Sacrificed: The Last Oracle by Emily Wibberley

Since Emily very kindly sent me a print copy for review, I decided to do a little test. I handed the book to my dad and asked him if he could find anything different about this. He looked at the front, he looked at the back, he flipped through the pages, and finally told me there was nothing different about it. He was so surprised when I told him this was a POD book from Createspace - it looked that professional. And that was my general impression of the book - if I didn't see the Createspace slip of paper, I would have thought it was a normal book.

Sacrified: The Last Oracle, is about Clio, the youngest daughter of the Oracle of Sheehan. Her mother is cold and distant, and her sisters turn that way once they become Vessels. Because of that, she's always hated the Oracle, and believe that it's nothing more than a bag of tricks. Unfortunately, her family is murdered by Mannix, the mysterious advisor to the King, and Clio is forced to be the next Oracle. Everything she thought false, she has to re-examine. But she's fleeing for her life, so while she's still in shock, she joins the slave girls heading to Morek, the city that hates Oracles. And of course, she runs into Riece, a commander of Morek, and also a hater of Oracles. How will she survive?

I really enjoyed this book. Clio was a very sympathetic character, and I was rooting for her from the start. She really struggles, and she grows through the book. At the start, she was whiny and basically rebelling for the sake of wanting to be different, but at the end, she learns to see past herself, even though she still has a long way to go. Well, the ending change was a bit heavy-handed for me(Clio reflecting a lot on it), but this is a debut novel, and I'll close an eye to it.

Plus, the twist at the end of the book - woah, you need to read it. Ok, no spoilers, promise.

Even the 'love triangle' (which was more like one relationship and one one-sided love) wasn't annoying to me. I normally dislike this aspect of the book, but I'm really happy that Clio wasn't torn between the two guys. She liked one of the them, and the other was like a brother to her (I was under a mistaken impression at the start though, which meant that I spent a good bit of the book rooting for a character that had no chance).

Overall, this is a really well-written novel. Clio is a sympathetic protagonist, the plot is solid, and despite that there's a romance, it didn't annoy me.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review.