I loved this book. From the start it reminded me of Graceling by Kristin Cashore. And for those of you who love Graceling, you will love this too. This fantasy novel takes place in some other place and time, in a land that is not familiar to the reader (think Game of Thrones) - which is one of the things I love about it. We follow the main character, 16 year old Elisa in her journey into a new life married to the King of a neighboring realm. Elisa bears the Godstone, which is attached to the navel of a chosen one, once every century. The bearer of the Godstone is extremely special, and as the story continues, we learn why. 
 This book is written in the first person, in present tense, which I had a hard time getting used to at first. It's link to religion was a bit hard for this Agnostic to get used to, but as long as I kept reminding myself that the importance of religion in the story was paramount to the telling of the story and the plot in general, I was able to get over my distaste for all of the descriptions of praying for this and that. 
 The book grabbed me from the beginning and every twist and turn had me hanging there waiting to find out what would happen next. The pacing was excellent, until the end, where I was wondering whether the story would end on a cliff hanger, waiting for a sequel. The author does wrap up the story at the end, however, I now understand this book is the first of a triology, but it is unclear to me as to whether Elisa's story continues into the next two books, or if (like Graceling) they are related, but not continuous on the same main character. 
 I think some of the characters could have been developed more, and was disappointed with the way in which a major character was killed off - it seemed so abrupt, I wasn't even sure the character was dead at first. All in all, though, this is an impressive first book for this author and I genuinely enjoyed reading it. I look forward to her next two books in this trilogy.