Review: The Affiliate by K.A. Line

Title: The Affiliate
By: K.A. Linde
Series: Ascension #1
My Copy: Ebook from Publisher
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

On the day of her Presenting, in front of the entire Byern Court, seventeen-year-old Cyrene Strohm's lifelong plans come to fruition when she's chosen for one of the most prestigious positions in her homeland—an Affiliate to the Queen.

Or so she thinks.

When Cyrene receives a mysterious letter and an unreadable book, she finds nothing is as it seems. Thrust into a world of dangerous political intrigue and deadly magic, Cyrene's position only grows more treacherous when she finds herself drawn to the one man she can never have...

King Edric himself.

Cyrene must decide if love is truly worth the price of freedom.

Oh, why must I be so confused? I really, really liked this book but I also found it a little confusing at times.  Let’s talk about the confusion first and then get on to all the good things.

First, I think it was how the ARC was formatted that confused me the most.  Sometimes I had no idea who was speaking in the text and had to read down the paragraph until I found who was speaking and then worked my way up by going back and forth between the two characters and lines.  It was quite time consuming, confusing, and I am sure I missed some information between all of it.  Also, I felt like there were hardly any answers given in this first book.  Granted, it looks like it is going to be a part of a series (which I am excited about) but I really have no idea where any of this is going – I am just excited that it is continuing (I’m invested now!)  I guess that could be good in most cases but I finished the last page feeling a little left out of the direction that the book was going in and what was set up in the past.  And again, this might be because I missed something important like I stated above.

What I really liked about this is the world that Linde created.  On her seventeen birthday, Cyrene is granted the position of an Affiliate…to the Queen.  She quickly finds out that this position was not what she expected.  While making friends (and enemies) in the palace, Cyrene finds herself distracted by a book that her younger sister gave her on her Presenting day, the murders of two of Byern’s Affiliates, and the attention of King Edric and Prince Kael. 

During all of this, Linde takes you on a ride, collecting little bits of information that become useful at times (even though I have so many more questions left!) all while weaving a tale of mystery and murder, history and prophecy, friendship and a little side of romance.  

I feel like Linde is setting us up for an even better second book since we know the background of the country, the characters, and what has already went down.  I hope the second starts off with a bang and continues to skyrocket with awesomeness.