Take all the future society, dystopian fiction books you have read and you will see a piece of them in this book. Strong heroine living a crappy life in a crappy town who is plucked from obscurity after meeting a mysterious person (she may or may not find him attractive!). She discovers she has this amazing power/ ability and this makes her dangerous/ awesome. Sound like anything you have read? Well, yes.
Mare Barrow has a collection of brothers who are fighting in the Silver army. They are Red foot soldiers, expendable cannon fodder for the powerful elite. Silvers have silver blood running through their veins, and super powers. There are super strong ones, one that can read and control your mind and a variety of other powers which mean that they can control the Red working classes. She meets a woman who tells her there will be a rebellion, a Red army (the Scarlet Guard) is working to overthrow the Silver Elite and her brother has joined. She must too. Her father is crippled after his stint in the army and life is pretty hard in the Stilt village where they live. Then she meets the mysterious stranger and he offers her a job working at the palace. She needs the money so she says yes; that’s where it all starts to go wrong. She is forced to show that she has a power as well. It is unheard of for a Red to have a power, it shifts societies thinking and the Silvers cannot afford to let that happen. So, they pretend that Mare is a Silver and get her engaged to the second prince, Maven. Even though she is in love with the first prince and future King, Cal.
There are some clichés in this; love triangle with brothers, annoying girl tormentor who likes bashing things, helpful adults who try and sort things out. It was well written and goes along at a pace. I likes Mare although I felt she could be expanded a little, maybe this will happen in the second book. The twist at the end was pretty shocking, I was expecting things to not be as they seemed but the scene in the throne room was really out there.
In short, if you like books like The Hunger Games and Divergent you will like this; it does have a good plot and some twists and turns that will keep you guessing and I am looking forward to the next book to see what happens – I can guess though!
grown ups can read teen fiction too 