Heart of Betrayal by Mary. E. Pearson

The Heart of Betrayal picks up exactly where the first novel, Kiss of Deception, left off. Princess Arabella Celestine Idris Jezelia known as Lia and Rafe are prisoners of Venda's Assassin, Kaden,  who is taking them to the barbarian kingdom of Venda.  Lia is struggling to cope with her brother Walther's death at the hands of the Vendans who massacred his entire patrol. Kaden has disobeyed his Komizar's orders to kill her and instead is bringing her back alive.

Taken to the seat of power known as Sanctum Hall, Lia meets the Legion of Governors and the Komizar, a man not much older than her brother Walther. Speaking in Lia's native Morrighese, he treats her with derision. Kaden tells the Komizar that he spared Lia's life because she has "the gift" and could be of use to them. To intimidate Lia, the Komizar singles out Wather's baldrick from the spoils collected from Lia's brother's patrol and chooses it for himself.

Lia is placed in a room with Prince Jaxon Tyrus Rafferty, whom Lia knew as a farmer named Rafe in Terravin and whom she fell in love with. When Lia fled from her arranged marriage to Prince Jaxon in Morrighan, he pursued her because she was a political embarrassment to him and because she aroused his curiosity. But now he loves her and she him. Rafe tells Lia that help is on the way in the form of four of his best men. Lia is unconvinced that four men will be able to help them and warns Rafe to guard his words carefully as the Komizar does not miss a thing. Afraid that he has lost her love, Rafe tries to convince Lia that he will redeem himself. "I deceived you. I'm not the farmer I claimed to be, but I hope I can make you fall in love with me again, this time as a prince, one day at a time. We've had a terrible start -- it doesn't mean we can't have a better ending."

Immediately the Komizar sets out to humiliate Lia by having her wear a cloth sack that barely covers her and parades her through the Sanctum. Lia and Rafe are brought to see the Komizar and Kaden in front of the governors and citizens of Venda. The Komizar concedes Lia may have value, but wonders about Rafe. To prevent his execution, Rafe tells the Komizar that he is an Emissary for Prince Jaxon, sent to determine if Lia really fled from her wedding or if it was a planned retaliation. Lia's marriage to Prince Jaxon was to create an alliance between Morrighan and Dalbreck. To ascertain if Rafe is telling the truth, the Komizar calls in Griz who has seen Prince Jaxon and his court in Dalbreck. Griz recognizes Rafe as Prince Jaxon but does not reveal him to the Komizar. Rafe falsely informs the Komizar that the King of Dalbreck will die soon and that the kingship will pass to Prince Jaxon who is seeking an alliance with Venda. Prince Jaxon will allow Venda to have all of Morrighan except for a port. Rafe tells the Komizar that once the King is dead, the Prince Jaxon will meet with him in a neutral area in the Cam Lanteux. The Komizar is skeptical and tells both Lia and Rafe that if Rafe has lied he will be sent back to Morrighan in pieces.

Meanwhile Pauline and Gwyneth are on their way to Civica in Morrighan to see the Viceregent. Pauline hopes the Viceregent will tell the King in a way that will help Lia. However, Gwyneth sends a note without Pauline's knowledge to the Chancellor requesting a meeting. When Pauline learns of this she is furious because the Chancellor hates Lia, but Gwyneth tells her that everything must pass through the Chancellor's office first. If Pauline went straight to the King and he refuses her, they have no other options. When Gwyneth finally meets the Chancellor she tells him that Princess Arabella has been abducted by the Vendans. The Chancellor's response is one of disbelief but he promises to speak with the king and queen. To Gwyneth and Pauline's dismay, Lia's parents, the King and Queen of Morrighan do not intend to rescue her and are now more concerned about Prince Walther who has disappeared. They do not know he has been murdered by Kaden and his Vendan soldiers.

