This definitely gave me Pretty Little Liars vibes, which may be a turn-off for some people, but I got addicted to that show. This was a pretty good story. I wish there had been a bit more character development and the romance seemed a little silly to me. The girls didn't seem to have distinct enough personalities and I would sometimes forget which point of view I was reading from. One pet peeve of mine is the fact that many conflicts could have been avoided through conversation. Why this is a huge trope in YA is beyond me, but it happens far too often. However, I did enjoy myself and think this will be a widely accepted book.

Three girls brought together bound by a secret. Three girls from different walks of life bonded by secrets.

Zofi, Akeylah, and Ren couldn’t be any more different until they find out they are the same where it counts. The Kingdom of Kolonya has been keeping secrets and the girls have been thrown into one they could prove deadly. While waiting for one to take the crown, they will all have to fight for the safety and future of the kingdom. I don’t really expect to love this novel as much as I did. Rule gave me Pretty Little Liars with a hint of Game of Thrones. This story was intriguing and full of deception and darkness. I great read.

This wasn’t a bad book. In fact there was a lot of elements I definitely did enjoy, such as the fighting for the crown, the romances sprinkled in, as well as the mystery and deadly secrets. However I just felt this book fell a little flat when it came to the book overall.


Okay so Rule is a book that follows three sisters on their quest for the throne:

Florencia (aka Ren)- who has a bit of an upper hand growing up within the castles walls
Akeylah- The shy reserved Easterner with an eye for the Queen
and Zofi- The wild traveler who is ready to jump into a fight in a blink of an eye

Zofi was hands down my favorite and while she may be a tad cliche YA fantasy (especially with all her anti dress motives and kickassery in fights) I just felt like she was way more fun for me to read! Her daring impulses really just made me smile. Plus I really liked how Valrid and Zofi had a little thing going on... but than it was like he disappeared half way through the book and I was like no?!? Come back and then I only get one more dance between the two? I just felt like the romance could have been a little bit more spiced up?? Overall I was just feeling like I wanted more (it was very meh).

Akeylah in the beginning was one of the characters chapters that I dreaded and every time I saw her name I couldn’t help groaning (theres always that one character when theres multiples POVS that you try to like but really at the end of the day they drive you mad) However I did end up liking her a bit more towards the end! That said overall I found her terribly boring and snooze worthy. Plus the f/f relationship with the Queen Rozalind was also very MEH!! What is with the romances in this book?!?! I need some more SPICE people because quite frankly these smooches were quite tasteless and made me feel nothing (which is quite hard to do considering I ship EVERYTHING).

Florencia I didn’t love but I respected her. Plus Danton can go shove it because I thought they had a spicy secret rondavu and than I was like... nope Danton get out. You can just leave because I am so not cool with you right now. I also liked how they had history before we even met him... I thought that was interesting because so many books I read with love interests start from the two just meeting so that was cool. I also liked Florencia because she was tuff in a more calculating way unlike Zofi who just goes straight for her travelers knife Ren’s weapons were more court based tactics which I loved!

I also like the bonds of sisterhood I thought the author did a really good job of drawing out the sisters hatred for one another only to have them lean on each other.

Overall this book was an easy read and while the plot did move at a reasonable pace I just wasn’t as invested as I wanted to be? I felt like it was hard for me to connect with the characters because it seemed like there really wasn’t much for me to connect with! I needed more in depth relationships between characters, and I ached for more rich writing to really draw me into the suspenseful parts of this book! Because believe me when I say this book had all the right ingredients to be a total and complete five star read. In a word this book was very meh. Enjoyable and likable but overall just meh.

Thank you to Little Brown Books for Young Readers for an ARC of Rule in return for an honest review. Rule is out on September 11th

As a teacher, we were always taught to start with the best things about our students. In fact, out of all the comments we could bubble in, when I was teaching in NYC, there was one in particular: Your child has an inquisitive mind. That was the one that we used when we couldn’t start off the comments in any other positive fashion and by second grade, let parents know the year wasn’t going particularly well. Let’s just say if I was writing a report card for Rule, I would say it had an inquisitive mind.

