Title: The House of the Stone
Author: Amy Ewing
Publisher/Year: Harper Collins 7/7/15
Length: 71 Pages
Series: The Lone City #1.5
Overview
In The Jewel, we followed Violet in her servitude under the Duchess of the Lake. Now we’ll hear Raven’s story and her time as a surrogate for the Countess of the Stone in this digital novella from Amy Ewing.
When Raven is bought at the Auction, she knows immediately that things will not go well. And when she arrives at the Countess’s palace, Raven quickly discovers that the Countess is much less interested in having a baby than experimenting with Raven’s mind and body. Raven can only hope for an escape . . . and to see Violet again, all the while reminding herself that she is Raven Stirling, and she does matter.
My Thoughts
I’m a huge fan of getting novellas that give us snippets and glimpses into what’s going in the story with other characters who are so important to what happens to the mains but are secondary themselves. We met Raven in The Jewel when they were still at Southgate and their lives were not yet completely destroyed. only marginally as they had already been taken from their families to be trained in the auguries. Regardless, from what we learned of Raven even then, she’s a strong girl who’s going to stand her ground, be a true friend and never give up. And because of where she ends up from the auction – bought by the House of the Stone, she has no choice but to hope that what she knows of herself is enough to survive.
In this novella, we come into Raven’s story as she’s going to auction – where she’s forced to be strong for Violet so that her friend isn’t so afraid. What she gets from that though is a life of horror and pain that we saw glimpses of in the Jewel. Raven’s life is horrible and it’s something that’s intentionally being done – she’s put in a cage, forced to suffer through tools and things to abuse and harm her. Ebony, the Countess and her L-i-W are masochists who take pleasure in hurting her, and the doctor there is so on board with mutilating her and getting her pregnant that there’s really no hope there
In these few chapters, we see the life slowly get sucked out of Raven, no matter how much they physically hurt her though, she stays tough, she forms a friendship with Emile who is her Lady in waiting and the few glimpses that she gets at Violet when they are out makes her hope that she can keep on.
It’s a sweet place that we go in this novella, where we get to see another surrogates perspective on things, and therefore another POV on how the royals are living their lives since it’s clear that there’s so much more going on with forming alliances and deep rooted hatred. This novella gives you a nice little boost as you get into book 2, but also one that’s nice to read if you did it like me and read it after the fact. Enjoy!