When Lia attempts to drive a wedge between the Komizar and Kaden, he warns her that if she kills him, she will be the next Komizar, just as he did when he was eighteen. He tells her that the bond between him and Kaden has many years as he rescued Kaden who was starving on the street. Calanthra, a one eyed  woman who has been assigned to care for Lia, escorts her to the Sanctum Hall for a meal with the Komizar, Rafe and Kaden in attendance along with many others. At this meal the Komizar ridicules Lia who is still wearing the ill-fitting sack. That night the Komizar assigns Lia to Kaden's quarters in an attempt to cause friction between Kaden and Rafe. Concerned for her well being Kaden gives her clothing and a place to sleep but does not touch her. Lia also learns more about the city - that it was built on the ruins of another great city of the Ancients. Kaden reveals that there is a vast underground network of tunnels and caverns and that the bridge Lia entered the city by is the only out.

The next morning Lia is brought her warm boots by a young girl named Aster. Aster reveals that Venda has been killing many patrols and that war booty has been arriving in the city frequently.  This becomes very evident to Lia when Kaden takes her to meet the Komizar and she sees wagons of Morrighese wines arriving. The Komizar, who is leaving for Balwood Province in the north, assigns Kaden as the Keep - the person in charge while he is away. He tasks Kaden who is part of the Rahtan, soldiers united in their allegiance to the Komizar, with the execution three young soldiers who ran away during a raid. During the Komizar's absence, Kaden takes Lia to the jehendra to have some clothes made for her on the Komizar's orders. Efferia makes Lia a riding outfit but also a beautiful dress.

Kaden also explains more of Venda's history to Lia: that one of the ruins was once over 600 hundred feet high and that it was a monument to one of the Ancient's leaders. Lia knows that after the devastation, paper records were not preserved but that the scholars of Morrighan were skilled at interpreting the rare documents that did survive.

The next day Lia discovers a secret passage out of Kaden's room that leads to the Sanctum. The passage allows her to visit Rafe where they catch up on what has been happening. She also tells him about stealing documents from the Royal Scholar's library, one an ancient text called the Song of Venda. This text tells about Venda, the wife of the first ruler, who "told stories and sang songs from the walls of the Sanctum to the people below." Lia tells Rafe that the song foretells about a dragon who would rise, one that fed on the tears of mothers" and that someone named Jezelia would challenge the dragon. However, Rafe is unconvinced and worried that the stress of their situation is affecting Lia.

Lia makes an astonishing discovery during her exploration of the tunnels. In a vast cavern beneath the Sanctum, she discovers robed figures who are not Vendan and who are scholars. They indicate they are simply providing knowledge but do not specify exactly what that is. All of the mysterious happenings seem to suggest to Lia that something terrible is about to happen. The kavah that does not fade, her discovery of the Song of Venda and its mention of a woman with her name, the Royal Scholar of Morrighan hiding books and hiring a bounty hunter to kill her are all very strange. Can Lia uncover the mystery of all these events and escape from Venda with Rafe?

Lia has been sitting out on the wall for several days and soon feels compelled to share aloud her "remembrances" or prayers. The crowds soon flock to listen to Lia especially when she is given a dress of the oldest clan of Venda, the Meurasi. While the people love her, the dress serves to inflame the wrath of the Council, especially Malich and the Governors. Kaden warns her to be very careful. At night Lia learns the names of the Governors and the Rahtan. The Komizar returns after having located the new governor of Balwood and sends Kaden out to find the other missing one. However, before he leaves, Kaden reveals his true heritage to Lia; he is the bastard son of a Morrighese lord who abandoned him. When his mother died, Kaden was given to passing beggars.

With Kaden gone, Lia is taken by the Komizar to many hamlets in Venda. In each he tells them that Lia fled Morrighan to join Venda and brings them supplies to help them through the approaching winter. Without Kaden to watch her, Lia along with Aster explore the tunnels and discover a vast room filled with more books than the library in Morrighan. Lia sees men in robes sorting through books, keeping some but discarding most. Aster quickly steals a book for Lia. This book is very different from the ones Lia has seen and she does not recognize the language. Lia now knows that the scholars in the caverns beneath the Sanctum are translating the lost books of the Ancients. The question is why? As Lia struggles to find a way to escape from Venda with Rafe, she comes to know the terrible secret the Komizar is hiding from his people and the possibility that her presence in Venda is no accident.


