The Jewel (Lone City Trilogy, 1)

I don’t know if anyone else did this, but I picked this book for the first time because I accidentally thought it was part of the selection series. At least that was the case until I read the author’s name, but come on you can’t tell me these covers aren’t similar. Pretty girls, in gorgeous dresses.

However, the similarities end at the covers and the fact that it is a dystopian. Except this dystopian society is way more terrifying. In this world young woman who have certain genetics are used as breeders for the upper class. They don’t have any type of freedom and in fact are the property of the women whose eggs they carry.

It’s actually quite a freaky concept, which is the main reason I was immediately hooked into this book. I wanted to understand this world and see what would happen to the main protagonist Violet.

The “Jewel” is a slow starter and takes a while to pick-up, which it eventually does, but that unfortunately isn’t until the end. This might be the reason why I liked this book, but didn’t love it. The long informative introduction and the lack of action felt a little stagnant, but I persevered wanting to see the outcome.

In the end the outcome wasn’t pleasant because it felt like we didn’t get anywhere. It felt like this book just ended at an incomplete act. An incomplete act that I do actually want to continue on with, but I am scared of because I don’t want it to be a waste of my time.

This novel is lacking to some degree in character development and progression, but it’s plot is intriguing enough that I want to continue on. And hopefully within the next, book my feelings of like will turn to love. Maybe in the next book I will root for Violet, Ash, Raven and Lucien just a little more, allowing myself to get invested in their fate.

I bought this book for a long car ride with my family and I was not disappointed! the plot grabbed my attention from the very beginning, as it was very original. If you're a fan of The Selection by Kiera Cass (which is how I discovered this novel) you will LOVE The Jewel. It is a fantastic mix of history and dystopia. So ready for the next installment!!

I only read 1/3 of the way through the Jewel before I got suspicious of where the story seemed to be going.
What was the red flag for me was how I really hated the storyline.
the author really deals well with her subject matter, is very tasteful about being careful how she treats the language but still i could not stomach it.
girl from poverty is taken from her family because she has potential. she is taught manners & educated,.she is never allowed to return to or have contact with her family after she is sold, yup sold. be she 12, or more, once educated, she's auctioned off to nobility for the sole purpose of being impregnated & bearing a child. then the girl is sterilized & put in an institution (not luxury)with other surrogates for the rest of her life.
are you gagging yet ?
so you have forbidden love,a miscarriage & the hope of escape in the first book
in the second book you have surrogate uprising & oh yeah, an evil woman takes the main character's younger sister in spite with the purpose of making the child a pawn in the uprising or a surrogate.
Storyline sound much like Handmaid's tale & Hunger games ?
characters are kinda flat. If they had not impregnated the main character once, you might be able to say :wow dodged that bullet, but it's all pretty awful a subject, so not sure how to overcome the eu factor.
also I really object to this kind of frank,attitude with the subject matter, no matter how tastefully written.
I didn't so much feel like rooting for the characters as I just felt depressed & grossed out. yeah there's a love story, & yeah the second book leaves the door wide open for a 3rd book, but no, no NO, enough already with these horrible plots & hunger games like dystopian worlds !

I'm tired of these books that instead of entertaining and valuing the reader, they manipulate and cheat the reader.

I suppose I could see it halfway through when I started skimming just to get to the non-end, and I could see we were headed to the character kill off.

But instead of me wanting to read the next book it makes me realize, my time is too important to waste on another author I don't trust.

The Jewel reminds me of both The Hunger Games and The Selection (by Kiera Cass). In relation to the former, both have varying levels of society, separated by wealth and occupation. Before the beginning of each novel’s event (The Auction or the Hunger Games), the candidates are given a complete makeover to appeal to the crowd. The writing style and younger audience level mimicked Kiera Cass’. The covers of both series are similar, with girls in exquisite dresses featured. All three novels force certain people to participate in their society’s event, taking them away from their lives and their families. The higher ranks of society control what happens in the rest of the world, leaving the reader wondering how each event got its start.

My main critiques are in regards to the character and setting development. I wasn’t able to fully connect with Violet Lasting, our leading lady. I wanted to know more about her life before she was taken away and about her time before the Auction. It is obvious that her abilities are strong, but it is not clear how those abilities will make a difference in her world. The Duchess goes back and forth in how she treats Violet. The moments where the Duchess opens up to Violet and softens her mood add a layer of complexity to her personality. However, I think these moments should be subtler to prevent her motives from becoming confusing.

The surrogates have three special powers called Auguries that control color, shape, or growth, each becoming more difficult to master. This helps them to perfect the pregnancies according to the royalty’s needs. I never found a full or satisfactory answer to why the royalty cannot have children, why only the daughters from ‘The Marsh’ have this genetic defect, and why the Auguries are used to create children. Since The Jewel is a part of a larger series, I hope the answers to these questions lie within the sequels. Also, I would like to know more about The Jewel’s world in general. How is the wall high enough to keep out a raging sea and why isn’t this more of a concern to society? When the library within the Duchess’ home was introduced and it was mentioned that it held lots of history books, I hoped it would lead to Violet exploring these titles to give the reader more answers. It did not and prevented me from connecting completely to the book and its characters.

All in all I think young adult audiences will appreciate Ewing’s book. It is an interesting and rather deep concept of surrogacy and how it can be made bad. Although I believe the world needs additional development, it is worth the short and easy read. I look forward to continuing the series to see how the story plays out.

Extremely well written with excellent characters. I found it a bit too dark - far more Handmaid's Tale than The Selection. The world is intriguing and the characters seemed so real, but a bit too hopeless and a bit "off" for me. I also dislike that the book is not a stand-alone - it just stops at a terrible moment. You have to read the next books to finish the story.

Very well written, never boring and very exciting.
For me it was amazing.

The cliffhanger ending is killing me! I had no idea the ending was close and now I'm so mad because I haven't even ordered the second book yet.

That said, I'm only mad because it is so good. I have not enjoyed a story this much since I read the Selection series for the first time last year. I'm a huge lover of dystopian stories, and this one had just enough of the tropes common to the genre while creating new facets that make it just gripping.

I discovered this series after reading The Selection and seeing it on a recommended book list. I honestly don't think it's that similar other than the fact that it involves a caste system and royalty, but I am glad that I decided to give it a try. I absolutely LOVED the storyline of this series. The characters are all likable and have good character development. Even the main antagonist, The Duchess of the Lake, had some moments when I felt bad for her and wanted to learn more of her story. I do think that readers should be aware of the heavy amount of abuse and violence that the characters face in this series. It could definitely be triggering for those who have dealt with abuse or just are uncomfortable reading about it. That being said, I liked how the characters became stronger and fought back against the evil treatment of the royals. There is a romantic storyline, which I enjoyed, but it isn't as front and center as other YA books. Only the first book in the series really focuses on the romance, and then it's more minor in the second and third books. I thought I would be disappointed by this, but the overall story was so compelling that I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. My only complaint is that the third book is a little slow for the first half, but it was worth it to see some of the side characters developed more leading up to the big ending.
This is definitely a series I plan to read again and again.

You’ll love this series!