“The Gender Game” by Bella Forest

Set in a future where humanity has almost destroyed itself, the people have split into two separate societies. On one side of the river was the Kingdom that was designed and ruled by men. Women who are born in or chose to move to Patrus had no rights. They were little more than the property of their husbands or fathers. Women who broke the law in Patrus, even unintentionally, were often executed by hanging.

On the other side of the river was the Queendom designed and ruled by women. Much of each society was similar, save that in Matrus, it was the men who had no rights. If they failed their testing at the age of 8, boys were sent to the mines and forced into a life of hard labor. Criminals in Matrus were also executed, though they were killed by injection rather than at the end of a rope.

After her brother failed his testing, Violet often found herself in trouble and grew up in “Juvenile Facilities” working off her time in repetitive and mind-numbing tasks. If she could stay out of trouble, she would eventually be reintegrated into Matrus’ society. Unfortunately, trouble always seemed to find her. After her latest infraction, she expected to be killed, but instead was recruited for a task that if successful, would be of great assistance to her country. If she succeeded, she was even promised a reunion with her brother. She simply had to retrieve an item stolen by Patrus that was of great import to Matrus without anyone from Patrus realizing she had been sent from Matrus after it.

This was a very interesting story that has been sitting on my kindle waiting for me to have a chance to read it. I really enjoyed it, and am very curious as to what will happen in the next book in the series. While this one doesn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, it is near enough to one that I feel almost compelled to continue on immediately with book 2 so that I can find out if Violet is able to be reunited with her brother, or if there is more going on in these two countries than even those living there are aware of. This story was well worth my time to read. I am only sorry I waited so long to get around to it!