Burning Glass - Review

Burning Glass (Burning Glass, # 1)

By: Kathryn Purdie

Expected Publication: March 1st 2016 by HarperCollins

512 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--Sonya was born with the rare gift to feel what those around her feel—both physically and emotionally—a gift she’s kept hidden from the empire for seventeen long years. After a reckless mistake wipes out all the other girls with similar abilities, Sonya is hauled off to the palace and forced to serve the emperor as his sovereign Auraseer.

Tasked with sensing the intentions of would-be assassins, Sonya is under constant pressure to protect the emperor. One mistake, one small failure, will cost her own life and the lives of the few people left in the world who still trust her.

But Sonya’s power is untamed and reckless, her feelings easily usurped, and she sometimes can’t decipher when other people’s impulses end and her own begin. In a palace full of warring emotions and looming darkness, Sonya fears that the biggest danger to the empire may be herself.

As she struggles to wrangle her abilities, Sonya seeks refuge in her tenuous alliances with the volatile Emperor Valko and his idealistic younger brother, Anton, the crown prince. But when threats of revolution pit the two brothers against each other, Sonya must choose which brother to trust—and which to betray.

BURNING GLASS is debut author Kathryn Purdie’s stunning tale of dangerous magic, heart-rending romance, and the hard-won courage it takes to let go.

Sigh. Such high hopes. First off, I have no idea why this book is titled Burning Glass. I hate when that happens. I mean maybe I missed something, but I don't think so. Maybe that will be revealed as the series continues. Speaking of series, I'm not sure why this needs to be a series as things wrapped up pretty nicely I think. Anyway, let's get into it.

I really struggled with Sonya. She is so easily overcome by the feelings and emotions of others. I mean that's part of the whole conflict of this book, but it didn't endear her to me. While at the convent, Sonya is supposed to be learning how to tame and harness her abilities. I'm not sure if Sonya wasn't interested in doing so because she was just more interested in other things or if it was because she never expected to end up needing to use her abilities in the way that she does. Either way, I think she should have known that allowing other's emotions to overcome her would be extremely dangerous. Yet she never really showed any interest while at the convent to learn how to control herself. That coupled with what felt like some inconsistencies surrounding her ability made this book a little harder for me to get into and read than I would have liked.

Ever since trilogies such as The Hunger Games and Divergent, I've noticed that so many books/series start off with this alternate world or culture and before the end of the book/series the characters are trying desperately to transform their world into something very similar to ours. This is often in the form of corrupt government and equal rights. Why can't these books just have different cultures and different governments without it turning into the same as we have? I don't read about kingdoms and emperors to read about them turning into a government for the people by the people.

The romance was hard to connect to as well. I don't know if that stemmed from my struggles with Sonya herself or if the relationship just wasn't what it should have been. I didn't feel anything, and apathy is the last thing I want to feel toward the romance in my books. I want to feel all the feels. And Burning Glass left me a little cold.

Burning Glass was just okay for me. I didn't connect to the main character or the romance. And I found myself annoyed with the political aspects of the book. I'm giving Burning Glass 2.5 Stars. Have you read Burning Glass? What did you think? Let me know!