Young Adult Book Reviews

Genre: Futuristic

# of Pages: 493 p.

Zea-Mays Calico was born into the Harvester Echelon, the lowest echelon in the Phangloria Kingdom.  She has felt unrest in her station since she was nine and witnessed a guard attacking a harvester woman working in a field. When the harvester supervisor tried to intervene he was killed.  Zea never saw the guard’s face and has felt guilt ever since for the family who lost their father.  As she’s grown older life as a harvester hasn’t gotten any easier and Zea and her family constantly deal with thirst, hunger, and exhaustion as more and more is asked of them.  When it’s announced that Prince Kevon will begin looking for his bride through the Princess Trials, Zea’s mom thinks it would be great if she would try to become one of the elusive 30 ladies who vie for Kevon’s attention.  Zea would rather join the underground rebel group, the Red Runners, in order to help bring down the monarchy and begin to allocate resources equally for all echelons.  When the leader of the Red Rebels asks her to join the princess trials to become an inside spy she has no idea what she is getting into.  The trials are incredibly difficult and oftentimes violent as these women will do anything to get ahead in the competition.  Zea’s impression of the prince changes as she gets to know him as well, but she quickly learns that in this world she truly does not know who she can trust.  She just desperately hopes she doesn’t do the one thing rebels asked her not to: fall in love with the prince.  Can Zea infiltrate the palace and find a way to share what she learns with the rebels?  Can she protect her family from those who want to hurt her?  Can she find the truth in a place where everyone has more secrets than they can count?

This thrilling series is a mix between the Selection series and the Hunger Games series.  Although the story requires a bit of setup at the beginning, readers will enjoy entering Zea’s world to find out what happens during the princess trials.  Everyone has an agenda and isn’t afraid to break rules in order to get what they want.  Despite the fact that Zea enters the trials under false pretenses, she is constantly amazed by how quickly those around her will sacrifice others in order to get what they want.  This story gets better as it goes along, and that continues into the second installment, The Princess Games.