Reviewed: August 20th, 2023
Released: November 28th, 2018
Genre: Dystopian Fantasy
In the Valta, no matter what month you were born, everyone is assigned the same birthday. November 1st. It’s the anniversary of the day when the government declared war on the Eastern Order.
The day you turn seventeen, the Recruiters come to take you away. And no one ever hears from you again.
It’s October 31st. Today, Kress is sixteen years old.
Tomorrow, she’ll be taken.
The good news? So will her best friend Cardyn, and Brohn, the handsome, enigmatic boy she’s avoided all her life.
The bad news?
Recruitment isn’t what any of them expected.
Weeks of training await. Military and psychological tests, escape rooms, hand-to-hand combat. The Recruits are told they’re the key to winning the war. But with each day that passes, things begin to make less sense.
If only Kress had been able to bring her trained raven, Render, with her.
If only none of them had ever had to come to this place.
Helen’s thoughts: 5/5
In Valta there are few adults left after devasting attacks. The kids have had to organise themselves if they wanted to survive. They have learnt to be self-sufficent, even in a world that offers them nothing. Once they reach seventeen they are ‘recruited’. Swapping one prison for another.
With little choice but to obey, we follow Kress and her cohort though their intensive training, and you wonder along with the recruits what’s the purpose other than to brainwash and control them a little bit more.
The connection between Kress and her raven is lovely, and the only piece of ‘light’ in this controlling world. Brohn, Cardyn and the rest of the cohort are beautifully captured, each having their redeeming qualities.
A really well written, thoughtful book, investigating how loyalty, honesty and belief impact decisons and behaviour. Kress and her cohort learnt how to survive the hard way. They are a tight unit, a conspiracy. The question is, can they help each other survive the training and whatever comes after?
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If you enjoy fantasy books then you will love my epic fantasy Sentinal series or the Romantic Fantasy SoulMist series. As a new threat against Remargaren is discovered, only one man can wake the ancient guards who can protect them, only he doesn’t know how. Start the adventure and stay for the journey. Sign up to my newsletter and download a free novella called Sentinals Stirring and get notified when my next books are published.
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