Discussion

In The Heart of Betrayal, Pearson weaves an intricate story that involves two kingdoms at odds and the discovery of a betrayal that may destroy one of them. This second novel works its way to a major revelation that the cruel Komizar of Venda is preparing for war with Morrighan. The Morrighan patrols are being destroyed so as to hide something important, something Morrighan would never suspect of the barbaric, backward kingdom of Venda. As Lia unwillingly prepares to become Queen of Venda, she is shown the Komizar's plans to invade Morrighan and destroy it with a massive army. Furthermore this enormous army is very advanced because it has been built on the technology of the Ancients, uncovered by traitorous scholars from Morrighan, from the vaults beneath Sanctum Hall.

Based on what she has read from the Song of Venda, Lia believes the song foretells of a "terrible greatness rolled across the land" and that a woman named Jezelia would confront the dragon. As Lia continues to have visions of Venda in the Sanctum, she begins to realize that the fact that she shares the same name as the woman in the Song of Venda is no coincidence and that maybe she is the one who will have to confront the evil of the Komizar. This further intensifies the conflict between the two main characters, the Komizar of Venda and Princess Arabella (Lia) of Morrighan at the beginning of The Heart of Betrayal. In this novel, the Komizar has the advantage. He has Lia as his hostage and is preparing to force her to marry him. The marriage is a pretense, serving as an aid to him ruling in difficult times as he starves his own people while building a huge war machine and to sow discord in Morrighan when they learn that their Royal First Daughter is a traitor. It also prevents Lia from returning to Morrighan to tell them what she knows. Her only chance to stop the Komizar is to escape with Rafe. With the help of his men, Lia and Rafe manage to do this but at a great cost. Both the Komizar and Lia are seriously wounded. However, novel ends leaving many questions unanswered; the reader does not know whether Kaden has been killed by Malich, whether the Komizar has in fact been killed by Lia, and what has happened to Lia and Rafe. The cliffhanger ending leads perfectly into the next novel which will likely feature the war between Venda and Morrighan and lead to a direct confrontation between the Komizar who is the dragon and Lia who also bears the name of Jezelia.


Pearson has written in a love triangle that involves Lia, Rafe and Kaden. While both Rafe and Kaden love Lia, she loves only Rafe to the point that she is willing to marry the Komizar in order to save Rafe's life. It's a love triangle that does not dominate the story but sees Lia having to play a role that makes her seem interested in Kaden while ignoring Rafe publicly in order to deflect the Komizar's attention. She knows Rafe's playing a role which if discovered will cost him his life. All this makes Lia a strong character, determined, intelligent and self-sacrificing. Surprisingly, Rafe is really a minor character in this novel until the very end. Lia's arch-enemy is the Komizar whose real name is Reginaus. Pearson excels at developing this character as the cruel, manipulative man reminiscent of an evil dictator, a destroyer who stops at nothing to achieve power.

Pearson gives us a hint as to who the Ancients were and where Venda is when Lia and Kaden come across a huge broken temple with "great slabs of white stone" and "the enormous sculpted head and partial shoulders of a man." They find one large slab of stone engraved with the letters F REV R. It's obvious that this is the remains of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and that the story is set in post-apocalyptic America.

The Heart of Betrayal is a very long novel, slow in the middle as it sets up for the stunning revelation near the end and the exciting climax. Pearson knows how to capture her reader's attention and maintain that interest, revealing pieces that fit together nicely. The theme of betrayal is central in the novel. There is the betrayal by the scholars of Morrighan; "He pushed back his hood, and my stomach turned with nausea. He was my tenth-year tutor, Argyris. One by one, the others pushed back their hoods too. These weren't just any scholars from remote regions. These were the elite inner circle, trained by the Royal Scholar himself. The Royal Scholar's second assistant, the lead illuminator, her fifth and eighth year tutors, the library archivist, two of my brother's tutors..." When Lia questions Argyris about his betrayal he states, "We're not exactly traitors, Arabella...We're merely scholars, Princess, doing what we do...What others do with our findings is not our business. We simply uncover the worlds these books hold." It is from Garvin that Lia learns of the Chancellor's role in subverting Morrighan.

