Published Oct. 15, 2015
306 Pages
200 years ago a flood destroyed most of the world. Survivors settled around a steamship named Desertera and believe that the flood was caused by a pissed off goddess and to appease her the monarchs demand the execution of anyone who commits adultery (Random, right?)
Present time, King Archon traps his wives into adultery and then executes them to move on to the next woman. As long as he does not bother their women, Nobles have turned a blind eye to this but when Lord Varick’s daughter is caught in this trap, Varick vows revenge in the form of a young woman named Aya Cogsmith.
Aya, barley making it by after, King Archon executed her father for treason, agrees to Varick plan to seduce the King, although it may risk her life.
I wasn’t expecting much of this book. And I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised throughout most of it. But there were issues. What bothered me the most throughout the entire book was how did this civilization come to the conclusion that adultery was the reason why the flood happened. I would have loved to have more of a backstory/history lesson in this book.
I liked Aya for the most part. She bite off a lot than she can chew. I was hoping she would be stronger even towards the end. She showed how naive she was more than a few times and she had my eyes rolling. I loved the pace of the novel and how honest it was. The author didn’t shy away from things and it wasn’t distasteful. I liked that.
There was an obvious wall that was hit about half way through the book but it was quickly settled. Another issue I had with this book was the ending. I feel that the author was trying to not give the ending that we all wanted but I also feel that it wasn’t the best choice especially since the second book isn’t focused on Aya but her friend.
I also believe that the ending was a prime example of Aya being naive and I would say selfish. I was disappointed.
Overall, I want to read more but I am not sure if I am going to read book two.
3 Pickles
Motif by Tanya 