From Publishers Weekly
Bernobich lays the groundwork for a trilogy, but leaves all her plot threads untied in this fantasy debut with a Renaissance Europe feel. The flower of a wealthy mercantile family, 16-year-old Therez Zhalina hates living at home, suffering as her father and grandmother fight, her mother cringes before her father's rages, and her brother withdraws. When she discovers that her father has picked out a cruel and power-hungry man to be her husband, she panics and runs away. Her trials during her flight are perhaps the most realistic in this coming-of-age tale packed with magic and politics. Therez, now called Ilse, quickly outgrows her naΓ―vetΓ© and finds her salvation when she meets Raul Kosenmark, an exiled prince trying to save the world that rejected him. Just as she gets embroiled in Raul's intrigues and secrets and the story starts going somewhere, the book ends. Readers will be frustrated--and impatient for a sequel.
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From
Ilse Zhalina is just 15 when her wealthy father decides to marry her off to a powerful guild leader many years older than she is. Unable to change her fatherβs mind, Ilse decides to run away. She finds passage with a caravan but is robbed and forced into prostitution by the cruel driver. When she finally makes her escape, Ilse flees to the city of Tiralien, where sheβs taken in by Lord Raul Kosenmark, the wealthy owner of a pleasure house. Raul sees that sheβs nursed back to health and eventually invites her to be the assistant to his secretary. Once Ilse sees Raulβs correspondence, she realizes the pleasure house is a front for Raulβs intelligence network of noblemen and -women. Raul and his cohorts fear a war is brewing between two powerful kings and are determined to stop it. As Ilse is drawn further into the intrigue, she finds herself falling for the enigmatic Raul, despite her fears that his affections belong to another. Bernobichβs debut is a rich, compulsively readable fantasy. --Kristine Huntley