Likewise Lia comes to understand the terrible betrayal perpetrated by Kaden. Lia remembers Kaden "holding me as I watched my brother die, saying how sorry he was. Kaden with his steady eyes. His deceptive calm. His devastating betrayal." but now realizes that while he was telling her he was attempting to save her life by bringing her to Venda, he and his Komizar were planning to kill everyone who matter to her. Kaden tells her that they will march on Morrighan and remove those in power. Her sense of betrayal runs deep because she has been used as a pawn in a plan for vengeance against his father. Although he attempts to tell her that he has an agreement with the Komizar, Lia reminds him that such agreements bring little to those who will die in Morrighan.

There is also the betrayal of Lia's parents, the King and Queen of Morrighan who seem not to care about their daughter and who do not believe her friends who insist that she was taken against her will to Venda.

The Heart of Betrayal is even better than Kiss of Deception. Pearson does fantasy well and her third novel in the Remnant Chronicles is eagerly anticipated!

Book Details:

The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson
New York: Henry Holt and Company     2015
470 pp.

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

The Kiss of Deception is the first novel in the Remnant Chronicles by the author of the Jenna Fox Chronicles. This novel which is fantasy adventure follows the fate of a young woman destined to be the saviour of her people.

Seventeen year old Princess Arabella Celestine Idris Jezelia (Lia), First Daughter of the House of Morrighan, is getting married to the Prince of the House of Dalbreck. Against her will. The novel opens on the morning of her wedding day with the artisans placing the elaborate wedding kavah (a type of tattoo) on her back. Her wedding kavah contains the lion crest of Dalbreck along with elaborate vines.

Lia and Pauline weave a trail of false leads as they travel  from Civica south to Pauline's Aunt Berdi's home in the fishing village of Terravin. The colourful village with its blue, red, yellow and lime homes and shops set near the aquamarine waters of the bay seems like a jewel to Lia. Lia and Pauline tell Berdi what has happened, how Lia fled her forced marriage to the prince of Dalbreck. Berdi offers them a place to stay and in return they will work for her at her inn and tavern. When Lia goes to the river to bathe she hears a melody in the breeze  The urgent tone of the melody seems to suggest someone seeking to find her.  "I will find you... In the farthest corner...."

As Lia and Pauline settle in to Terravin they are unaware that two men are hunting for Princess Lia: the jilted prince of Dalbreck (Prince Rafferty) and an assassin (Kaden) hired by the Komizar of the Kingdom of Venda. The Prince is tracking her because he is furious at having been stood up. Sven, who has trained him since the age of eight, tells him that he is angry because he didn't think of fleeing first. A trained soldier in the Dalbreck army, he is an expert tracker and the only heir to the Dalbreck throne. It takes the prince three weeks to track Lia and Pauline to Terravin. But he's not alone. The assassin from Venda who has been ordered to slit her throat so as to prevent the alliance between Morrighan and Dalbreck, that would result from her marriage has also arrived in Terravin.

Lia meets two newcomers to Terravin at Berdi's tavern where she now works as a barmaid;the dark-haired blue-eyed calculating Rafe who Gwenyth pegs as a fisherman  and the blond-haired brown eyed  brooding Kaden who she believes is a trader. Both Rafe and Kaden end up staying in the barn loft while they separately wait to accomplish their missions. But both men don't count on being captivated by the strong-willed Lia. Lia too is at first captivated by the handsome Kaden and the dark mysterious Rafe.

When Lia goes to Devil's Canyon to pick berries she unexpectedly encounters Rafe who attempts to make peace with Lia. Neither is honest with the other. Rafe tells Lia that he is a farmer from a small town in the southernmost part of Morrighan, a town with no name while Lia tells him that she was a thief. Of course Rafe knows who Lia is but at this point, Lia does not realize Rafe's identity. When Rafe sees the remaining part of Lia's kavah, the lion's claw and vine on her shoulder, he asks her about it. But she tells him it is not a part of tradition but the evidence of a terrible mistake.

