Review : Sword and Verse by Kathy Macmillan

Title : Sword and Verse
Author : Kathy MacMillan
Genre : YA fantasy
Release Date : January 19th, 2016
Publisher : HarperTeen

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Raisa was only a child when she was kidnapped and enslaved in Qilara. Forced to serve in the palace of the King, she’s endured hunger, abuse, and the harrowing fear of discovery. Everyone knows that Raisa is Arnath, but not that she is a Learned One, a part of an Arnath group educated in higher order symbols. In Qilara, this language is so fiercely protected that only the King, the Prince, and Tutors are allowed to know it. So when the current Tutor-in-training is executed for sharing the guarded language with slaves and Raisa is chosen to replace her, Raisa knows that, although she may have a privileged position among slaves, any slipup could mean death.

That would be challenging enough, but training alongside Prince Mati could be her real undoing. And when a romance blossoms between them, she’s suddenly filled with a dangerous hope for something she never before thought possible: more. Then she’s approached by the Resistance—an underground army of slaves—to help liberate the Arnath people. Joining the Resistance could mean freeing her people…but she’d also be aiding in the war against her beloved, an honorable man she knows wants to help the slaves.

Working against the one she loves—and a palace full of deadly political renegades—has some heady consequences. As Raisa struggles with what’s right, she unwittingly uncovers a secret that the Qilarites have long since buried…one that, unlocked, could bring the current world order to its knees.

And Raisa is the one holding the key.

Can you imagine a world without writing? Well, Sword and Verse is basically about that. The thing that first made me interested with this book is because it's about writing--something we all love. And though this book didn't exactly reach my expectations, it's still engaging.

Firstly, you must know that there are two races here, Qilarite--the ruler--and Arnath--the slave. The Arnath is forbidden from writing in any form, and even the Qilarite is only allowed to learn the lower order writing. Only the king, the crown prince, the tutor, and tutor-in-learning that's allowed to learn the higher order writing. The main characters. Raisa, is an Arnath that's chosen to be the next tutor. So when she's 14, she began to learn the higher order writing with the crown prince, Mati. Quite frankly, I can' really describe Raise. She's okay, I guess, though she can't seem to make up her mind? There's (obviously) some rebellions here, and since she's also in a relationship with the crown prince, she kept switching back and forth between her loyalty to Mati and to Arnath. I didn't hate her because of this, though, because if I'm in her place, I'd probably do the same.

Now, let's talk about the romance! At first, I'm not sure how I feel about Mati and Raisa since it happened too fast, though, technically they had known each other for over a year, so it's not exactly an insta-love. Also, there's a certain event in the middle of the book that kinda made me doubt that Mati and Raisa is the couple in this book. My opinion change after that certain event, and you can say that I'm shipping these two so hard! Also, it's a forbidden romance, which is full of feels (and who doesn't love forbidden romance?)

The plot itself is quite fast-paced, but there are some point when the plot became slow. And while it's not exactly original--with the rebellion and all--I still enjoyed this book. I'd recommend this one, of course, especially if you're in the mood for fantasy!