The Diminished by Kaitlyn Sage Patterson @verykaitlynsage @HarlequinTEEN #bookreview #fantasy #YA

Title: The Diminished

Author: Kaitlyn Sage Patterson

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Publication Date: April 10, 2018

Page Count: 464

My rating:   4 stars

About the book:

In the Alskad Empire, nearly all are born with a twin, two halves to form one whole…yet some face the world alone.

The singleborn

A rare few are singleborn in each generation, and therefore given the right to rule by the gods and goddesses. Bo Trousillion is one of these few, born into the royal line and destined to rule. Though he has been chosen to succeed his great-aunt, Queen Runa, as the leader of the Alskad Empire, Bo has never felt equal to the grand future before him.

The diminished

When one twin dies, the other usually follows, unable to face the world without their other half. Those who survive are considered diminished, doomed to succumb to the violent grief that inevitably destroys everyone whose twin has died. Such is the fate of Vi Abernathy, whose twin sister died in infancy. Raised by the anchorites of the temple after her family cast her off, Vi has spent her whole life scheming for a way to escape and live out what’s left of her life in peace.

As their sixteenth birthdays approach, Bo and Vi face very different futures—one a life of luxury as the heir to the throne, the other years of backbreaking work as a temple servant. But a long-held secret and the fate of the empire are destined to bring them together in a way they never could have imagined.

The Diminished by Kaitlyn Sage Patterson is the first book in what seems to be an untitled as yet young adult fantasy duology. The story takes place in a world known as the Alskad Empire where the vast majority of births result in twins with the very rare singleborn birth.

Bo Trousillion was a singleborn which has put him in the running to take over the thrown one day. Any singleborn would be eligible to be chosen but since the current queen is Bo’s great-aunt he knows he will be the chosen one and is in training learning all about the court politics and what the job will entail and living in luxury.

Vi Abernathy on the other hand was born a twin but her sibling passed shortly after birth making her a diminished. Those that lose their other half or twin are walking time bombs known to lose their minds once separated so Vi’s mother gave her over to the temple where she has been raised.

The book picks up Vi and Bo’s lives as they are both nearing their sixteenth birthdays alternating the point of view between the two and their very different lives. For me this was a bit of a slow starter as the story begins to unfold, however once it got going the world and characters were quite interesting.

There were a lot of different elements to this one once it gets going with focusing on both sides of the world. And being a Harlequin title it was no surprise to find romance in this fantasy with a lot of relationships being built with the characters as their stories go along. By the time it was over I was quite ready to see where the characters head in the next book of the series.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Find this book online: 

Goodreads  /   Amazon

About the author:

Kaitlyn Sage Patterson grew up with her nose in a book outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After completing her M.F.A., she moved to South Korea, where she taught English and started writing her debut novel. THE DIMINISHED will be published by HarlequinTEEN in April 2018, followed by its sequel in 2019.

When she’s not staring off into space and trying to untangle some particularly troublesome plot point, she can be found in her kitchen, perfecting the art of the macaron; or at the barn, where she rides and trains dressage horses; or with her husband, spoiling their sweet rescue dogs.