Both Rafe and Kaden witness Lia's secret meeting with her brother Walther, although they both believe she is meeting with a lover. Walther is a soldier in their father's army which runs patrols in the Cam Lanteux, a safety zone that exists as a buffer between the kingdoms. The barbarians have been kept back for hundreds of years and not allowed to settle in this area. She learns that Father has posted a reward for her arrest and return. But it appears that her father has other more pressing worries on his mind - marauders have destroyed the bridges in the north. Walther tells Lia that they suspect this is the work of the Vendans  who might be planning to attack Morrighan. The failed alliance with Dalbreck has not helped. We also learn that when Lia left, she took something of great value, several books written in the ancient languages from the Scholar, a man who is the expert on the Morrighan Book of Holy Text and who can translate some of these ancient languages. Lia has absconded with Ve Feray Daclara au Gaudrel and a Vendan text that she cannot read. Walther also tells Lia that his young wife, Greta is with child.

Although Lia initially favoured Kaden, she begins to find herself more strongly attracted to Rafe. Gradually Lia begins to fall in love with Rafe who also develops similar affections for her. He begins to realize that this seventeen year old princess is a complicated young woman. Rafe comes to understand why Lia fled from the arranged marriage to him when he overhears a conversation between Lia and Berdi. Kaden begins to struggle with his mission to assassinate the princess. He too has developed feelings for her and he realizes that he will also to have to kill her friend Pauline. He decides to wait until after the festival to complete his mission. However, Lia and her friends are suspicious of the two men who have stayed on for so long at the inn, without seeming to have any other work.

It is during the Festival of Deliverance to commemorate the deliverance of the Remanent that Lia's love for Rafe begins to truly blossom. This makes Kaden angry and when his fellow Vendans, Griz, Eben, Finch and Malich show up at the festival questioning why he hasn't fulfilled his duties, Kaden tells them to give him another week to do so.

When Walther returns to Terravin badly injured and distraught over the murder of his beloved Greta by a Vendan patrol, Lia decides that she must return home to Civica to help repair the damage she has done by running away. She doesn't know if the alliance between Morrighan and Dalbreck can be saved but she feels that she must live up to her duty as a First Daughter to try to save Walther and her other brothers. When Rafe learns of her decision to leave he asks her to meet him the next day on her way from Terravin, intending to return with her to Morrighan to ensure that she is not harmed by her father, the Chancellor or the Scholar.  However, that meeting never happens because Lia is kidnapped by Kaden and his band of Vendans, who are determined to take Lia to the Komizar.

When Rafe learns of Lia's capture through Pauline, he sets off in pursuit, using his considerable tracking abilities. Meanwhile as they journey across Cam Lanteux, Kaden tells Lia that he is merely trying to keep her alive because he does not want to fulfill his mission which is to kill her. The only way to ensure her survival is to lie to the Komizar and tell him that Lia has the "gift", some unknown ability to foretell the future. When they stop at a vagabond camp of the tribe of Gaudrel, an old woman named Dihara encourages Lia to learn to use her gift, telling her that she has been taught to ignore it when she was growing up and warning her that gifts that are not used shrivel and die. Dihara gives Lia a book that is a primer in Gaudrian used to teach several languages including that of Morrighan and Vendan. This now means that Lia will be able to decipher the Vendan book she stole from the Morrighan Scholar. Meanwhile,  Rafe, who with his men, is unable to catch up to Kaden, decides that they will race towards Venda in the hopes of intercepting Kaden.

Lia makes plans to escape from Kaden but these are thwarted when he suddenly announces they are resuming their journey to Venda. As Lia begins to practice trying to discern her gift, she begins to feel it developing. This leads to one day to become suddenly aware of a great danger approaching. This danger turns out to be a huge herd of bison which cause her to become separated from Kaden and to spend the night in a dark and dangerous forest. It is in this forest that Lia uncovers her true identity and destiny. How that destiny will play out remains to be seen as Lia witnesses the murder of her brother Walther when his patrol has a surprise encounter with the Vendan army. Distraught but not yet despairing, Lia enters Venda preparing to meet the deadly Komizar. Her date with the Komizar however, will be aided by the presence of the very man she now knows she loves, the man she refused only a few months ago.