It is a shame really because the character building starts off particularly strong. You have three very different sisters from extremely different backgrounds, classes and worlds (although at times their personalities seem to mush together).

Akeylah adopted father is an abusive, alcoholic father and is considered the smartest of the three sisters. Her people are starving, and she wants the crown to bring an end to their starvation. Unfortuantely, it is her secret that we find out to be the most devastating among them.

Next, you have Ren (Star Wars, anyone?), a native of Kolonian who has the closest “connection” to life in a palace…. as a maid. Yeah, not quite the royal lifestyle she is now forced to become accustomed to as a princess. So while she knows her way around the place and is basically the information gatherer of the group, she wants out of her lower class status and into the high-life of palace life.

Then there is Zofi. Her tribe is not well-regarded by anyone in the empire and they know it. They don’t think twice. They are a tribe of nomads and love their travelling, nomad lifestyle. She is a strong female architype that can fight, use a weapon and in a no-nonsense realization concludes that dawning the crowns means ending the oppression of her people.

Unfortunately, as dynamic and amazing as these characters are built up – with different backgrounds, damage, regional colloquialisms and rationales for their wanting to Rule, that is where it just ends. It doesn’t build upon in actions, often allowing their personalities to run into each other like watercolors mixing on a page with too much water.

Before moving on to the premise and the that “cliffhanger.” I have to address the one daughter (I won’t mention who because it doesn’t even matter and why spoil everything) who falls for their step-mother, which as a Game of Thrones fan, again maybe I could even stomach, even in a YA novel… sometimes I’m sure the wrong affections could fall to the wrong place in stressful times. Should the step-mother kindly and delicately redirect her step-daughter in the right direction (another appropriate single female, perhaps) but nooooooooo…. she encourages it. Yes let me repeat that… SHE ENCOURAGES IT.



Again, technically I could get the fact that they aren’t actually related although as the woman actually married to this lying cheating man, I’d be pretty angry that these three step-children get to be chosen queen when she’s standing there, but again maybe she’s doing it on purpose and has her own agenda. Who knows at this point the way this book is so wrongly done with so much potential. Anyhow, As the meme above indicates, I can take a lot. I watch some dicey shows but seriously? And in a teen YA book? Aw, hell now. You can’t go there, do this with that. I already texted my brother halfway through the book (and I’m not about censoring what my brilliant niece who is a senior in high school reads and was like—NOPE).

Ok- now the premise:

Basically, a Game of Thrones premise (and a true to history premise even if some might not consider it appropriate to YA audiences- it is what Kings did. You can’t really argue that part) A promiscuous King runs around sowing his royal oaths and ends up with three daughters. He finds out he’s dying and calls them to his court where he announces that he will have to choose one of them to rule.

Being no one has grown up in the Kings Court, none have a particular infinity to be Queen but power will corrupt as power does (or at least lodge itself into your deep, dark places), soon the girls find that why yes, yes of course I want to be queen. Except there is a hitch… each has a secret… there secrets to rule that can destroy them all and their father. Soon its all about that lies, that lies, that lies not just trouble…. (oh shush... I couldn’t help it). And it isn’t even definite… they are often perceived on suspicion that one sister is blackmailing the other on the secret they hold to get the crown for themselves which leads to… wait for it…
http://cdn1.alloy.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Abbey-Lee-Shocked.gif

