The White Rose
by Amy Ewing
HarperTeen (October 6, 2015)
Audience: Young Adult
IndieBound | WorldCat
"Violet is on the run. After the Duchess of the Lake catches Violet with Ash, the hired companion at the Palace of the Lake, Violet has no choice but to escape the Jewel or face certain death. So along with Ash and her best friend, Raven, Violet runs away from her unbearable life of servitude.
But no one said leaving the Jewel would be easy. As they make their way through the circles of the Lone City, Regimentals track their every move, and the trio barely manages to make it out unscathed and into the safe haven they were promised—a mysterious house in the Farm.
But there’s a rebellion brewing, and Violet has found herself in the middle of it. Alongside a new ally, Violet discovers her Auguries are much more powerful than she ever imagined. But is she strong enough to rise up against the Jewel and everything she has ever known?
The White Rose is a raw, captivating sequel to The Jewel that fans won’t be able to put down until the final shocking moments."
Carolyn's thoughts on the book:
The Jewel was one of my favorite dystopian novels of 2014, combining the glamour of the Selection series with the horrific of commodification of women bodies in Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. Premised as a necessary and honorable undertaking, girls from the outermost circle of the Lone City are tested for abilities that allow them to be surrogates for the royalty; if the test is positive, they are requisitioned by the government to be trained and auctioned off. In the first novel, The Jewel, the reader accompanies Violet as she finishes her training and is auctioned off to one of the most important royal houses. The lavish surroundings do little to ease the horror at her complete loss of agency in every aspect of her life, but then our protagonist discovers that her life is at stake — as well as the lives of all the surrogates. Soon, Violet is embroiled in plans of escape, while trying to stop herself from falling in love with Ash, the hired companion for the house. But after Violet and Ash are discovered, they are forced to flee in the heart-racing first chapters of The White Rose. The pace quickly changes, becoming slower and calmer — a departure from the feverish wonderment (and in turn, growing horror) that set the tone in the first novel. The underlying emotion is more subtle as Violet learns to tap into her true abilities, and all the while revolution brews - and Violet's struggle to navigate between her own aspirations, the political agenda of the Black Key (the group that aided her escape), and the slow path towards that revolution is reflected in the novel's structure to better parallel the protagonist's inner turmoil. Violet's relationship with Ash is vastly different outside of their bondage, and their relationship troubles read as sincere and honest instead of the shallow drama so often seen in YA. Where many dystopian trilogies fail is the middle book — it's all too easy to let the character development and plot fall by the wayside while focusing on the impending revolution in the last novel, but the complex subtly of The White Rose gives me great hope for the final book of the Lone City series this fall.
The White Rose is a great read for fans of dystopia, fantasy, science fiction, bioethics, action, and romance.
Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.
