Meet Tierney, unconventional and outrageous, a young woman with a mind of her own who finds herself betrothed to her best friend, Michael. She grew up with Michael. They spent so many hours together that they knew what each was thinking. But Michael didn't realize that she viewed him as a friend not a lover. He, however, was always in love with her.
Presented with a veil which represents his proposal, she and others spend a year in a special camp to lose their "magic". What none of them know is that there is no magic, only a well with water that poisons them and men called poachers who harvest naive young women who stray from the camp for their skin, blood and body parts. It's based on a secret kept by the men of the community who it for healing those in the community. When Tierney discovers the secret she is determined to change it all.
Presented with a veil which represents his proposal, she and others spend a year in a special camp to lose their "magic". What none of them know is that there is no magic, only a well with water that poisons them and men called poachers who harvest naive young women who stray from the camp for their skin, blood and body parts. It's based on a secret kept by the men of the community who it for healing those in the community. When Tierney discovers the secret she is determined to change it all.
Tierney James is not like the other girls her age. She is a loner and doesn't really fit in. So when she is sent to her grace year to rid herself of her magic which according to the men in her community all women have, she finds a strange and foreign world where nothing is as it seems. She is one of the lucky few because her father taught her some life skills that make survival alittle less deadly for her than the other girls, but sometimes the most deadly thing isnt the wild its the other girls around her. Tierney spends her grace year trying to survive and help the other girls to survive. Things turn Topsy turvy and soon she finds herself in a deadly game of cat and mouse. This book had me crying so many times. I went through a whirlwind of emotions, from happy to sad to completely terrified. But I couldn't put this book down. I would stay up way too late reading and be exhausted at work the next day but it was totally worth it for that extra chapter I got to read. Overall I would recommend this book to everyone. It is not a book that falls in one category but multiple categories and has something for everyone.
Wow! This book is fantastic. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. Tierney is girl on the cusp of womanhood, she goes on her Grace Year and returns a stronger woman, ready to face the County. I wasn't crazy about the "Lord of the Flies" aspect but it really shows how women can work against each other. Thankfully, the other Grace Year Girls see some good changes too. I could see this story continuing, maybe because I didn't want it to end.