Yes, of course the big beautiful extravaganza ballroom with intrigue, espionage, ballroom gowns galore, a decision at hand and the big revealish that’s more a cliffhanger… Ok so you know how most YA books are series and cliffhangers work? Well this one doesn’t… like for Walking Dead fans… you know how this cliffhanger just didn’t work for anyone??? Yea, well neither did this one. AT. ALL. The core, key relationship with the father was never explored in-depth enough. He takes them to meet the court and it is rushed through. Their aunt, his twin sister never seems to help them acclimate or dote on them the way one might expect in this kind of situation. I bring this up around the cliffhanger because maybe that’s part of the issue. Maybe it is coming in the second book or maybe she’s apart of the blackmailing because she wants the throne- but again that cliffhanger didn’t play well and had it played better, maybe we’d know more, and wouldn’t be left so blah about these core relationships, maybe they couldn’t bring them closer because she has a plot of her own. Maybe she’s killing the father. Ok I’m completely speculating here but you really have no choice the way the book ends, leaving so many relationships that would have brought depth, connection, and breath of complexity to core relationships unexplored and shallow.

For instance, with Mirage I kind of want to up my star review of because now I know there’s a second book (I didn’t at the time), and I’m really excited to know that there is one based on how it set up worlds, characters and the cliffhanger/conclusion. Rule did not provide that excitement. I have no excitement for a second book in this series.

What I do have hope for? Is that Three Dark Crowns- which I haven’t even started… and will basically get to read and review the whole series at once? Will be entirely better than this book/series. Rule brought nothing new to a YA fantasy genre saturated with amazing books. Trying to bring something new, it brought a whole lot of head scratching… oh no honey… don’t go there. I think it had some really good premise that hopefully Ellen Goodlett can take to her next project and improve on and make better in her next novel.

I will not "star" the review on my blog because I don't want it to be the focus of my review. I also don't won't post it to Amazon or B/N unless you ask me to. If any major changes are made to the final cut and you want me to reread and see if there are adjustments, I'd be happy to do so.

I'm a sucker for sister stories so I liked seeing how each sister took her role as potential heir and the interactions after finding out that they're all a oart of a family they didn;t know about. But I wanted more from the world building - about the different regions they were from and how the magic system besides being blood based. The secrets are enough to keep you reading, but I was never really invested in the world or the story,

This book is about 3 girls- Zofi, Aleylah and Ren who have just learned that they are illegitimate daughters of the dying King of Kolonya. The girls are have been raised very differently from one another and they are called to Kolonya to see who might be the best heir to the throne. Each girl has special skills or talents that would make them a good ruler, but each girl also has a secret that could potentially have terrible consequences. Unfortunately, it soon becomes evident to the women that someone in the city does know their secret and is willing to expose them? Is it another one of the girls? Is it a potential rival to the throne? Will the girls find out before their secrets get revealed?
I liked this book a lot. It was creative and I think many people will be able to identify with the characters. The idea of tithing was different and at first I wasn't sure I was a little weird about it, but I liked how the author incorporated it into the story. I also like the differences between each of the regions of Kolonya and how they all have their own areas of concern and important events. I didn't really appreciate the infidelity of the queen, but I wonder if that will come into play later. At one point in this book I realized that I was too close to the end for the story to be wrapped up. I'm frustrated that I'm left hanging, but would be happy to read another of these books.

This book was full of surprise. The mystery behind the three sisters. Which one will get to wear the crown. It totally kept me guessing. I really enjoyed this book. I read some of the reviews where the said they DNF this book, but I’m glad I took the plunge and read it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

I love intrigue and suspense and court politics and sisters vying for the throne. And Rule has all of that. While I was able to guess some of what was happening, there were still a few plot twists that caught me off guard which was great. Although this is definitely not the best book about intrigue, suspense, court politics, or sisters vying for the throne, it was a quick, easy and fun read that kept me entertained the whole way through. Beware instalove (and insta- loyalty??) around every corner.

