't really fall for him either.No swooning was involved. this leads me to my next issue with the characters and story. I don't mind insta love when it makes sense or when its strongly felt. I didn't get this romance. I didn't understand it and didn't feel it. It just didn't seem to matter to me and I think it supposed to be a big part of the story. So the romance definitely lacked for me. 

Now I didn't mind the romance lacking or not so perfect characters because the story was just that good on its own. I know there is a bunch more coming to this story and that excites me. I really want to see what happens next and what's in store for these characters. 

It was a good read, enjoyable and exciting.

Amy Ewing is the young adult author of The Jewel, the first in a trilogy from HarperTeen, coming out September 2014.

She grew up in a small town outside Boston, where her librarian mother instilled a deep love of reading at a young age. Amy moved to New York City in 2000 to study theater at New York University. Unfortunately, her acting career didn’t quite pan out. She worked in restaurants, as an administrative assistant, a nanny, and a sales representative for a wine distributor before the lack of creativity in her life drove her to begin writing.

Amy received her MFA in Creative Writing for Children from The New School, where she was lucky enough to meet a fabulous community of YA writers who keep her sane on a daily basis. She lives in Harlem, where she spends her days writing, eating cheese, and occasionally binge watching The Vampire Diaries.