Legacy by Cayla Kluver

Summary Provided by Goodreads:

 The first boy disappeared on the day of his birth, on a night when the pale yellow moon of the nighttime sky turned red and bathed the heavens in the ghastly color of blood, on the same night the Kingdom of Cokyri abruptly ceased its merciless attack.

Across the land of Hytanica, under the shadow of the crimson moon, infant boys continued to vanish. Not until the blood had faded from the sky did the disappearances stop and the bodies of the murdered infants were found outside the gates of the city, a final word from the greatest enemy Hytanica had ever known. For the next sixteen years, peace reigned, but one mystery remained unsolved. The Cokyrians had abducted forty-nine newborns, but returned only forty-eight bodies.

Now, as seventeen-year-old Princess Alera of Hytanica is besieged from all sides by suitors vying for the Throne, a teenage Cokyrian boy, Narian, is encountered within the walls of her Kingdom, a boy who will show Alera a world where women serve a purpose and not just a husband. As Narian helps Alera find her voice, she struggles against an arranged marriage that will shatter the life she has scarcely begun to live. And when Narian's shocking past is uncovered, and war with Cokyri looms once more, he must fight to defy a fate ordained at his birth.

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed the story of Legacy. I started it Friday afternoon and was finished by Saturday. I thought the book was fast paced and where there were some faults in the story, overall I thought it was really good.

In the land of Hytanica, women are seen as second class citizens. Their fathers or husbands completely control them. Princess Alera has only a few months to choose a husband that will become King of Hytanica. If she is not able to find one, her father, the King, will choose one he deems best to fit the role as King. Alera knows how important this decision is, not only for her, but for the future of her Kingdom.

Hytanica has a long and brutal past with the Kingdom of Cokyri, and while there was peace between the two lands for the past years 16 years, things are starting to change and war is looming between the two Kingdoms once again. The people of Cokyri are the complete opposite of the people of Hytanica. In Cokyri, women are more important and are the rulers, black magic is used, and they have weapons and fighting skills that do not even come close to what is seen in Hytanica.

I really only have one issue with this book and that was with the characters. I understand that Alera grew up in a place where women are seen as weak. There never was any reason for her to be strong, but at the same time, I found her very immature. What really made me lose respect for her was when she told her father things about her bodyguard, London, someone who has been there for her and protected her for the past 16 years of her life, because all of a sudden she did not trust him because of one incident she didn’t know anything about. I don’t want to give anything away, but I felt that she should have handled the situation differently. Maybe then, I would have respected her. Alera did grow a lot throughout the story, which I really liked. She started to take a little bit more control over her own life. There was also the character of Narian. I was really disappointed with the development of his character. What I mean by this is that there was no development of his character. Every time I read a scene with him, I thought this is where we will learn about his past and get to know who he really is, and every time I was wrong. This frustrated me to no end.

Other then that, I liked Legacy. I wasn’t that surprised with where the story was going, but it didn’t make me like it any less. I am excited to read the second book of the series, Allegiance and I can’t wait to learn more about Narian and how the choices Alera made in Legacy will affect her. At first, I wasn’t sure how a second book would fit. But there are so many things that were alluded to in Legacy that I can’t wait to find out about, especially regarding London and his past with the Cokyri Kingdom.

In the egalley version that I read, there were maps in the beginning of the book. For those of you who are interested, I found color copies of those maps at amazon.com. I love when books have maps and pictures that go along with the story!