Content warning: self-mutilation and self-harm (as a form of magical blood-letting), physical abuse and harassment, parent abuse and harassment, a little bit of sexual harassment

What I liked:

-The development of the familial tie came out of the strength of the individual girls!! (rather than an instantaneous love because they’re family or hate because they’re competition). They had to trust each other because they had no other choice which honestly kind cut-down a little bit of the development that could have happened if they had had more time to get to know each other. BUT the book leaves A LOT of room for development which I hope gets taken advantage of in the second book of this duology. Each girl has her own motivation and loyalty to her family, but they’re forced to come together to survive. And also how important the idea of their families is, whether they’re by blood or found families. I’m a sucker for found families. At the root of this novel is the important roles that families play, but more importantly how the individual functions within the family.

-Magic. Very interesting methods of blood magic and I am intrigued in learning more. Which I feel like if you only have two books to develop your magic-system I want to have more of a grasp on it after the first book. But I did enjoy the curveballs and learning about it as the sisters did.

-The GAY. I won’t say who and I won’t say when because there are extenuating circumstances that I am unhappy about, but I am so happy that there were two women who fell in love and genuinely wanted to help support each other.

-Much of the social commentary. Seriously though, why should the wealthy nobles get to keep all of the goods and let everyone else starve? The whole idea that protecting their country means protecting the people in power while the laborers and soldiers are dispensable is trash and I hope that the sisters have a lot more power later on to make changes for the better. #eattherich

-I had a hard time keeping track of exactly how the us vs them broke down in terms of physical attributes. Which is good, because it begins to muddy the race lines in the readers’ minds because they constantly have to reassess which physical traits are outsiders. It wasn’t very overt though so I don’t actually know how this will be taken.

What I didn’t like:

-The instant romances. Or even, the romances in general. I liked that the romances were subplots, and I even really really liked how the subplots mostly functioned to move the main plot along, but I felt like it was a lot of instant attraction that led to varying degrees of loyalty and very little done to earn that loyalty. This is not true for all of them, but most of the romances had known each other for not very long and the ones who had known each other for longer we didn’t really get a good background. But I will say that the actual romance scenes were very well-written (I was like yaaaassssss, kissss, do itttt). I want to watch people fall in love not make out because of some unknown attraction. Or even if it was just an attraction, making out does not automatically mean you can now trust that person, a lesson we did learn with one of the romances.

-The alternating perspectives were useful in getting to see what was happening with each character especially during all of the initial intrigue, but it would have worked a lot better if each story line was not such a direct parallel to the other and also how cool to stop alternating or combine when they work together? I dont know, I would have been tickled to see it happen.

-I don’t know why, but it felt a little bland, like something was missing.

DNF
I was looking forward to reading Rule because of its enticing premise and the absolutely stunning cover. However, the book wound up disappointing me tremendously. I tried very hard to get into the story but after about 50% I simply couldn't push through. I found the world building to be lacking and the characters to be under-developed. Thank you to the publisher for a chance to read and review this title.

"Rule" was a surprise hit for me! We follow three half-sisters who have been living very different lives. Kolonya rules the land with King Andros at the helm. He can often be found in the company of his slightly younger twin sister, Yasmin, or his new wife, Rozalind. Rozalind is about the same age as the girls, and she married Andros as part of a peace treaty from Genal, a neighboring country to which Kolonya used to belong but fought bloody wars to separate from and was still warring with.

Within Kolonya, there is Kolonya proper and then the Reaches, which are operated like distant colonies (getting less/no resources, resources are taken from them for the center, and many citizens are treated like second class despite often being the soldiers and farmers who keep the country running). There are also nomadic people, called Travelers by themselves and Drifters as a degrading term. Travelers have their own tricks and lifestyle, living in family groups, which are not connected by blood but by experience.

The whole kingdom relies on magic, called the Blood Arts, which you can call up by (warning for self-mutilation) cutting yourself, which is referred to as performing a "tithe," and then gain superhuman speed, healing, or camouflage or another skill for a limited amount of time, until you become exhausted and then you must wait to tithe again. There are also the "Vulgar Arts" which are the bad things you can do with this magic, such as killing a family member. While other cuts will heal, the cuts made from the Vulgar Arts scar and have a blue tinge, marking you forever as one who has used them.

