Secondborn by Amy Bartol
Firstborns rule society.
Secondborns are the property of the government. Thirdborns are not tolerated.
Long live the Fates Republic.
On
Transition Day, the second child in every family is taken by the government and
forced into servitude. Roselle St. Sismode’s eighteenth birthday arrives with
harsh realizations: she’s to become a soldier for the Fate of Swords military
arm of the Republic during the bloodiest rebellion in history, and her elite
firstborn mother is happy to see her go.
Televised
since her early childhood, Roselle’s privileged upbringing has earned her the
resentment of her secondborn peers. Now her decision to spare an enemy on the
battlefield marks her as a traitor to the state.
But
Roselle finds an ally—and more—in fellow secondborn conscript Hawthorne
Trugrave. As the consequences of her actions ripple throughout the Fates
Republic, can Roselle create a destiny of her own? Or will her Fate override
everything she fights for—even love?
(releasing August 1; available as a Kindle First selection in July for Prime members)
Our 5-Star Reviews
First off, Angie and I have both loved Amy Bartol's writing and characters for quite a while. Our love started with her Premonition series and carried through with her Kricket series. She writes characters you love to hate and hate to love. She writes some of the strongest, yet flawed heroines . Her heroes are diverse and you sometimes can't help but root for the underdog. Her writing has a paranormal, other worldly bent to it, so if you like those kinds of things and haven't read Amy Bartol before, we urge you to try!
Amy Bartol is a master at creating worlds that I want to live in, despite their turmoil. While her previous two series were more of a paranormal bent (Premonition-Angels, Fairies, Gancanagh; and Kricket-Underworlds, Star-Fates, etc), Secondborn is more of a futuristic, dystopian world.
Roselle St. Sismond is secondborn in her family, and thus is destined for a life of service to the firstborns of their world. At the beginning of the story, she is set for her Transition, from being with her family, where she has been mostly pampered, to being a servant and soldier in their cause. She is thrown directly into the fray and realizes fairly quickly that she needs to make herself useful in order to survive. Roselle must fight for everything she believes in, if she hopes to have any kind of future. She meets several intriguing people along the way and develops some alliances of her own.
I don't want to go into too many details. I will say this is exactly what I expect from Bartol, and that's a good thing. She's good at writing potential love triangles, always making you root for both of them for different reasons.
I can't wait to see what happens next in the Fates, and how Roselle handles all that is likely coming her way.
Bartol sure knows how to write a heroine. I think Roselle just may be my favorite yet. She's the second born child to a ruthless, high-ranking politician. Her mother. As a second born child she's made to serve. Her mother has no intentions of taking it easy on her either. Roselle is to join the military and, as such, she has been training for it her entire life. And she's been televised doing it. She's a celebrity. I loved Roselle's confidence in her abilities. I loved how Bartol showed us those abilities. She was no easy target.
The first born children are more spoiled. They live a life of excess. But their risk is that they are easily targeted because if the first born is killed, a second born can move up. This is Roselle's dilemma. Many of her supporters would love to see her in a position of power where she can make change but Roselle loves her older brother.
With a sadistic census agent determined to destroy her and a slew of friends that would die for her, this makes for a very engrossing story. And in a similar fashion as the Kricket series, Roselle's love interest seems obvious but I have a feeling things are going to get shaken up in the next books. Who knows. But I can't wait to find out. I absolutely loved it.
Amazon Pre-order for Traitorborn (book 2) -Releasing April 17, 2018
Amazon Pre-Order Link for Rebel Born (book 3) - Releasing January 15, 2019
Amy A. Bartol is the award-winning and USA Today bestselling author of the Premonition Series, the Kricket Series, and a short story entitled The Divided. She lives in Michigan with her husband and two sons. Visit her at her website: http://www.amyabartol.com.
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