Rereading my favorites to remind myself what REAL writing is......

All these other fake ass authors trying to claim the YA political intrigue romance throne.....yall have NOTHING on ms rutkoski...NOTHING!!!!!

Anyways this is my favorite out of the winners trilogy and its just superb in every aspect. The character's goals and struggles are front and center, yet theyre left yearning and fighting for their lives backed up into political corners where they cant say what the really mean. The plot worked deliciously around the politics of the court and the outlying colonies, which has a mystery running through it as even our MC, who is characterized as sharp witted, cant seem to grasp whats happening underneath. 

It also really humanizes the effects of empire and colonization, the desensitization to "barbarians" that comes with it. Really immerses the reading into the precariousness of the situations in the story! 10/10 one if mt favorites of all time!!!!