If you loved The Selection series, you will love this book. Left with a little bit of a cliff hanger, but that just pushes you to want to read the next one. Strong characters,twists and turns throughout and all around good ya book. ( )

Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars
I heard a lot of mixed reviews about The Jewel when it first came out, but I finally decided to give it a try when I saw it at my local library.

Plot: When I first started reading it, the whole surrogate aspect reminded me of the plot in a previous book I had read but I couldn't remember the title of it. Then when I went to rate it on Goodreads, I saw a review that mentioned it too. The plot is exactly like Eve by Anna Carey meets the setting of The Hunger Games and other dystopian books thrown in the midst. Even the characters resembled those in The Hunger Games. But we'll get to that later.
Anyway, for the first half of the book nothing really happens. If I boil away all the fillers, this is essentially what happens:
Girl (aka Violet) gets taken from her home to be a surrogate. She then lives in a compound with other surrogates (just like in Eve) and gets tested for Auguries/powers. Of course she ends up being one of the strongest so she gets auctioned last to the highest bidder, who just so happens to be the Duchess of the Lake. The first half of the book is literally just her doing the Duchess' bidding before she finally finds out about some sort of political power play behind the Jewel that's all hush-hush and not explained at all.
Oh, and don't forget about the cliffhanger at the end. Correction, it was more a cliff than a hanger. It just felt like the book ended extremely abruptly, and I felt kind of cheated out that I read the entire book and nothing actually happened. The Duchess' political motifs were still hidden, and the condition of Raven and Violet was left unknown.

Romance: Half way through we're also finally introduced to Ash, the love interest of the story. I love a good romance in my novels, but this was complete instalove. The two meet on accident when Violet gets caught wandering the Palace without permission/her lady-in-waiting. After two conversations, give or take, Violet and Ash fall madly in love, kissing and all.

Characters: Talking about Ash, I almost forgot to mention that he's a companion. As in a person who keeps others company...err romantically. So when him and Violet are all love-dovey, he still has to do his job and make out with his latest companion. Yeah. What a charmer, right?
On the other hand, Violet's best friend Raven was a decent secondary character. Bold and loyal, you can't help but root for her against the Countress (or was she a Duchess? All of them were so hard to keep track of. Albeit, I might have skimmed over the parts where they were all together).
Lucien, the make up artist/dresser guy/experimenter was almost a complete replica of Cinna from The Hunger Games. Everything from his personality and job to his actions. But I liked him though, because I loved Cinna!

In the end, The Jewel had multiple aspects that corresponded with other dystopian books and a slow plot line. However, the Auguries did make it more interesting along with the Duchess' hidden agenda (although we don't find out much about that). I wouldn't quite recommend this book, but if you don't mind instalove and enjoyed The Hunger Games, Eve, The Selection, and other similar books, then feel free to give it a try! ( )

I enjoyed this. It was had a very similar feel to [b:The Selection|10507293|The Selection (The Selection, #1)|Kiera Cass|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1322103400l/10507293._SY75_.jpg|15413183], only it was a lot darker. I'm intrigued, but this certainly isn't going to be one of my favourite series of all time.

I have to say though, it was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. I am not sure what I was expecting, but from a lot of reviews, I've seen I thought it would be poorly written or disappointing. There wasn't anything bad with this book, it's just not my favourite book of all time. It's a quick read. A bit too dark to be a guilty pleasure but has that sort of feel to it which is a bit off-putting.

Tha magic system is quite soft but still very interesting. I do feel like there was a lot that was glossed over. I hope the next books go into more detail about the class systems and politics, as well as how the Auguries work. Also, I like the name Augury for a magical power. Not sure why, but I do.

I did not and anything particularly annoying about the MC, but Violet is pretty average. She did not have many stand-out qualities. However, I will take that over a poorly written one any day. Her thought process could be followed logically, though it was more emotional, it made sense for the character and nothing felt random or jarring.

In the end, I would say that this is a solid book. It's just not the phenomenal wig-snatching book people are looking for. If you go into it with that expectation, you might be let down. If you are looking for a solid read this will be it. ( )

Not bad, totally unimpressed with the silly romance. Cliff hanger was not surprising to me, writing was OK, clearly a first novel. I plan to read the other 2 novels probably in a couple of years when the series is complete. ( )

No. This doesn't feel original. Don't bother. If it wasn't short I'd have set it aside. ( )