Format: E-Galley, 346 pages
Release Date: September 2, 2015
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Source: Xpresso Book Tours
Genre: YA, Fantasy>Mythology
Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than average people, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's well over eighty.Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets.
There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Some are waiting for her to put an end to centuries of traditions that have oppressed their people under the guise of safeguarding them. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning-and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.
Oppression,
by author Jessica Therrien, is the first installment the Children of Gods trilogy. This series features Elyse Adler, a girl who appears to be Eighteen, but is much older than that. The story kicks off when Elyse loses her parents to an accident. Because of the fact that she ages slower than normal humans, she has been forced to move every Five years or so to keep the looky loos from asking too may questions. After her "second" mother passes away, Elyse meets William, who knows a whole lot about her, including the fact that she is the last healer in her line, and that she is the descendant of Asclepius, the God of healing.
Elyse's blood is not like other healers. Her blood can heal anybody, and anybody can heal her. But, one needs to becareful of which side of Elyse's body they draw blood. The left side of her body contains poison, which comes in handy when you are forced into fighting back against the villainous Christoph and his Council minions. The Council members are all first generation descendants of Olympians. If Elyse didn't have enough problems with an instant connection to William, and Christoph chasing after her, apparently there is a prophecy that she will bring peace between the descendants and mortals. But, no pressure!
Elyse has been told that it is against Council law to heal any human. Hard to ignore that particular rule when her best friend Anna, and her daughter Chloe are both human. I think it's rather interesting how the author gets around the classic instant-romance shenanigans. Apparently this too is too big for anyone to ignore, especially Christoph. This series is big on mythology. It is also a series that you should take care not to ignore secondary characters like Kara, Nics, Rachel, Paul, and Sam who become staples of the story and Elyse's enlightenment of the world she was kept hidden from.
One of the things that most readers will take from this story is the naivete of Elyse. Then again, can you blame her? Her parents kept her a secret. She wasn't allowed to have any friends, or attend regular school for fear of being discovered. Her parents deaths made it even more important for Elyse to remain in hiding with those like Christoph eager to get his hands on her. One can even give her a break when it comes to her insta-romance connection with William, besides the whole "other" prophecy thing.
I was provided copies of all three books in this series by Xpresso Book Tours. I will be reviewing them over the course of the next 2 weeks having already read them back to back.
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