Alright, so our three main characters have never known who their father was- until they receive a summons. All three are hiding a dark secret which could get them executed. The King is dying, and his son and heir was murdered. He needs an heir, so brings his illegitimate daughters to the capital to audition to become the next heir.

Florencia (Ren) is Kolonyan and has been working as a maid. Her mother has taught her how to navigate the court and its lies well, and she is well suited to transition into the king's heir, already knowing so much about how politics work. Ren grew on me over time- she starts out seeming prejudiced and sneaky, but she learns and grows, becoming a more sympathetic character as time progresses.

Zofi is a traveler and thus an outcast in Kolonya. She doesn't allow that to slow her down- she is fierce, brave, and loyal. She also doesn't much care for what others think and doesn't seem bothered that the maids won't get near a 'drifter' and that her appearance and clothes are so different from everyone else's. She was definitely my favorite of the three girls.

Akeylah is from the Eastern Reach, where she has been abused physically and emotionally by her stepfather (who she thought was her father) and her half-siblings. Since her mother died giving birth to her, they view her as their mother's killer and treat her terribly. She is calm, patient, thoughtful, and slower to act than the other two sisters, but her actions are more purposeful- at least until it comes to her love life.

All three are hiding a big secret for which they are being blackmailed. As they investigate and learn about the kingdom, they are unsure who their enemies are. I actually was iffy about this because it seemed so obvious from the get-go, but then there are some interesting twists and turns towards the end, and now I have a new theory. This book does end with a cliffhanger, so now I will be anxiously awaiting the second book in this duology.

The story is told from each of the three girls points-of-view in the third person limited. While this could be confusing, here it is woven so neatly together, rarely stating the same events in two sections. Instead it flows through time while going through the different points-of-view. This keeps the story moving quickly while also letting you get to know each of the sisters individually.

I would have liked more information about the blood tithing/magic that they have here. While we do get some information as the girls investigate/through their learning, it comes very slowly (same as the history). However, this does really build up all the mystery in the book. I would give this somewhere between 4 and 5 stars, but I am rounding up in the end because it was really hard to put down. The sisters are all well-developed and unique from each other plus the mystery really kept the book moving. Additionally, there seems to be pretty good diversity amongst the sisters and main characters, which is always great to see in a YA book!

Overall, I think this is a great new YA fantasy series, and I will definitely want to read the second book when it comes out! Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the E-arc copy of this novel.
Rule was a solid read for young adults. It has interesting a dynamic of three sisters who come together from being separated as they grew up. Each having different backgrounds and ethnicity from their world. The sisters find love, mystery, and magic that will lead them to one of them becoming the new heir to the throne.

[Review will be posted on Reader Voracious Blog on 8/22/18.]

cw: self-mutilation (the magic system is essentially cutting onseself and it is described in detail), abusive family

Reading this book brought back memories of watching Pretty Little Liars; if you enjoyed the tv show I would recommend this to you! This is a book full of deadly secrets, political intrigue, and a fantasy world where the ruling class is out of touch with the people over whom they rule. While these are ingredients that I love to read, I unfortunately found the execution for Rule to be a bit lacking: the characters were one-dimensional, character relationships to have little to no development to justify their actions, and I was left wanting more worldbuilding. The base ideas are interesting and intriguing, but in my opinion need more development.

The King is dying and with his only heir dead he's forced to bring his three illegitimate daughters to Court. Whomever can learn and perform the best will earn the right to rule.
➡️ Zofi is a Traveler, part of a nomadic band of people, skilled in the art of tithe and a warrior.
➡️ Akeylah's family hates her because her mother died during childbirth, and her father is so abusive that he nearly kills her. My heart breaks for her so much and she is honestly the only character that I don't hate.
➡️ Florencia or "Ren" is a servant, essentially a handmaid within the castle with aspirations of elevating her station through a strategic marriage. Little did she know that she was royalty. She's lived her life on the outskirts of Court and is kind of an insufferable jerk.
I found the whole premise of the Blood Ceremony and succession wasn't explained well. I understand the sense of urgency and why timelines were sped up; however, I was very confused as to why the King's twin couldn't assume the throne - something that wasn't explained until like 85% into the book. That simple omission of explanation until very late made it difficult for me to believe the sequence of events at all as it all seemed 'convenient' to move the story along.

