Anathema by Megg Jenson.

Summary:

Reychel is a slave girl surrounded by magic, lies, and manipulation. Her best friend disappears in the middle of the night leaving Reychel to face her fifteenth birthday, the day her master burns his brand into the back of her bald head, alone. 

Sheltered from the outside world and without any hope for escape, can Reychel learn to believe in herself?

                                        'FORGET PROPHECY, MAKE YOUR OWN DESTINY'

  This book intrigued me; A hella rad cover? Talk of Prophets? Young adult? Yes please! But, I was actually kind of dissapointed in this book, although I could still see the attraction to it for others - perhaps pre-teens could enjoy it? Which was a shame because usually I thoroughly enjoy books of all genres for all ages.

  But, saying that, I DID enjoy this book to some extent, just not quite as much as others I've read.

  The plot-line was intriguing, although could be predictable, yet I still found myself wanting answers and wondering about things which added to the reasons why it wasn't a bust of a book for me - you know the ones? Where you just cannot read anymore and eventually have to slam it shut in frustration.

   It's quite quick paced and doesn't have many, if at all, sections that are just not needed that cause drag in the story (bookish buffering), which is a real skill this author shows as too many books I read have that issue far too often but, I still felt that the writing was a little bit wooden and felt a bit choppy in sections - but, with that in mind, perhaps a different, younger age group would see that in a completely different light? Who knows? But for me, it dragged the story down a grade.

  Again, this is just my personal opinion, maybe it was the quick to love theme that put me off enjoying this book too much, but I remember that I used to like that sort of thing when I was younger so maybe I've grown up too much (god damnit).

  That being said, it was still a good book - I know there are quite a few critisms in this review but that doesn't mean this is a 'bad book', it's quite the contrary actually! It was an enjoyable, light read and I think I may actually look out for the next installment - see where this goes. 

  *** 3/5 stars***