You Will Marry Him - Lesley Barber

Legacy
The Legacy Trilogy, Book 1

Author: Cayla Kluver
Pages: 488
ARC Acquired from: HarlequinTEEN via NetGalley

Brief Summary:
Princess Alera has just turned seventeen, which means that over the course of the next year, she must choose a suitable man to be her husband and the future king. Unfortunately, her dad's qualifications are such that the only acceptable man is the vain, egotistical jerk Lord Steldor. Alera knows she cannot be happy with him, but does not know how to rectify the situation, especially since she really wants to be queen (actually, she would like to rule herself, but that not being allowed, she'll settle for this), thus making abdicating in favor of her younger sister impossible. Even worse, she has finally met a boy she finds intriguing, but there is no way her father would ever approve. What's a princess to do?

Review:
From the cover, I thought this was going to be historical fiction of some sort, maybe like The Luxe. I was wrong, but this was definitely better. Fantasy is pretty much always acceptable. Legacy reminded me of maybe Tamora Pierce (without the women being epic warriors part) with a little bit of Diana Peterfreund, in the way that Kluver's completely willing to make her characters suffer. Everything that happens is not rosy and sunshiney. Be warned.

My only complaint about the book is that, for much of it, Alera mentions how forthright and outspoken she is, but then, whenever faced with her father or Lord Steldor, she proceeds to say a big nothing. Honey, you're not that outspoken, are you? She got into her stride in the middle of the book, a bit, but was still not what I, an outspoken girl, would consider particularly outspoken. To be fair, she does live in a society where women are property.

About that...I hate this country. I don't know that it would be such a bad thing if Cokyri took them over or if they merged. Their country is so patriarchal like whoa. Women have pretty much no rights; their husband can do anything he wants to them. Argh! I imagine this will change in the future books; goodness, I hope so!

Anyway, I just ate this up; it was so good and absorbing. Why do I not have both sequels RIGHT NOW. I want them so much! You cannot just leave me at that ending. Holy cliffhanger, Batman!