At great risk to herself, previous substitutions have not gone well, Nor agrees to take Zaide’s place and armed with stain to hide her scar, she travels to Ilara taking on the persona of Zaide. Plans go astray however, when shortly before Zaide is due to leave she suffers an accident that makes it impossible for her to go. When the village elders choose Zaide the twins’ mother is ecstatic, all her hard work protecting Zaide’s beauty has paid off and soon Zaide will be leaving to marry the Crown Prince of Ilara, even though this means they will never have contact again. Nor and Zaide have always been the front runners for the title of most beautiful, although Alys is also a front runner, her beauty marred by a snagtooth, but a childhood accident which left a small scar of Nor’s cheek has effectively ruled her out of the competition. For Varenia’s maidens the chance to be the chosen one, redeemed from a life of diving for oysters in the hope of finding the beautiful pink pearls so sought after by the Ilaran peoples, is a dream worth competing for. Varenia’s people are forbidden on pain of death from setting foot on Ilaran land, yet for years the most beautiful maiden of each generation from Varenia has been sent to the Kingdom of Ilara to marry the prince and become Ilara’s queen. The kingdom of Ilara rules Varenia with an iron fist, determining the price they are paid for the beautiful pink pearls the Varenian people risk their lives to source, and controlling, for any real or perceived slight, whether the market traders will supply the fresh water the Varenian’s need to survive.
The story is based around identical twins Nor and Zaide, whose names mean coral and pearl, inhabitants of the ocean based village of Varenia. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it to young lovers of fantasy, those who enjoyed the Harry Potter series and are looking for something a little more adult, and those who have been fantasy fans for many years and are looking for a well written but “easy” fantasy read. Its genre is classified as YA, Fantasy and it fits this genre perfectly.
Crown of Coral and Pearl is the debut published novel by Mara Rutherford.
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