It is during this rigorous testing that she learns to control the auguries (a form of magic.) There are moments of conflict and self-doubt as life as a surrogate for Violet alternates between beauty and danger. Trained at a young age to become a surrogate, readers can easily see the strength and resilience of Violet as she endures being taken forcibly from her family and thrust into a harsh realm of testing. They are able to bear the royal children as surrogates and bring the births to term, unlike the royal ladies who somehow have lost this ability to carry their own children. A strange mutation in the girls from the Marsh makes them invaluable to the aristocratic. Violet, the heroine of the story, is born to the poorest caste of The Lone City known as the Marsh. Magic, forbidden romance, and murder surround Violet in this page-turner. Here, she will be showered with wealth and riches, but the price she will pay is high as Violet must learn how to outmaneuver deadly intrigue and cruelty among Jewel's ladies of nobility.Ĭan Violet escape the Gilded Cadge she has been thrust into? Or will she hall victim to the Jewel's deadly machinations. The story follows young Violet as she is taken from her family to be trained as a surrogate to one of the royal houses that make up the heart of The Lone City, known as the Jewel. My Review The Jewel is the first book in Amy Ewing's new series The Lone City that sucks readers into a dystopian world where magic is both a curse and a blessing. Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian/Fantasy

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. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence.

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, 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. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude.

Amy ewing the jewel series