Book: You Are Mine
Author: Janeal Falor
Series: Mine #1
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
I'd like to thank the author for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Firstly, I read the whole book in a day and I absolutely LOVED it.
Serena is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in a land called Chardonia. In this world, the land is ruled by Warlocks—men with magic in their blood. Women are seen as inferior to them and are little better than "tarnished"—undesirable women who did not please the men and nonmagical men who are treated as slaves.
The book starts out on Serena's birthday when she has her blood tested for magical potency. Since her blood is very potent, she is sold to a powerful Warlock named Thomas. Like Serena's father and the rest of the men in this society, Thomas treats Serena harshly, and that's putting it mildly. Anyway, the book goes on and Serena's husband dies in a battle against an Envadi barbarian. Serena, along with Thomas' other possessions are given to the Envadi Warlock. At first, Serena believes that her new husband will be more cruel to her, but as the book goes on, Serena learns to challenge societal rules, overcome childhood trauma, and learn to love others.
To say that I loved this book is putting it mildly. This book was a completely new take on witches and wizards. It also reminded me a little of The Jewel in that it had the premise of buying and selling women. I'm usually skeptical going in to books that discuss slavery, but I think the author handled the issue nicely.
Serena was a great protagonist throughout the book. She didn't whine or plainly accept her fate and she wasn't too annoying. However, I did think that she couldn't get past the fact that her new husband wasn't a barbarian even after he showed her time and time again that he would not purposely harm her.
Overall, this was a refreshing read and I can't wait to read the sequel!