Discussion

The Kiss of Deception is well written with numerous plot twists that keep the reader engaged. Pearson tells her story utilizing the three narratives of  Lia, Rafe and Kaden with a short narrative of Pauline's near the novel's end. In an attempt to engage her readers, Pearson does not reveal directly to her readers which of the two men is the assassin and which is the jilted prince. This leads to some confusion and suspense in the first half of the novel. The first chapters are narrated by Prince and Assassin but when they appear in Terravin these narrations change to Kaden and Rafe respectively. This seems to be the pattern throughout the novel; something such as "the festival"  is introduced but not fully explained until many pages later.

While the novel opens with the fascinating hook of Lia having her wedding kavah done, a sort of nonpermanent tattoo, the middle section is slow as Pearson develops the romantic tension between Lia and the two men hunting her,  and as she builds her characters. It is this love triangle that is the basis for most of the conflict in the novel. As Lia comes to know Rafe and Kaden through the summer however, she gradually comes to chose Rafe, although she still believes Kaden to be a kind man. This belief in him continues after she is kidnapped by Kaden and seems unrealistic. He is taking her across the continent to a hostile kingdom whose ruler will likely do what Kaden did not - kill her. And equally unrealistic is that Lia is portrayed as still finding Kaden attractive despite knowing that he has killed many people in his work as an assassin.

All three main characters change during the course of the novel.  Lia becomes less self-centered and more concerned about how her actions might affect her world in a broader sense. At first her only thought is to flee, to reject the traditions and duties of her position as First Daughter in Morrighan. She haughtily rejects her mother's idea that she too is a soldier in her father's army. But by the end of the novel Lia has come to realize that this is a truth she must accept and that traditions and duty are important.

Despite being jilted by her, Rafe, whose true identity is finally revealed to Lia at the end of the novel, finds Lia very different from the princess he imagined her to be. Although headstrong, she is caring but deeply hurt about being treated as a mere bargaining chip by her father. Rafe finds himself willing to forgive Lia for what happened on their wedding day and to see her safely back to Morrighan. Rafe feels he is unworthy to now marry Lia because he has deceived and manipulated her and that she not forgive him.

Kaden whose allegiance is to Venda and his Komizar experiences the greatest conflict in the novel. He owes the Komizar his life and station but the price has been high. He is an accomplished assassin who expected to have murdered Lia quickly and efficiently. Instead, he finds that Lia is not as other royals he has met.

Woven throughout the novel are bits about the past of the world Lia, Rafe and Kaden inhabit. The texts of Morrighan talk about the people before them, known as the Ancients who were demigods controlling the heavens but who had been destroyed by the gods. The remains of their buildings can be found almost everywhere including Terravin. I love that Pearson placed a map in the novel, showing the position of the kingdoms. This is especially helpful during Lia and Kaden's journey to Venda. It helps the reader place the action in the story.

At close to 500 pages, The Kiss of Deception is a long read that might discourage some. However this is a captivating fantasy adventure with a hopeful romantic twist at the end. Readers will be anxious to learn what happens to Lia, Rafe and Kaden, to meet the cruel Komizar and to learn more about the history of what appears to be a post-apocalyptic world. The second novel, The Heart of Betrayal will be published in 2015.


Book Details:
The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
New York: Henry Holt and Company     2014
486 pp.

Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson

Fox Forever picks up the story of Locke Jenkins who is on his way to Manchester where Gatsboro's labs are located to make sure that there are no other copies of him in the labs. However, he is waylaid by Mr. F, who works for the Resistance and told he needs to come with him to complete the favour that Father Andre mentioned they might request in The Fox Inheritance. Father Andre had told Locke that in return for being freed, the Network might want him to return the favour.

Locke is traveling with a fake ID as Nate Smith courtesy of the Network. He and Mr. "F" travel to Boston where they meet two others, Carver and Livvy. Mr F's name is Xavier. The favour they are asking is no ordinary one; to help a special Non-pact.

