Review: Noble Lies
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 20, 2013
In this novel Andrassy takes on organized religion with a vengeance.  She illustrates the turmoil that can come from fighting against a single, overarching church.  She also illustrates the possibility of corruption in the higher ranks of a system that basically rules over society.  She also brilliantly shows that together a society can fight against corrupt individuals in this system.  For a while, I was starting to believe that the author was going to allow individuals in the novel to be abused without anyone ever fighting back, however, she did come back from this at the end of the novel with the upper class petitioning against the Church's disregard for propriety and safety and demanding retribution.In this novel Andrassy puts coming of age in a very different light with a very unique layout for arranged marriages.  Individuals of the nobility are conditioned from birth to accept their mates based on the stars.  I also found it astounding that for once it is the upper class of society that appears to be suffering from the injustice brought about by societal divisions.The imagery in the scenery within this novel is absolutely breathtaking.  There is not a single setting that the characters visit that you do not feel like you walked into yourself.  That said, there is never a moment that is dull with drawn out descriptions.  Andrassy sneaks these brilliant descriptions upon you without the reader noticing.The characters in this novel were all very well developed.  There was not a single major character that did not have a complete background.  They all also had individual personalities and characteristics.  However, Andrassy did not end her character development there.  These characters were also physical beings that you could picture walking out of the pages of the book.  They also had real relationships with each other.  I don't know how she managed it, but the author managed to work a love triangle into the novel without it being noticed by the reader until close to the end.This was not what would stereotypically be considered a suspenseful book.  That said, there were so many moments where I found myself thinking " I did not see that coming" or "how in the world is this going to end" that There was a great deal of suspense to be found in the novel.  I must say that I never thought that I would ever consider something like that a happy ending, but considering the story, that was as close to a happy ending that I could imagine.This book was a definitely whirlwind.  At the end of the novel I just found myself thinking "hunh, that's it then."  I must say that I have never had that happen before.  I found that I had to walk away from the novel to determine how I felt about it.  I was extremely caught up in the story while I was reading it.  It was an amazingly well written story; I definitely had no complaints on that front.  The story itself was just such a heavy story that it is a lot to absorb.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it is not a light read by any means.