One of my biggest pet peeves is conflict for the sake of conflict that could easily be solved by the characters talking to one another, and this plot device is used a lot here. From the Talons not telling Zofi from the beginning where she was going to the sisters not talking to one another sooner (although when they finally did it felt... off?). This may not be an issue for every reader, but I think that plot device and the narrative style worked in concert against the story here. This is a case where I think the third-person omniscient narrative style did this story a disservice because it kills all suspense for the reader. The sisters are all being blackmailed and are obviously distrusting of everyone around them, but because we know what we do the inner monologues suspecting everyone comes across as annoying instead of "WHO COULD IT BE?!?!!?" I feel like by the time the characters caught up to what I had already pieced together I was forced to rehash that information for 1-2 pages, which I didn't really enjoy. Honestly I would have probably liked the story a lot better if it had all been told from Akeylah's POV (or if each book centered on a different sister's POV).

Some of the character conversations were a damn hilarious blessing though, and I really enjoyed those glimpses of character peeking through: "Though Sun knows you're doing a good enough job in that getup." "At least I can move. You look like a lobster trussed up for the cooking pot." For those that enjoy romance, each sister has a budding relationship, one of which is an insta-love f/f relationship (forbidden not for sexuality but for other reasons). I have to say that the side character Vidal is wonderful and I adore him.

It is no secret that I adore worldbuilding, and it is the main thing that can make or break my enjoyment of a book. The only worldbuilding here is really recounting the political history of the region and the wars, which only tells part of the story of this world. There are so many things that I would love to have seen explained more to immerse me into the world, the biggest gap being religion. The characters have an exclamation synonymous with how some say "god" in our world that points to different religious beliefs - sands, seas, sun. I find that beliefs offer a lot of insight into cultural differences and a description into what the practices are between the Reaches would have been an excellent way to create more depth and further point out how different the lives were for people around the Kingdom beyond the color of their skin or whether they were a Traveler.

The magic system was not explained well at all: people that are from Reaches can tithe, which appears to be bloodletting? essentially cut themselves to gain temporary boosts to speed, or invisibility. Apparently the stories go that the gods blessed the people of Kolonya with tithe and that is the reason for their being Superior. There is no explanation as to who can do it, how one learns to do it, or if it is closely regulated. The King insinuates that skills are kept as a close secret for the Talons to have an advantage, yet the Travelers also tithe, and it seems that anyone can? I DON'T KNOW OKAY.
You cannot control your destiny, Mama always said. Only the way you face it.
All of the events of this book are happening as the result of three secrets: actions that each of the daughters made that set things in motion. It is almost poetic and points to perhaps their being manipulated into action - but that doesn't jive with the whole blackmailer thing, it would be interesting though!

The most enjoyable part of this book was reading it with Destiny; our banter and discussions are what kept me reading to the end more than anything else. If I am being honest, the story felt underdeveloped to me and read more like an early draft, but I read an ARC and I am hoping that some changes were made to polish the story prior to publication. This is a fast-paced read with a lot of political machinations. While this book wasn't for me, I do hope it is for you and I think that those who enjoyed Pretty Little Liars will enjoy this book.

Many thanks to Little, Brown for providing me an electronic ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Quotations were taken from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon publication.

This story revolves around 3 young women with very different backgrounds who suddenly find themselves heirs to the king. Each girl holds a secret that if discovered would lead to her execution. Naturally "someone" knows all 3 secrets and is blackmailing the girls to give up their right to the throne or be outed.

