Cats in Heat - The Honorary Title

Revealing Eden
Save the Pearls, Book 1

Author: Victoria Foyt
Pages: 243
ARC Acquired from: Sand Dollar Press, Inc.

Brief Summary:
In a futuristic world where mankind has gone underground after they destroyed the surface of the earth with radiation, those with lots of melanin are the cream of the crop, because they are better able to resist The Heat, a disease that kills many. Albinos are killed and Pearls, white-skinned people, are thrown above to succumb to The Heat if they do not mate by 18 for girls or 24 for boys. Eden, a Pearl, is 17 and needs to choose a mate soon, however, she is unwilling to settle for another Pearl, dooming her child to a lifetime of the prejudice she has had to suffer. Instead, her only hope is Jamal, who has been flirting with her for ages. Unfortunately, she finds out he was only using her is kidnapped, along with her scientist father, by her boss, Ronson Bramford, one of the richest and most powerful Coals, black-skinned people, in the world. Oh yeah, and her dad just turned Bramford partially into a jaguar. He's a jaguar man.

Review:
This was a seriously weird book. Like way weird. The main plot line is, in fact, about a jaguar man. This is not a joke. At least it's not about were-panthers right. Although he kind of is a were-jaguar, only it wasn't an inborn power; it was science. But still...

Moving on, the reason I chose to read this was because it is a dystopia. Gotta read 'em all. What intrigued me about this one was the power reversal that happened at some point. Old white men no longer control the economy or politics. Now, young black men are the most powerful and desired. Unfortunately, whoever is in power, they are assholes to everyone else. To avoid being treated too harshly, the Pearls have to paint their skin and hair black.

What really weirded me out about this novel was the romance aspect. To begin with, Eden hates Bramford and has no real interest in him. She thinks he's vaguely attractive, but mostly just a jerk. And you should probably stop reading now if you don't want spoilers. I don't think they are very surprising plot-wise, but just saying.

Okay, so then Bramford gets transformed into a jaguar man. He's still on his hind legs like a human, but he has a thin coating of black fur, long black hair (he was bald before) and a vaguely feline face. As soon as this happens, Eden wants him like none other. She begins panting after him now that he is not wholly human. She is so drawn to him that she cannot think about anything else when he's there; when he's not nearby, she insults him and continues to think he's the biggest douchebag ever. Creepy!

Overall, Revealing Eden reads like a romance novel. However, the themes of racism and what it does to people are interesting. This wasn't a bad read, just a strange one.

Rating: 1.5/5

"That I'm filling in the empty spaces
Where you left your mark
Take two steps back from all of this and
Remember what you started with
It was nothing at all"