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meganamaral 's review for:
Secondborn
by Amy A. Bartol
WOW.
After reading the Kricket series from this author, I didn't know if I was going to be able to go through another series with Amy Bartol and the way she makes my heart break when she creates a ship and then drags it through the mud, seeing if the reader will still ship them together or ship the main character with someone else. Plus, I wasn't the biggest fan of Kricket so that didn't help.
This first book though, I didn't think Amy could pull me back in....but she did. I think she has a thing for creating fantastic dystopian societies. I literally could not put this book down. I was originally going to start another series on audible, but that one fell through with a terrible narrator and I saw that I had purchased this book about a year ago and remembered that I wanted to wait for book 2 to come out before I started this series which was recommended by an author that I beta read for. And of course I completely forgot about the book as it was buried under all the other books I was reading, but it was almost better that I found it now because I am closer to the release of the third book than I would have been back when the second book came out.
I loved the main character, Princess (kind of) and Secondborn, Roselle. In a world where Firstborns rule and fear Secondborns so they create meaningless jobs for them including lower ranks of their military (a generic dystopian setting), Roselle, on her 18th birthday is made an example of by her mother, the Queen of of Swords, one of the many nations of their world. Her mother fears that she will kill her brother and become the Firstborn of their family and overall rule all over Swords, so she decides to place Roselle in the lowest ranks of the military to hopefully have her killed. Roselle though has been trained sense birth by Dune, a famous assassin of the Queen, to always protect her family and her brother, Gabriel, the Sword's next heir. She has never questioned anything and because of the love and loyalty to her brother, the thought has never crossed her mind. But she still understands that she is a Secondborn and she must follow the rules. It isn't until her mentor Dune starts acting suspect and the Rebel group crash her transfer day and start blowing stuff up and she started to question the world and their society. That is when she meets Hawthorne, a fellow soldier, when she sees how everyone has their own form of rebelling within the system as Secondborns, that she wanted to make a total change, especially when she is not allowed to talk about the events of the rebel attack that could potentially save the Secondborns that she is starting to see as family.
I love this world and it is interesting getting to know her little Secondborn family within her barracks as well as the many different political sides revolving around her life. She learns that her mother is a part of a group of people who want Gabriel to be the heir to control him and the land of Swords which includes killing Roselle. There is also another secret society called the Rose Garden who see Roselle a better fit for the leader of Swords, who's goal is the make Roselle a Firstborn by killing her brother. Both she the smaller picture, both wanting to keep the hierarchy of Firstborns ruling. The Rebel group, we learn, are for abolishing separation by birth, creating equally between everyone.
I loved Roselle's spunk as well as her strength and courage. She doesn't think about if she will get in trouble of not by the Firstborns. She acts on what she believes to be right and just. We see that on her first field mission when she sees a defenseless rebel soldier and decides not the tag him for a death drone, but tag him with a healing one and making sure he would be found by his people. She didn't see a rebel, she saw a defenseless man caught in the middle of a war that shouldn't have involved the Secondborns. And it wasn't that he was defenseless, but the fact that her team was to find and kill all injured rebel soldiers, which was unfair and wrong in her eyes.
But there is a reason why I didn't give this story a 5 star review. There were times in this books where I got lost in detail and zone out when she was describing a room or situation and I was like, "get one with it...i want more story." I remember this happening with the Kricket Series, but this first book had a lot more of that. Not get my wrong, I LOVE when the author builds a world and adds a lot of description. Not a lot of authors do that. Amy created this world that I honestly was transported to; it was like a movie being played in my head. But sometimes....I got lost in all the description and I was waiting for the whole scene to end so I could jump back in.