I really liked the premise of the book. but the characters seemed a bit forced to me. The book didn't seem to flow as easily as I would have liked it to. It was hard to empathize with the girls as each seemed motivated more by emotion than common sense. Several times I set the book aside only to remind myself that I still needed to finish it. The book is ok but it just lacked any emotional connect for me.

Loved this book! Exquisite for YA fans, those that lost fantasy, with a hint of Game of Thrones. This has all of the things a fanatical mystery fan would love, whether or not YA is your first genre of choice.

Great story line, great characters, and a very quick read. I finished it in 2 hours and loved it from beginning to end.

Rule is the story of three young women, raised in completely different lifestyles, who all find out that they are in line for the throne as the illegitimate daughters of King Andros.

I did really like this book. I liked the story line, and the three women and their individual stories, but there were a couple of things I did not like. First, I was really confused at the beginning. There were a lot of characters being introduced, in a world I knew nothing about. I eventually got through it and figured it out, but it took longer than I thought it should. Secondly, I felt like not enough description was given to the women. I know exactly what Zofi looks like, because they talk about her hair in every other chapter, but the other two... I'm not so sure - so I would have liked to have more description of them and even other main characters in the book.

I was beginning to get annoyed with how this book ends. It is the first book in a duology, so I knew that it was going to "be continued", but I wanted a little bit of closure in the ending. However, the last chapter's ending really left me intrigued and wanting so badly to find out what happens in the second book.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

DNF at 20%

I tried to hard to push through this but it just wasn't for me. I didn't connect with the characters at all and didn't care what happened to them at all. The writing style wasn't for me at all, I just couldn't connect with it.

Three girls plucked out of their lives find out one of them will wear the crown.
This was so much more in depth and convoluted than I went in thinking. The author did a great job of giving each girl their own voice, problems, and thoughts. I was worried it would be to like three dark crowns but it wasn't. Instead it gave a new view on three different but similar girls.

This story revolves around 3 young women with very different backgrounds who suddenly find themselves heirs to the king. Each girl holds a secret that if discovered would lead to her execution. Naturally "someone" knows all 3 secrets and is blackmailing the girls to give up their right to the throne or be outed.

I really liked the premise of the book. but the characters seemed a bit forced to me. The book didn't seem to flow as easily as I would have liked it to. It was hard to empathize with the girls as each seemed motivated more by emotion than common sense. Several times I set the book aside only to remind myself that I still needed to finish it. The book is ok but it just lacked any emotional connect for me.

One thing that I disliked greatly was the complete lack of an ending. I understand leaving the it open for sequels but I hate no freaking ending at all. What this does is annoy me because I feel that all the author is only interested in stringing the reader along for his monetary gain. You want to know what happens - buy that next book. It doesn't have to be a clear cut, drawn in the sand type of ending but (for me) I need SOME KIND of conclusion. For this reason I round my 2.5 star rating to a 2 star.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for offering a copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars
Rule by Ellen Goodlett is the first in a series (trilogy?) that begins with a king having his three illegitimate daughters located and brought to court. The king of Kolonya decides to acknowledge his three illegitimate daughters only after his son and presumptive heir dies.

The three young women are very different and quite amazed upon discovering not only their unknown father, but also that they have siblings.

Nothing especially new in this YA fantasy...except that (Spoiler) <spoiler>the three girls eventually form a bond, supporting each other, instead of the expected cut throat competition for the crown. This was actually the thing I liked most, the siblings uniting.</spoiler>.

Each of the daughters carries a dark secret, and each of the secrets could carry a dreadful consequence. When the blackmail begins, who is to be trusted?

I enjoyed the first installment of this series.

Read in July; blog review scheduled for Aug. 25.

NetGalley/Little Brown Books for Young Readers.
YA Fantasy. Sept. 11, 2018. Print length: 384 pages.