Lucia Chronicles Book 1 by Diane Cardon

Nia is a young but zealous member of a rebellion seeking to overturn the rule of a tyrant who has been oppressing her country. When Nia is captured by the Tyrant and thrown into jail she is expecting to be beaten or even killed because she is the daughter of the head of the resistance. Instead she, though in prison, is treated decently. She is eventually summoned to speak with the Tyrant himself, and finds him a melancholy young man, not much older than herself, trying desperately to rule an empire he inherited and struggles to maintain.

Jump 18 years forward, and we see a middle-aged woman, Melanie, who is in charge of the Carbrynian intelligence under her father, the Governer, while raising a son, Aiden on her own. She is preparing to take Aiden with her on his first mission into enemy territory, Lucia, to ostensibly investigate rumors that its ruler, Titus, is amassing troups at their boarder and intends to invade. In reality, she has a very different plan that relates to what happened to that teenage girl in prison almost two decades earlier.  As the two stories in the two time periods unfold in alternating chapters, the reader gets clues from the past that help explain Melanie's present life and Aiden's unexpected future.

 I haven't posted a book review for a few weeks.  There are two reasons for that.  One, is that I have been out of town and very busy with family obligations. The other is that I re-read an unpublished book written by my daughter, Diane Cardon in preparation for reading the sequel to the book which she had just finished (review to come). As of yet neither book has a real title or any artwork. They are manuscripts waiting to be submitted to an agent or a publisher. 

That being said, I have read a lot of books (1100+ reviews in this blog so far) and I think this book and its sequel are as good as many of them, and better than some.  The characters are sympathetic, dimentional, and realisticaly flawed, and the political intrigue elements shows a lot of insight into insurgency and intelligence in small regional conflicts.  There is a religious/mystical element that adds a bit of mystery and is reminscent of the writings of Megan Whelan Turner.  If you are interested in reading a pre-print, leave a note in the comment box.