Another thing I disliked about this book was the insta-love. I mean sometimes I enjoy an insta-love story, moreso than this other book I recently read and you would tell they liked one another, but they just kept pushing one another way and I was getting extremely frustrated. I prefer insta-love other than the alternative. But this was literally insta-love. I understand that Hawthorne grew up watching Roselle and fell in love with the person she was on tv, and then getting to know her in person, he didn't think she could be a better different version while being the same. He thought he knew her. And it was honestly weird for me as a reader where it was so obvious that he was in love with her the moment he saw her. He was not subtle whatsoever. You are lucky that Roselle has never had a boyfriend or anything because she might have been oblivious...but everyone else isn't. But what I was most "wtf" about was the whole shower scene when Hawthorne is like, "I love you, I've always loved you" after a day or two of reconnecting at the base, and instead of being like...wait...what...she is like...cool...let's make out naked in the shower. Like hold the phone. You do you girl...but damn. Then Amy Bartol had to pull a classic move and separate them both and make Hawthrone seem like a huge asshole because he didn't reach out to Roselle, and the one time she decides to sneak out and surprise him, she finds him happy in his new life surrounded by Firstborns and looking cozy with another woman. Classic Amy. Broke my heart. Broke Roselle's heart. But it gave her the push to continue with her plans, which ultimately lead her to the middle of one the rebel's camps and reunites her with the rebel soldier she saved. And I am not going to lie, as much as I love Hawthorne and I knew deep down it was going to be this whole misunderstanding and he was actually protecting her by not contacting her and trying to get information internally to save her (total Noah and Aly from The Notebook vibes), I know Amy writes a good love triangle and I actually started to like this rebel soldier in the few chapters we had with him. Regan...Rekan...something like that. Not only did he come to her rescue, but he nursed her back to as much heath as she could in a few days. I think one of my favorite things about him was how similar they are and how they were both trained by mentors who are actually brothers. They have this connection because they are similar. I see total Romeo and Juliet vibes. Also, just learning some of his backstory (I loved his upfront honesty with her and their cute little inside jokes) from him and then getting a little backstory from Maggie, his Secondborn housekeeper. It was honestly everything when she told her that when they found him and brought him back, they thought he was going insane when he locked himself in his room and would have nightmares where he would call out for Roselle. Maggie told her that her Firtsborn master was actually lost after the death of his younger brother and lost all hope in humanity, but when Roselle not only spared him but saved him and treated him like a human being, he came back a different person. He saw hope again in people.
I honestly hope that there might be a love triangle, which is something I NEVER SAY because we all know what happened in the Kricket series and how heartbroken I was in that love triangle. As much as I love Hawthorne...I would love to see Regan/Rekan a lot more in book two. I definitely could see how the rebel soldier might represent total change and equality between everyone while Hawthrone will be more of a Rose Garden supporter and want Roselle to rule like the rebels, but he wants the system to stay in place. I see Roselle having to make a decision on what she truly believes and if Hawthrone will stand in her way or support her. I also see Roselle wanting to go a different path, wanting to find a way for peace and equality without killing anyone, including her brother...who might be a little crazy from the drugs.
After reading the Kricket series from this author, I didn't know if I was going to be able to go through another series with Amy Bartol and the way she makes my heart break when she creates a ship and then drags it through the mud, seeing if the reader will still ship them together or ship the main character with someone else. Plus, I wasn't the biggest fan of Kricket so that didn't help.
This first book though, I didn't think Amy could pull me back in....but she did. I think she has a thing for creating fantastic dystopian societies. I literally could not put this book down. I was originally going to start another series on audible, but that one fell through with a terrible narrator and I saw that I had purchased this book about a year ago and remembered that I wanted to wait for book 2 to come out before I started this series which was recommended by an author that I beta read for. And of course I completely forgot about the book as it was buried under all the other books I was reading, but it was almost better that I found it now because I am closer to the release of the third book than I would have been back when the second book came out.
I loved the main character, Princess (kind of) and Secondborn, Roselle. In a world where Firstborns rule and fear Secondborns so they create meaningless jobs for them including lower ranks of their military (a generic dystopian setting), Roselle, on her 18th birthday is made an example of by her mother, the Queen of of Swords, one of the many nations of their world. Her mother fears that she will kill her brother and become the Firstborn of their family and overall rule all over Swords, so she decides to place Roselle in the lowest ranks of the military to hopefully have her killed. Roselle though has been trained sense birth by Dune, a famous assassin of the Queen, to always protect her family and her brother, Gabriel, the Sword's next heir. She has never questioned anything and because of the love and loyalty to her brother, the thought has never crossed her mind. But she still understands that she is a Secondborn and she must follow the rules. It isn't until her mentor Dune starts acting suspect and the Rebel group crash her transfer day and start blowing stuff up and she started to question the world and their society. That is when she meets Hawthorne, a fellow soldier, when she sees how everyone has their own form of rebelling within the system as Secondborns, that she wanted to make a total change, especially when she is not allowed to talk about the events of the rebel attack that could potentially save the Secondborns that she is starting to see as family.
