To find yourself in a world that doesn’t fit you

Synopsis

In a future where the mention of magic is banned, one paranoid man rules the entire country. Adopting children to become his private bodyguards, they are raised together in a strict institute where sixteen-year-old Aurora struggles to follow the rules. Finding herself disciplined often, she doesn’t particularly like her endless life of servitude.

Soon, she will have to take part in the institute’s annual Unity ceremony where she could end up engaged to a complete stranger!

Aurora’s fears of being different are realised when she discovers something about herself, something which will make most fear her, and her adoptive father will want her killed for.

Friends, bullies, and a touch of something magical, Aurora’s first year in the grown-ups’ quarter is far from ordinary.

My review

Aurora has never felt at ease in the place that has been her home since adopted by the Institute. Following the rules isn’t really her thing, and she isn’t for sure waiting being matched with a complete stranger, as that means getting engaged during the annual Unity ceremony.
Not only is Aurora struggling with a life that doesn’t fit her, she also discovers something about herself that jeopardizes jut everything she has been building, like her friendships, her strengths and even the tendre bond with her match. All of that is as risk, just is her own life, and that just in her first year in the grown – ups’ quarter… 

I have to be honest, I didn’t truly know what to expect from this book after it was offered to me by the lovely Roxy Eloise.
Yes, I was aware it was a dystopian sci – fi book, but that also means that there is a wide range of possibilities of where this book would take me. 

It’s clear from the start that there is something special about Aurora. We don’t know what, and Aurora herself doesn’t know it either.
We get to know Aurora as a perhaps stubborn young woman, with a mind of her own, even if those thoughts are in contradiction with the rules from her home.
And just like any teenager, she speaks before she thinks, bringing her more than often in troubles. 

But we also see an Aurora who doesn’t know who she is. We only get a glimpse of her past, and just like us, Aurora wants to know who she is and where she came from, even if that once again is in contradiction with the rules. 

Obviously, it’s difficult to imagine the kind of world Aurora is living in. It’s so different from our own, yet in a way also comforting reading that some things never change. Aurora can always rely on her real friends, but we also see the same kind of doubts, same kind of bullying even, but most important, the same kind of love, whether it’s from a friend, or from a Nanny or from a love interest. In the end, feelings always stay the same, no matter what kind of world we are living in. 

There happens rather a lot in this first book, and at moments I had ‘Hunger Games’ – vibes, but also vibes of totally different kind of books and movies. I didn’t know what to expect, yet I found myself very invested in Aurora’s journey.
At moments perhaps I got a little confused about the side characters, as their unusual names didn’t truly help. And also the specific terms used in the institute aren’t always that easy to pronounce (in my head 😊).
There is even a bit of magic involved in Aurora’s story. And where normally I am rather against any kind of magical bits, in this book it didn’t disturb me at all, even if we only got a glimpse of it. In this kind of book, it made perfectly sense even if once again that discovery may be a risk for our main character. 

No matter what happens to Aurora in the book, it was lovely in a way to see how loyal her friends are to her. And I found it sweet to see how her match turned out to be an amazing guy, until a certain point at least. Because after a shocking revelation, I cannot deny in being totally disappointed in his behaviour, as I truly believed that Aurora could have found truly her perfect match… 

Roxy Eloise did an amazing job writing about a world so different from ours, with their own rules, a world that would frighten me if I were to live there. It’s a world with its own laws and even words, but a world that never once bored me while reading.
A world filled with several twists and turns, shocking revelations but also heart – warming moments. A world that ends with a cliffhanger, an open end that makes you go searching for the second book, as you aren’t ready to say ‘goodbye’ to Aurora yet.
And in my case, a world that even kept me awake at night, as that kind of future is a bit terrifying one, but never loses that one thing that makes us truly human, feelings. Feelings that everyone has, how human or magical we may be.