DNF @ 45%.

Just not a book for me. Gave it as much as I could, but was eventually just turned off by the amount of blatant sexual assault, both on and off the page. ( )

*Received via NetGalley for review*

This book has a wonderful premise: in a world where men have been in charge and women are their accessories/inferiors/possessions, what happens when this status quo is suddenly and shockingly reversed?

I enjoyed the various perspectives from women of all walks of life and the magic system, but it felt a little long and dragged in the middle. I didn't feel any passion from any of the women, even the ones treated terribly over and over again. Maybe they're so beaten down that they can't muster any, but the world has changed! This is your time! And it's definitely a strange oversight that there's no LGBT representation. ( )

When I first read the premise of this book, I was blown away and I was so sure I was gonna fall in love with it. And when I actually got approved for the ARC, my joy had no bounds. However, I’m quite unsure about how the experience turned out to be. So, let me share my thoughts.

I definitely went into this book expecting a very fiery feminist fantasy world where the women are finally ready to take down the patriarchy, but I got was a very understated version of it - which is not necessarily a bad thing. This is a highly misogynistic world where women have very few rights and there are levels of apathy towards women based on the kingdom where they live. So, when women finally gain the power of conception/fertility due to a devastating spell, it’s not a dramatic shift of power. The men are nowhere near ready to give up everything they’ve grown accustomed to and most of the women still need to outgrow everything that they’ve been taught since their birth. What we see happening is a group of women who slowly realize the other magical powers they can access now, and how to navigate this new world. This is a very slow process and they rely a lot on other men in their lives to get what they want. While it was wonderful to see a couple of men in this sexist world truly support the women in their quest for power, I think it would have been more effective as a story if the women were more independent thinking - they certainly are very capable. The pacing is also consistently slow throughout, there is more of the day to day lives of the characters and lots of political intrigue, but hardly any action at all. There is also no diversity at all in the book (or the author deliberately leaves the descriptions very vague) and despite many women going through deep trauma due to rape and assault, we never get to explore how they are affected or their stories of survival. While all the characters were quite good, Ellin is the one I felt most fascinated by and I think she has some of the best and important scenes in the book. Jinnel is also such a thoughtful and selfless young woman and I would have liked to see so much more of her.

While this book was not what I really expected, it has a well realized world and magic system that I really liked. I would still recommend this book if you don’t mind a slow paced book with more intrigue and no action and which felt more like a setup for the sequel. I enjoyed it enough that I might be interested to know what happens next.

( )

Every decision was thought out. Every decision was discussed. Even knowing what the world was like from having read advance reviews, though, I was delighted with the character development.

The ending irked me a little, even if it made sense within the context of the world building and the characters in play. I guess "saddened" would be more accurate. ( )

In a world where men rule and women are treated no better than cattle, three women cast a spell that changes everything. Suddenly, women can control conception. Not good for a king who wants an heir but can't be bothered to treat his wife with dignity.

Alysoon is an illegitimate-after-the-fact princess. Her father, the king, had declared her and her brother illegitimate when he sent their mother to the Abbey so he could marry a new wife. The Abbey is little more than a brothel where the young women are sold to men for an evening's entertainment and the older women make small spells to be sold. All money they make goes to the crown.

One of the three women who cast the spell that changed their world is Alysoon's mother. This does not make Aly's life better in any way. Aly's half brother, the official heir to the king, hates Alysoon and her brother. He uses her mother's spell as an excuse to cause them both more problems.

As Aly's mother was head of the Abbey he takes out his anger on the rest of the women there, They end up being beaten, raped and forced to move to the edge of the desert.

I could go on but spoilers. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the very shocking and abrupt ending. I never enjoy feeling like I HAVE to buy the next book in a series. That dropped my 4 star review to a 3 star. ( )