Teaser Tuesday # 148 ~ The Jewel (The Lone City #1) by Amy Ewing

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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Recently, my daughter was asked to write a book review for her Year 7 English class. The aim of the exercise was to compare a chosen book (The Jewel) with the one selected by her teacher (Boy Overboard). After reading her assignment, I thought it would make a great post, so with her permission, here it is:

Comparative Book Review

by

Melissa Phillips

The Jewel
(The Lone City #1)
by
Amy Ewing

The Jewel means wealth. The Jewel means beauty. The Jewel means royalty. But for girls like Violet, the Jewel means servitude. Not just any kind of servitude. Violet, born and raised in the Marsh, has been trained as a surrogate for the royalty—because in the Jewel the only thing more important than opulence is offspring.

Purchased at the surrogacy auction by the Duchess of the Lake and greeted with a slap to the face, Violet (now known only as #197) quickly learns of the brutal truths that lie beneath the Jewel’s glittering facade: the cruelty, backstabbing, and hidden violence that have become the royal way of life.

Violet must accept the ugly realities of her existence... and try to stay alive. But then a forbidden romance erupts between Violet and a handsome gentleman hired as a companion to the Duchess’s petulant niece. Though his presence makes life in the Jewel a bit brighter, the consequences of their illicit relationship will cost them both more than they bargained for.

Boy Overboard

by

Morris Gleitzman

Jamal loves playing football, which isn't easy if your goalie only has one leg and you keep having to dodge landmines to get your ball back. Jamal's stubborn little sister Bibi is even better at football than Jamal. But girls playing football is against the law in Afganistan. When it is discovered that Jamal's mother has been secretly running a school, the family must leave their home immediately and begin a long and dangerous journey to Australia. The children survive separation from their parents, hunger, and violent smugglers only to find that Australia isn't as welcoming as they had thought but, even though they face an uncertain future, Jamal, Bibi and their parents know that as long as they are together, that is all that matters.

The Jewel and Boy Overboard.

Two totally different books, yet still there are similarities. I read Boy Overboard because I had to, and throughout the whole thing I was just kind of, well… bored. I read The Jewel because the spine of the gorgeous cover caught my eye and I had to know what was inside.

The two of them are so different. The Jewel is a dystopian novel and Boy Overboard is based on fact. The Jewel is set in The Lone City, which is located in the middle of the ocean. Boy Overboard is in the ocean at one time but it is mainly based around Afghanistan. Afghanistan is just one big area, whereas The Lone City is divided into five circles, The Marsh, The Farm, The Smoke, The Bank and The Jewel. Another big difference between the two, is that in The Jewel there is a love interest, and in Boy Overboard the main objective is getting to Australia. That being said, in both Boy Overboard and The Jewel, one of the main aims is to survive.

While there may be differences, there are also some similarities. For example, both the main characters have rules they have to obey, they are both trying to escape the place in which the story is set, they both try to protect the people they care about, both of their lives are threatened and at the end, both of their hearts are broken. For Boy Overboard, Jamal finds out he's not in Australia. And in The Jewel, well, I wouldn't want to spoil the story, because it happens right at the end, like I mean on the last page.

So, which did I prefer? Drum roll please… and the winner is… The Jewel. It was pretty obvious. Boy Overboard is not my kind of read. It wasn't bad, it's just not something I'm interested in. The Jewel I read because I chose it. It is a dystopian novel which is my favorite genre. It started a bit slow, but once they got into The Jewel, I just couldn't put the book down. I literally read half the book in one go and finished it the next day. To me, if a book is that good, then it's definitely a book I want to read. And The Jewel is one of my favorite books. As soon as the sequel is released, I'm definitely going to read it, because I think it's going to be even better, and I just can't wait to see how the story continues.


Melissa's Rating: 4.5 out of  5 for The Jewel

And a brief tease:

“It would be easier to forget you," he says to me, "and these past few weeks we've had together. It would be easier if I could hate you. But the sad truth is, I will more than likely love you for the rest of my life.” 

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Okay, so what do you think?

If you liked my Tease, please leave a comment below.