Carver, Livvy, and Xavier have learned that the Secretary of Security is holding someone in a special detainment area at an undisclosed location in Boston for the past sixteen years. That someone is believed to be Karden Sanders the leader of the Resistance and Meisha Derring's husband. Karden Sanders was the a leader in the underground Non-pact Resistance sixteen years ago. His group fought for those on the fringes of society and those who had no rights - the Non-pacts. Meisha Derring married him even though it was illegal to marry a Non-pact. They had a daughter named Rebecca. They moved and changed names frequently until one day the authorities caught up with them. While Meisha was out, their house was firebombed, and Karden and Rebecca were killed. Meisha spent 11 years in prison when she was finally released.

Although Meisha believed her husband and daughter were killed when their home was firebombed years ago, it now appears that Karden, at least, may be alive. Karden is thought to have stolen a huge sum of money - $80 billion from government contractors who provided the security systems against Non-pacts. That money was hidden in a secret account, the location of which Karden only partially disclosed. Carver and his team want to save Karden and gain access to the money before the grace period for dormant bank accounts expires. If it does, the money will be lost and Karden will be killed by the government which no longer needs him.

Locke owes Meisha, because in addition to her being Locke's only very distant living relative that he knows, she helped him escape from Gatsboro. But getting involved may mean ending up back in prison. Can Locke take such a risk? Locke has been chosen partly becuase of his physical attributes. Locke's body is eighty percent bioengineered human, twenty percent composites which is illegal. He has the ability to read lips and can also read faces meaning he can determine the emotions a person is feeling. Locke's BioPerfect heals his body quickly and he can see in the dark, although his 260 years spent in a cube have made him afraid of the dark.

The plan is to embed Locke in a group, a Virtual Collective - a sort of high school group, which contains the Security Secretary's daughter, Raine. Locke is to use Raine to help him locate Karden. At first, Raine is cold and wary of Locke. But Locke's first meeting with the Secretary at a party scores him an invite to the select group. During this party Locke meets, Han, Raine's gold Bot and bodyguard, as well as LeGru, the slimy assistant to the Security Secretary.

One night Locke unexpectedly discovers that Raine frequents the roof of the building she lives in and often leaves her apartment during the night to explore the city. Initially, he uses this to get to know Raine better and as part of his mission to find the missing bank account numbers and the location of Karden. However, their relationship soon develops into much more. Locke makes an astonishing discovery of who Raine is (although reader's probably won't be surprised) and uncovers the events of that fateful night sixteen years ago. With time running out, Locke must deal with betrayal, injury, and conflict to save both Karden and the future of the resistance.

Fox Forever is a fitting conclusion to the Fox Series. Well written, this novel focuses on a new plot that ties together the lose ends of Jenna and Locke. Pearson doesn't really go into much detail about the science behind Locke, nor much about the future world that he lives in. Although the United States is now two countries, we don't really know much about the resistance, except that with the capture of Karden, came its collapse. Likewise when Locke's mission is successful, Pearson doesn't really delve into the consequences of the resistance coming into a huge amount of money. Instead, that is briefly mentioned in a chapter titled Thirty Years Later.

The novel's focus is more on Locke's relationship with Raine as well as his relationship with Jenna Fox. It turns out that both Raine and Locke are quite similar - both have a mysterious past and both are not who they appear to be. As such, this novel deals with the quintessential questions of identity; who am I? and how do I belong? The same questions face Locke with his changing relationship with Jenna. Although initially Locke believed he loved Jenna, he begins to understand that they have both changed, just as Jenna tried to explain to him in The Fox Inheritance. Jenna has lived a life the past 260 years, working for the resistance, marrying and having a child, while Locke has been held captive in a cube. These experiences have changed her. She is no longer the seventeen year old girl Locke remembers.

The ending of the novel is sad but hopeful. The reader is left with the impression that Locke has come to terms  to some degree, with what has happened to him and his existence in the future. There's an interesting theme of religion and sanctuary throughout the series. Jenna and then Locke, and finally Locke and Raine are given sanctuary by Catholic priests. Locke and Raine meet often in a church where they spend time just being together. And Locke remembers his days as an altar boy, when he was fully human, 260 years ago.

Overall Pearson has written a good series that explores what it means to be human, with a bit of action and some romance.

Book Details:
Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson
New York: Henry Holt and Company   2013
288 pp.