Rook by Sharon Cameron

Title: Rook
Author: Sharon Cameron
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Published Date: April 28th 2015
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Dystopia
Page Count: 450
Format: Kindle

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★.5

Goodreads Summary: 
History has a way of repeating itself. In the Sunken City that was once Paris, all who oppose the new revolution are being put to the blade. Except for those who disappear from their prison cells, a red-tipped rook feather left in their place. Is the mysterious Red Rook a savior of the innocent or a criminal?

Meanwhile, across the sea in the Commonwealth, Sophia Bellamy’s arranged marriage to the wealthy René Hasard is the last chance to save her family from ruin. But when the search for the Red Rook comes straight to her doorstep, Sophia discovers that her fiancé is not all he seems. Which is only fair, because neither is she.

As the Red Rook grows bolder and the stakes grow higher, Sophia and René find themselves locked in a tantalizing game of cat and mouse

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 My Review:

"When all that could be expected from life was feuding, war, and the struggle to survive it. Personal fulfillment just wasn't one's top priority when the children were starving or raiders were cresting the hill. But Sophia Bellamy had not been born into those dark times. She had been born into an enlightenment, an age of privilege, art, education, living in a way that her Bellamy ancestors would not have dared to dream."

May Contain Spoilers



 In this post-technology-earth destructed world everything is different. Or is it? The world seems to be repeating itself by going through the centuries of times past just with technological items falling from the sky occasionally. The time we are in during this story appears to be 17th century with the style of clothing and the little amount of "technology" being used. It takes place in the Sunken City and the Commonwealth previously know as Paris. It wouldn't be 17th century though if there wasn't some insane rulers trying to take over they're small portion of the world and using any means possible to keep the people under control.

While this story does switch perspectives it just adds so much more to the story and really shows you all sides of what's happening and how everyone involved is thinking.

Sophia Bellamy is a young lady who takes extreme risks in order to save other people. Risks that no one thinks a young lady is should be able to do or would even be capable of doing. Because of this though it makes her all the more lovable. She isn't fearless, which is so nice to see in a protagonist. She has fears and just wants to help people escape injustice. While she's doing this though she is putting her whole family's lives in peril as well as hers. If anyone finds out what she's doing they will lose it all!

René Hasard, Sophia's fiance and the person who is potentially going to help save her family from ruin. He is nothing like how you think he is in the beginning. He is such a changing character throughout the book and for a while you're going to wonder what he is going to act like next. But after awhile we start to see his true colors and what he really feels for Sophia and about the world they live in.

We also have LeBlanc who is insane there's no getting around that one. Seeing the way he thinks and what he believes the world should be like was terrifying and disgusting. He is not a villain that you can sympathize with in any way.

While there are many more characters involved including some important ones if I talked about them it would just spoil certain mysteries of the story sadly.

Every time I started to think I had it figured out who was causing, Sophia so much grief and trouble. I would end up wrong and have to start trying to figure it out again. This book has so many different twists and turns that you never get bored with it and you're always wanting to read just one more page.

There is some romance here and a slight love triangle which Sophia wanted no part of and tried to stop multiple times. The romance never became the main story line and if it was the focus for the moment there was always so much else going on that you don't mind it.


Overall I really liked/loved Rook. I kind of also wish that there was some companion novels/novellas to go along with it to show us even more of the world.