I love this world and it is interesting getting to know her little Secondborn family within her barracks as well as the many different political sides revolving around her life. She learns that her mother is a part of a group of people who want Gabriel to be the heir to control him and the land of Swords which includes killing Roselle. There is also another secret society called the Rose Garden who see Roselle a better fit for the leader of Swords, who's goal is the make Roselle a Firstborn by killing her brother. Both she the smaller picture, both wanting to keep the hierarchy of Firstborns ruling. The Rebel group, we learn, are for abolishing separation by birth, creating equally between everyone.
I loved Roselle's spunk as well as her strength and courage. She doesn't think about if she will get in trouble of not by the Firstborns. She acts on what she believes to be right and just. We see that on her first field mission when she sees a defenseless rebel soldier and decides not the tag him for a death drone, but tag him with a healing one and making sure he would be found by his people. She didn't see a rebel, she saw a defenseless man caught in the middle of a war that shouldn't have involved the Secondborns. And it wasn't that he was defenseless, but the fact that her team was to find and kill all injured rebel soldiers, which was unfair and wrong in her eyes.
But there is a reason why I didn't give this story a 5 star review. There were times in this books where I got lost in detail and zone out when she was describing a room or situation and I was like, "get one with it...i want more story." I remember this happening with the Kricket Series, but this first book had a lot more of that. Not get my wrong, I LOVE when the author builds a world and adds a lot of description. Not a lot of authors do that. Amy created this world that I honestly was transported to; it was like a movie being played in my head. But sometimes....I got lost in all the description and I was waiting for the whole scene to end so I could jump back in.
Another thing I disliked about this book was the insta-love. I mean sometimes I enjoy an insta-love story, moreso than this other book I recently read and you would tell they liked one another, but they just kept pushing one another way and I was getting extremely frustrated. I prefer insta-love other than the alternative. But this was literally insta-love. I understand that Hawthorne grew up watching Roselle and fell in love with the person she was on tv, and then getting to know her in person, he didn't think she could be a better different version while being the same. He thought he knew her. And it was honestly weird for me as a reader where it was so obvious that he was in love with her the moment he saw her. He was not subtle whatsoever. You are lucky that Roselle has never had a boyfriend or anything because she might have been oblivious...but everyone else isn't. But what I was most "wtf" about was the whole shower scene when Hawthorne is like, "I love you, I've always loved you" after a day or two of reconnecting at the base, and instead of being like...wait...what...she is like...cool...let's make out naked in the shower. Like hold the phone. You do you girl...but damn. Then Amy Bartol had to pull a classic move and separate them both and make Hawthrone seem like a huge asshole because he didn't reach out to Roselle, and the one time she decides to sneak out and surprise him, she finds him happy in his new life surrounded by Firstborns and looking cozy with another woman. Classic Amy. Broke my heart. Broke Roselle's heart. But it gave her the push to continue with her plans, which ultimately lead her to the middle of one the rebel's camps and reunites her with the rebel soldier she saved. And I am not going to lie, as much as I love Hawthorne and I knew deep down it was going to be this whole misunderstanding and he was actually protecting her by not contacting her and trying to get information internally to save her (total Noah and Aly from The Notebook vibes), I know Amy writes a good love triangle and I actually started to like this rebel soldier in the few chapters we had with him. Regan...Rekan...something like that. Not only did he come to her rescue, but he nursed her back to as much heath as she could in a few days. I think one of my favorite things about him was how similar they are and how they were both trained by mentors who are actually brothers. They have this connection because they are similar. I see total Romeo and Juliet vibes. Also, just learning some of his backstory (I loved his upfront honesty with her and their cute little inside jokes) from him and then getting a little backstory from Maggie, his Secondborn housekeeper. It was honestly everything when she told her that when they found him and brought him back, they thought he was going insane when he locked himself in his room and would have nightmares where he would call out for Roselle. Maggie told her that her Firtsborn master was actually lost after the death of his younger brother and lost all hope in humanity, but when Roselle not only spared him but saved him and treated him like a human being, he came back a different person. He saw hope again in people.
I honestly hope that there might be a love triangle, which is something I NEVER SAY because we all know what happened in the Kricket series and how heartbroken I was in that love triangle. As much as I love Hawthorne...I would love to see Regan/Rekan a lot more in book two. I definitely could see how the rebel soldier might represent total change and equality between everyone while Hawthrone will be more of a Rose Garden supporter and want Roselle to rule like the rebels, but he wants the system to stay in place. I see Roselle having to make a decision on what she truly believes and if Hawthrone will stand in her way or support her. I also see Roselle wanting to go a different path, wanting to find a way for peace and equality without killing anyone, including her brother...who might be a little crazy from the drugs.