Don't let the Jane Austen comparison scare you away quickly; I enjoyed this book though I dislike that style. However, this book relied quite heavily on romance and there definitely could have been more to the plot.

My biggest issue with this was world building and characterization of general populations. I felt like this book benefitted from previous fantasy books I'd read; I could see it happening in the general realm that all fantasy books tend to take place in. There were a few races that really weren't given personalities other than being bad, and I wished that they had had more interest and humanity to them so that I could better understand their motivations.

The romance definitely drove this book. While Sage seems at surface level to be another exciting heroine, she's not really the most sociable character and I was kind of disappointed by how her relationship with her mentor didn't really progress. Sage is smart, but she looks down on basically everyone else, and I wanted to see some humanity in her--some jealousy or some desire or something. Instead, she falls for her own boy, and that drives the latter half of the book.

Nonetheless, this sucked me in and was an easy read. I felt like the romance between them, while it escalated far too quickly, was believable. I got pretty confused about all the characters and their switching, but I could see how each character's motivations affected them.

This is a pretty solid fantasy and I think that a lot of people would enjoy it. Though I was ultimately disappointed at how it fell for a lot of the gimmicks that prior fantasy novels have set up, I recommend it for those who enjoy the genre.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This book was alright but I do feel like it kept with several cliche’s and tropes. The main character felt like a Mary Sue. She’s “special” because she scorns traditionally feminine things and actually thinks unlike the other shallow women she encounters (Ugh I hate this trope so much). Also it was very insta-love. I thought that since there is three books there might be some build up. But nope. They barely know each other and proclaim their love for each other by the end of this first book and Quinn even proposes and everything, I suppose this is a different time period but still. The world itself also wasn’t built up that well and the villain was really shallow. I’m still not entirely clear on his motivations tbh.

Overall: this book felt like it had potential but fell short with a bunch of cliches and shallow world and character building. ( )

A lot of fun! Romance is not my usual genre, so I was happy to find that the writing was solid and the story was exciting.

#ReadICT2019 category 2: a genre you don't normally read ( )

Look can we stop? By we I mean my fellow white people and by stop I mean stop relying on lazy racist and misogynistic tropes to prop up a story

Stop making bad guys dark skinned
Stop making "not like other girls" girl characters
Stop encouraging girl hate
Stop making excuses for writing hurtful books

Just. Stop.

In all the wide world of fantasy why do we insist on rewriting Tolkien all the friggin time??? Why do we think that we're being creative or different when we're just propping up tired racist colonial propaganda?

Come on. Bring us something new. Something not racist. ( )

Before I talk about the other contents of this book I’d like to make my short PSA first. Alright ladies, men, and other people let’s get this straight: if a woman wears makeup, high heels, low cut clothing, flowy fabrics better known as dresses or skirts, or anything that you personally deem uncomfortable or you don’t like this does not give you permission to judge her for it. Also, if you don’t want to get married and have babies that doesn’t mean you get to judge anyone else for it either. I was so close to quitting this book and just chucking it into the lake in front of me but I powered on. Characters are never perfect but when their flaws strike a nerve it takes so much out of me to just bear with them. Onto the book…

Sage Fowler has come of age to be matched to a good husband. Her uncle sends her off to be interviewed by the town matchmaker Darnessa and hopefully taken on to be considered for a sort of match-ball called the Concordium but Sage has other plans. She shows her true colors to the Matchmaker but the woman finds a way to use her anyway and offers her a matchmaker apprenticeship. Part of the job description is observation and keeping track of pertinent information that has to do with a possible match.
Captain Alexander Quinn hasn’t been commander for very long but he’s working hard to prove himself instead of riding on the tails of his father’s legacy. When a seemingly successful mission turns out to be a mistake, Quinn’s father sends him off on a low danger assignment that will hopefully teach him some new things but most importantly how to suppress his tendency to act rashly. When his father subtly suggests this assignment is actually a reconnaissance mission he and his lieutenants come up with a plan to recruit one of the ladies they will be escorting to the Concordium to spy on the men that these girls are going to be matched to.
Anything else I say will spoil the whole thing so there’s that. This was given a Jane Austen with a twist description and I literally have no idea how. Elizabeth Bennett did not give off a superiority vibe that Sage did. They both didn’t want to get married but had completely different motivations, Lizzie had expectations that had simply not been met by any man she had met thus far but Sage thinks she’s too special for marriage *gag*. There’s a vague connection to Emma in the sense that they want to find the best matches for the ladies but that’s a stretch. I would have thought the espionage would have been done by Sage but it’s actually Ash Carter (codename: mouse) that does the bulk of this work.

My biggest problem was the female on female hate. I’m so used to misogyny in books that it doesn’t faze me as long as there’s growth among the actual characters I’m following. But when there’s no real bonding among the women in a novel it makes me angry that there’s nothing counteracting that misogyny.
Sage grew up in the wild because her parents had the audacity to self-match which made her mother give up her dowry. Her father let her climb trees and wear pants while he made business deals and traded the birds he hunted. When he died she was sent to live with her uncle and I guess that family tried to educate her on how to be a lady. At first, I was equally outraged that her uncle wanted to marry her off when she didn’t even want to until I read about Darnessa’s methods to matchmaking and learning how much she really cares about the girls she matches. Then it turns out that Sage’s uncle wasn’t even that much of a chauvinist, just a guy who wanted to make sure his niece was well off. So it just makes Sage look pretty bad. Her worst offense though has to do with the comment I made in the beginning. I understand that she doesn’t like wearing dresses or heels because she’s used to wearing pants but guess what people? Some of us actually like wearing dresses because some pants are uncomfortable and short people like me like heels to feel tall for once. Then she complains about makeup like it’s the worst thing in the world which I sympathized with because it’s how I felt about it at first but when she starts judging the other girls for it I stopped caring about her. She pretends to be so superior just because she is slightly more educated than all the other girls but doesn’t even try to befriend any of them until Claire calls her out on it. Sure Jacqueline was a jerk but kill em with kindness ya know? Don’t just scurry off to the library and keep giving them reasons to think you think you’re better than them.

Because of this flaw that I kept reading about over and over I kind of spaced out (okay skimmed) the first ten chapters which I had to go back and reread when chapter 30 came along and confused me... Though I have been made aware that the thing that confused me was supposed to be the big plot twist. I just thought I missed that part in the beginning because I skimmed a lot of the first part where Sage started to become acquainted with the soldiers...anyway, Sage wasn’t the only one that made those stupid remarks. I don’t want to spoil who (because he was also a part of the skimmable parts) but when he also made an offhanded comment about how he “wondered how those girls could wear such uncomfortable things,” which I’m totally paraphrasing because I don’t want to go fish for it, I thought they would make a perfect match…which they do, but that’s beside the point.

I’ll admit that I did find this book entertaining. The plot kept me engaged with the political uprise in the background and the military escort’s strategies being shared. I wish there was more of Darnessa because I feel like she’s the underrated one in this story but then it wouldn’t be a YA. I just hope that Sage learns that it’s okay to want to be a lady and that just because she doesn’t want to be matched it’s not a horrible thing if someone else does. So yes, I will continue reading this series.

I really like Alex but the real Ash Carter is the true BAE and I'm scared that a love triangle will start in the next book but I don't want him with Sage :p ( )