“Your attendance to the Dance of Fates is mandated. Hide and you will be found. Resist and you shall die.
It’s no surprise when Verity Kuhn receives an invitation to the annual Dance of Fates from Allemagne’s Grand Captain. But a new mandate requires all paupers to perform this year: the best saved for an elite Troupe, and the rest sold worldwide to settle their debts to the kingdom. Verity has already lost one brother to the Grand Captain, and the mandate confirms her worst fear: her attempts to hide her little brother have failed. Obeying the mandate means abandoning the only family she has left, but rebellion could cost both their lives.
When Verity learns that her other brother may still be alive, she becomes a stowaway on the Grand Captain’s own merchant ship, determined to bring him home. But in the meantime, she discovers a mysterious rebel soldier with world-tipping news. Not only does he know her brother’s whereabouts, but he is involved with a rival kingdom’s plan to invade Allemagne and topple its twisted regime, once and for all…and he wants Verity to join his quest for justice. But it’s a dangerous dance filled with traitors and deception, and their lives hang in the balance.
Trapped between generations of evil and an unknown future, the pair set out to discover the sacrifices it will take to conquer darkness, rescue those they love, and bring light to a broken kingdom.”
Series: As of now, no. A stand-alone novel.
Spiritual Content- Joshua 1:9 & Micah 6:8 at the beginning; A few Scriptures are quoted, mentioned, & referenced; Prayers & Thanking God; Talks about God, His will, & Him winning over the darkness; ’H’s are capital when referring to God; Verity accuses a side character of blaspheming God; A villain says that God isn’t in charge; Set during Christmastime; Mentions of God, Christ, His plan, obeying Him, & fighting against evil; Mentions of prayers & praying; A few mentions of the Bible, Bibles, & Bible reading; A couple mentions of being blessed; A mention of a priest;
*Note: Mentions of Saint Nicholas; A couple mentions of luck & being lucky.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘bloody’, a ‘dumb’, a ‘shut up’, and four forms of ‘stupid’; A few mentions of curses (said, not written); Some sarcasm & Eye rolling; Being grabbed and chained, Being whipped, Being choked, Being slapped, Blood/Bleeding, Passing out, & Pain (up to semi-detailed); Seeing fighting, a battle, & deaths (up to semi-detailed); Grief (for parents & another family member’s safety/health, up to semi-detailed); *Spoilers* Verity is told by her uncle that she is the reason her parents are dead and feels major grief and guilt, but is later told that her uncle actually turned in her parents for a price and girl so they gave themselves up to protect Verity from being turned in/sold *End of Spoilers*; All about & many mentions of human trafficking, children being taken away and gagged/bound, & slavery; Many mentions of deaths, murders and planned murders, executions (including of those with disabilities; including by beheading), bodies, & grief (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of wars, battles, fighting, & seeing deaths (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of weapons, gunfire, & beatings; Mentions of injuries, bruises, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of blackmail & threats; Mentions of rumors; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, drunks, & a family member who is an angry alcoholic; Mentions of an ill mother & death; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; A few mentions of suicides; A few mentions of being attacked/mugged; A few mentions of nightmares; A couple mentions of assassinations; A couple mentions of stealing; A couple mentions of eavesdropping; A mention of smoking & a pipe;
*Note: Verity’s uncle is harsh to her (verbally abusive) & she feels worthless because of it; A couple mentions of the deaths of unborn babies.
Sexual Content- A hand kiss, a hair kiss, a nose kiss, a cheek kiss, a forehead kiss, a not-detailed kiss, and a barely-above-not-detailed kiss; Some touches, embraces, hand holding, dancing, & Blushes; Verity faces the idea that she may need to sell herself to protect her little brother; Verity’s uncle says she can’t “even please the eyes that lust for any kind of woman”; A side character is fourteen and going to be married to a ruthless and perverse king after her next birthday; Many mentions of human trafficking, slavery, & both men and women (and young children and teens) being sold; Mentions of people selling their bodies (willingly or unwillingly), being raped and used, clothes being forcibly taken off, & perverted pleasures; Mentions of children and teens being taken to the captain’s quarters for “personal training” & implications of him using them for his personal satisfaction (including as payment from the royal family); Mentions of concubines/mistresses & ones being killed after the king is done with them; Mentions of guards and other dancers harming and mishandling the women; A few mentions of blushes; A couple mentions of virgin dancers & the captain being especially cruel towards girls who are untouched; A couple mentions of parents selling their daughters to erase a bad reputation; A mention of a young boy possibly being groomed; A bit of love, falling/being in love, & the emotions;
*Note: Mentions of skin-tight and skimpy clothing; A mention of nursing.
-Verity Kühn, age 16
-Ernest, age 16
1st person P.O.V. switches between them
228 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
To quote my Norwegian grandma, “oof-da”. This was definitely a grittier Christmas story, not light or fluffy at all. Verity was a strong character that was caught in between a rock and a hard place. I honestly don’t know what I would have done in her position.
I’ll be honest, I nearly DNF this one multiple times when reading because it’s such a heavy topic and I wasn’t really in the mood for such serious situations like Verity and the others are facing. However, because I know how this author does strong faith content and the Light winning against the darkness, I powered through and continued to read—and that was exactly what happened, the author showing how God can use even the darkest moments for His good, which is honestly a good reminder in the holiday season. I really liked both of our main characters and wanted to give them a hug. They’ve faced such awful things (especially him) and I hate how it’s a reality for so many around the world. The author kept out any details of what he and other victims of human trafficking face/faced, but it’s still stomach turning because of the hints of the abuse. I’m marking this as three stars personally mostly because of the epilogue, but also for the strong faith content even though it was a tougher subject matter than I usually like to read.
See y’all on Wednesday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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