Review of The White Rose

The White Rose (The Lone City #2)

Author: Amy Ewing

Publisher: HarperTeen

Format: HC

ISBN: 978-0-06-223581-7

Summary

Violet is on the run. After the Duchess of the Lake catches Violet with Ash, the hired companion at the Palace of the Lake, Violet has no choice but to escape the Jewel or face certain death. So along with Ash and her best friend, Raven, Violet runs away from her unbearable life of servitude.

But no one said leaving the Jewel would be easy. As they make their way through the circles of the Lone City, Regimentals track their every move, and the trio barely manages to make it out unscathed and into the safe haven they were promised—a mysterious house in the Farm.

But there’s a rebellion brewing, and Violet has found herself in the middle of it. Alongside a new ally, Violet discovers her Auguries are much more powerful than she ever imagined. But is she strong enough to rise up against the Jewel and everything she has ever known?

The White Rose is a raw, captivating sequel to The Jewel that fans won’t be able to put down until the final shocking moments. 

Review

After the crash and burn ending to The Jewel, I did not have high hopes for The White Rose, but after reading it all in one sitting, I was quite mistaken. With the resemblance The Jewel bears to the Selection series, I expected the series to continue on in the vapid fancy dresses and luxury obsessed fashion (no pun intended) of the first book, while largely ignoring the underlying—and much more fascinating—political issues. The White Rose was anything but glamorous. 

With Violet and Ash discovered, they find Raven and with the help of Lucien and Garnet escape the Jewel. Now fugitives, they cannot be seen. The movement Lucien heads, as the three fugitives soon learn, is much more extensive than they originally thought. Aided by a secret organization called the Black Key, Violet with her perfect score on her growth augury is the one who has the potential to bring down the royalty. After reading The Jewel where everyone just accepts the evils the royalty commit, I was quite pleased to see that there is now a rebellion brewing, and Violet is in the thick of it. She is finally becoming the interesting, well-developed character she is capable of being.

Violet soon learns that the auguries are not what she thought they were. Color. Shape. Growth. They aren’t real. The real power comes from somewhere else and it is far more powerful than anyone realizes. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but suffice to say, the new information regarding the auguries goes a long way to explaining many of the questions I had from the first book. 

Now free of the Jewel, Violet and Raven must figure out how to use their powers and bring down the Jewel in a fight that will require the unification everyone the Jewel has wronged to win. With the help of Sil, a surrogate who escaped the Jewel decades previously, Violet begins to understand her true powers and she learns that the evils committed by the royalty extend far beyond exploiting the people and keeping them destitute. The Lone City is not all that it appears, and Violet knows she must fight the royalty not just because they are tyrants but to restore the island to its former glory.

The book ends with a massive cliff hanger—once again I won’t be giving anything away, but I will totally be reading the next book.  The writing style is once again compelling and easy to read, and it drew me in almost as much as the storyline.  Thankfully, the romance was toned down: there were fewer sappy romance scenes in this book, but the ones that did make it in were even more vomit inducing than the ones in the previous book. There is more Garnet, and I love him. His bad boy, rebel personality is charming, and we get to explore deeper facets of his character. Not to mention I totally ship Garnet/Violet more than Ash/Violet. How does she manage to choose the boring, underdeveloped guy anyways?

As much as I liked this book, there were still some issues I had with it. The naming conventions are still ridiculous. Ash is still a completely un-swoon-worthy love interest. That guy is boring and he does not have much of a discernible personality, but we are briefly introduced to his family, which helped him become a little less flat. 

Parts of the book were a bit rushed. It took Sil and Lucien’s sister a long time to unleash and discover their powers, and I feel Violet found hers too easily. A large part of the story for me is the struggle, and Violet does not struggle nearly enough. Sure it is Raven’s near death that motivated her to accept the power for what it was, but I still feel that part of the book was rushed. When Violet taught other surrogates how to use their powers and not the auguries, they learned even quicker still with no struggle whatsoever. That is just too convenient to be believable. That type of power should have taken a much greater struggle to acquire. And, surprise surprise, Ash, a companion, is also a trained fighter for some reason. Let me just say deus ex machina is not something I enjoy reading in books and it comes across as quite clumsy. Amy Ewing has certainly learned quite a bit about writing since her last book, but she still has a way to go. 

Regardless, I loved this book and I would highly recommend giving it a quick read. 

Cover: 5/5

Writing style: 4/5

Characters/character development: 4/5

Plot: 3/5

Overall: 4.1/5