The Jewel

June 16, 2014
First-time author Ewing adds to a genre saturated with stories of poor, beautiful girls forced to live among the upper class. Sixteen-year-old Violet Lasting is from the direst sector of the Lone City. It’s an island run by powerful royals who can no longer bear their own children and must hire surrogates, like Violet, with unique powers called auguries. In an annual auction, Violet is sold to the powerful Duchess of the Lake, who parades her around in fine dresses, but demands that Violet deliver a perfect daughter quickly. As Violet begins to realize the dangerous political machinations at play, the plot becomes further complicated as she falls for an off-limits guy. The idea of forced reproductive slavery provides an attention-grabbing hook, but thin worldbuilding and some narrative missteps (at least four chapters end with Violet falling into darkness after being drugged, and there are unfortunate references to characters’ almond-shaped eyes or skin “the color of dark brewed coffee”) don’t help the story stand out from the pack. Ages 14–up. Agent: Charlie Olsen, Inkwell Management.

Starred review from September 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Violet, forced to leave her home in the Marsh to become a surrogate, will no longer be known by her name once she is purchased at auction. She'll be known as 197, the property of the Duchess of Lake, for whom she will bear a child. Her life will go from humble to opulent, but it will no longer be her own. Debut author Ewing gets inspiration from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985), but she does a delicious job of putting her twist on the surrogacy premise. Violet, who tells her own story, is by turns frightened by her fate yet bold in her choices. Her strength as a character is matched by that of the determined Duchess of Lake, who is carefully layered. Readers get a true sense of not just the social hierarchy but also the effect it has on the citizenry, from highest to lowest, through Ewing's excellent world building. This spills over into skillful descriptions that bring teens right into the Jewel, the center city where the royalty live, with each glorious gown, ornate adornment, and delicious morsel of food lovingly evoked. While Violet's forbidden romance is not the dominant story line, it intrigues. Still, the males look like they'll play more of a role in the next book, which readers will want ASAP.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)