Review: "You Are Mine"

You Are Mine by Janeal Falor

Serena knows a few simple things. She will always be owned by a warlock. She will never have freedom. She will always do what her warlock wishes, regardless of how inane, frivolous, or cruel it is. And if she doesn’t follow the rules, she will be tarnished. Spelled to be bald, inked, and barren for the rest of her life—worth less than the shadow she casts.
Then her ownership is won by a barbarian from another country. With the uncertainty that comes from belonging to a new warlock, Serena questions if being tarnished is really worse than being owned by a barbarian, and tempts fate by breaking the rules. When he looks the other way instead of punishing her, she discovers a new world. The more she ventures into the forbidden, the more she learns of love and a freedom just out of reach. Serena longs for both. But in a society where women are only ever property, hoping for more could be deadly.

Rating

*Copy provided by the author in exchange for honest review*

Thanks so much to Janeal Falor for giving me the chance to read the book. 

This was the kind of book where you could just completely lose yourself within the world. It was so well created with the details and the characters. 

Serena is 17 years old and lives in a world where women live under a certain said of rules, rules that come out of the book, the only book they can read, the Women's canon. 

When Serena comes of age her blood is tested for magic and upon learning how much magic is in her blood she is sold to the highest bidder. Serena lives in a family of 14 girls where she is the oldest and feel like she has to protect the others, something she has been doing for years, taking the punishments for them to protect them from father. However when she's sold she's both eager and scared to leave home. 

In Serena's world, men have all the power. They have magic while the women are nothing to them but a way to get children and get more powerful depending on the magic in their blood. 

Since Serena has a lot of magic in her blood it isn't long before she's sold and swept off to meet her future husband. 

Everything is turned around when her finacee is killed in the tournament by Zada from Envadi- a land known to be barbaric. Serena's ownership and everything else her finacee owned goes to the Envadi. Now Serena's future is even more unclear than it was before. 

I simply loved the plot with this book. The magic, the dresses- however even though the whole Women being owned and all is not exactly something that's worth cheering for, it fit the book and I liked the way it played out in the end. It was a way for the maincharacter to show her true character and you get to see just how strong she is even with the fear of being punished and that gave you something to cheer for. Cheer for her and hope that somehow she gets out of this. 

Serena as a character were really strong. She's scared, which I can't blame her for after so many years of abuse, she has spent all that time protecting her sisters from their father and taking punishment for them so when she gets sold she's also determined to make her own way and do what she can to do, to do things her way. She manages really well with it all despite being first introduced to a man very like her father and then suddenly being transferred to another who her people know as a barbarian. Luckily Zade, her owner, is completely different from the men she's usually around. Even though he's a man of few words I instantly liked him exactly because I knew he was not like the others. 

Serena's sister, Cynthia, who were with her through it all I really liked and it's obvious that she really looks up to her sister and she's also smart enough to know exactly what Serena has been doing all those years with taking the fault and sparing them from punishment. 

Katherine were also one of my favorites and one that really interested me as to where she was from and what happened to her etc. 

I would say that this books offers a lot of people to hate like Serena's father, at times her mother, but on the other hand can't blame the mother because she hasn't known any different. Also there's the other councilmen, some of them who are just like Serena's father. 

Overall a great book with a interesting storyline about a girl fighting to bend the rules and survive, along with magic set in a well created world and wonderfully written.

"You must think something beyond that, woman. Don't my spells impress you? My new title make you yearn for when you'll be my wife? I even have a new house. Have you ever been to Chancellor Jacob's manor?"-Thomas. 

This just really shows how it is there and how the "normal" man thinks within this universe. 

This one is as big as one floor at Father's house, smelling of old paper. Shelves cover the walls, floor to ceiling, books filling them. I never knew so many books excisted. 

I couldn't help but think of the libary from Beauty and the Beast so of course that's exactly what I imagined with this libary. 

Still pretending she's not speaking, I head out the door. For the first time in my life, I will do something wholly by myself. -Serena

"What I'd really like freedom from is my life." Did I really blurt that out? Surprisingly I find myself meaning it, but still. To say it out loud? Is freedom even an option. -Serena

About the author:

Amazon bestselling author Janeal Falor lives in Utah with her husband and three children. In her non-writing time she teaches her kids to make silly faces, cooks whatever strikes her fancy, and attempts to cultivate a garden even when half the things she plants die. When it's time for a break she can be found taking a scenic drive with her family or drinking hot chocolate.

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