[R] The Jewel, by: Amy Ewing

The Jewel
(The Lone City #1)
by: Amy Ewing

★½☆☆☆

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.

my thoughts

First of all, I have read too many reviews (bad ones and very few saying some things good) and most of them keep comparing this book to The Selection, Wither or The Hunger Games. I assure you that I will not compare such books, because I just do not like to do it much. Now, overall this book was just not for me, so many things influenced that statement and basically that's why I did not like it.

“This is how The Jewel operates. Status is our sole occupation. Gossip is our currency.” 

The story of this book is very simple and very complicated in just one place. Let's start with Violet Lasting, the main character and our narrator. Its a very silly narrator and give us so many incohetent thoughts that sometimes I had to read once again some paragraphs to understand what the hell happened. The story goes slow, then fast, slow again and the fastest part is the end when shit hit the fan and broke it. Violet is a surrogate, which I did know what was that and if you don't... she is a machine to make babies, or I think it like that. Other than that, surrogates control the Auguries, which are basically three powers: color (changes its color, duh), form (change its shape) and size (make things grow). But using these makes the surrogate sick, like bleeding nose or coghing blood. The surrogates have something inside their DNA that make them the perfect machines to create royal babies, because they cannot have healthy babies. When you are a girl with that kind of DNA, you became a surrogate and you are taught everything you ought to know, then you are sold. Violet was bought by some petulant Duchess wanting revenge and some other shit you are not interested. At some point, Violet fell in love with a guy named Ash (which is basically an escort). She wants to escape, but now that she is in love, doubts are constant. Plus the petulant Duchess wants to get her pregnant and give birth in three months... yes, that is not normal. *sighs* You see? Very simple and very complicated. Will Violet run away or die trying?

“Hope is a precious thing, isn’t it,” she says. “And yet, we don’t really appreciate it until it’s gone.” 

It's not very often when I do not like a book, but when I do... I'm more disappointed because I spent time reading something I did not like, when I would have been reading that I would loved. I hate all the insta-love, the few plot twists and some characters. Overall, it wasn't a total let down, because I did like some parts, but mostly some characters, like Anabelle. I don't actually know, but I may read the next book just because I would want to give it another chance to make it better. Plus, I have to admit that I love the covers. Do I recommend this book? No, I'm sorry. It's a quick read, but its not worth it.