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Oct 12, 2018PimaLib_ChristineR rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
5 ⭐ - I shouldn't give this book five stars. I really shouldn't. And yet, I can't help overlooking some flaws for something that's a TOTALLY ORIGINAL IDEA!! (I haven't seen In Time and I'm not likely to so if you think this is a ripoff of that movie, be my guest). In Sempera (like that play on the Latin there, Holland!), time is literally tied to the blood and used as currency. Those who can't pay their taxes, like the majority of the peasants, have to visit bloodletters who turn their blood into coin, coins that represent the time that has been bled from their lives. The rich, like the aristocracy who live on the estate of Everless, have the luxury of melting golden years into their tea, extending their lives into centuries. Our heroine, Jules, was raised on Everless, as the daughter of the smith, playing with the sons, Roan and Liam, of the estate owner, until she and her father are ejected after a fire in the smithy. Jules knows that time does not always run the way it should around her, but time is such a strange thing in Sempera, she thinks nothing of it. As a royal wedding is announced at Everless, Jules takes the chance to return to Everless as an extra servant, hoping to make enough coin to spare her father his monthly bloodletting, at least until she is old enough to pay in her own blood. The mythology that Holland builds up as the scaffolding for this story is amazing, and while it may not make sense at the beginning, it is expanded upon sufficiently to support the overlying story. The backstory behind the queen and her adopted daughter, Ina, is intriguing. And the village that Jules finds is absolutely jaw-dropping. This was a book that I wished I had waited to read until the next one was out so I didn't have to wait. Holland also does a lovely job of building up creepy tension between Jules, Ina and Caro. Ina and Caro seem to want to be Jules' friend but they each have ulterior motives that slide in and out of view. Why I shouldn't have given it five stars: Jules' father tells her she must at all costs stay away from Everless and especially the queen. One guess on what she does... I'm sorry but these kinds of warnings are becoming a trope in themselves. Tell someone not to do something and of course it's the first thing they do. Secondly, Jules still has a crush on Roan, and still believes the older brother Liam is the reason her family was sent away from Everless in the first place. In this little triangle I felt like I did when reading The Cruel Prince, screaming at the page "Are you blind?! Or just stupid?!" I'm getting a little tired of these women who seem so bright about some things and then ignore everything in front of them to create an artificial romantic tension. In the end, I think this story is so unique, and the twists and turns so intriguing that these missteps, that I might take more exception to in another story, can be safely overlooked in light of the whole. I NEED the next book.