What lies beneath the surface, and use more than just your eyes to see.

Here is a post about a book my friend I met online wrote. He is a great author and I love his work. Now if I can be just as half a talented as him and get my own story off the ground. Also in about 5 days after this is posted I will do a follow up with my discussion questions for this book. 

Iris Beaumont turns seventeen, she is threatened to be taken by the Beasts, the rulers of the new America. After the destruction of the world, the Beasts provide citizens with whatever they need in exchange for the one teenage girl they enslave every week. They call them the Brides, and they never come back. Iris has been defying the system since she was ten and never cared for the Beast's rules. Then she meets Colton Ray, he's unlike anyone she knows. His confidence and dominance are otherworldly she can't rationalize the attraction she feels for him. Colton has one slight problem though. It's rumored he is one of the Beasts, and Iris could be the next on the Beast's list. 

This book was amazing Cameron gave it so many twists and turns I felt like my brain was being pulled in many different directions, and it really made me think. I did not anticipate or figure out it would end like that. I knew there was something fishy going on in second America, but not that it was a Pentimento itself. I knew the beast was real, but could not figure out until the end their purpose on Earth. Were they evil monsters or not, and why do they choose to have no real contact with humans besides taking a girl whenever they want. Why hide in the shadows of a world filled with them why not just try to open everyone's eyes at once? The irony that even though Iris was the most resistant and wanted to find the truth, she was blinded the most. 

She could not see the truth except for how her friend Zoe really looked. And what about Colton he lost technical three girls he dated will he get to be with Iris will Prince Andre allow that since he wants her for himself. Did the masters/beast even care that the girls they took had a boyfriend that they loved since the prince told Zoe they did plan to take males in the future? And of the ones before Zoe and Iris were not really brides what were they to the beast how were they treated differently.

Iris is living in the Second America which is ruled by the Beast as they call them. They seemly take a random 17-year-old girl to the Call of a horn to be a Bride. Humans think the Beast is ugly and deformed and wants the girls for breeding purposes. Which is all speculation because only The Council has any contact with the Beast besides the days a Bride is called to them when the horn is blown every girl gets a text sent to their phone with the ID number of the girl chosen. Iris has a crush on a popular boy named Colton but she doesn't know she exists until the first girl to be called in the story is Eva Washington who happens to be Colton's current girlfriend. He sees Iris for the first time that day and by coincidence Iris wished Eva to be taken by the beast right before she is called.

Iris Beaumont is a rebel and gets into trouble a lot at school, she does not like following the rules and is constantly looking for the truth. She does not just want to believe everything the council says. She even goes and visits some Ruins that are outside the border or the Second behind the Great Wall that holds the key to what happened in first America. Also, this is where she practices the Pentimento that her father taught her. It wears a painting that has been used many times over has many different layers of paint on it. The Artist uses a variety of tools to peel back the layers to find out what is underneath to the first layer.

Iris has a friend named Cody who just happens to be Colton's brother. She calls Cody to help her get past the electrified fence that surrounds the Second and Colton wants answers to know what happened to Eva so he agrees to go with her. He is amazed by the ruins and curious. He thinks maybe the Beast did come to save Earth like they have been told. While Iris shows him her art how to find out what underneath on the ruin walls. While they are out the horn sounds and another girl has been chosen and it is Elia Wilson a girl Colton dated before Eva. Colton later comes up with a theory that they are choosing girls he uses to date, but it only started with Eva. Iris her friend Zoe and outcast like Iris, and Colton all want to know what criteria the beast has for how the pick who becomes a bride. At first, they think it is Beauty that the beast is looking for, but later Zoe thinks it because of the girl's gifts and intelligence since they last few taken were superb at art, photography, tennis, and swimming but only the beast knew the true way they chose the girls. 

Iris found roses that only grew in the ruins and after a Bride was taken she would leave a rose at the girl's home for the family to see and remember their daughters because the council had their names removed and told people to forget about them like they never existed. The first rose Iris gave out in the book was to Elia's home. Soon after that the council and people started calling the girl leaving the roses as The Beauty. After spending time with Iris at the ruins Colton could not get her out of his mind he never felt like this for a girl before, even Eva he was only really dating her for social appearances and what was expected of him. 

He had a theory that Vera was going to be taken next even though her 18th birthday was coming soon because she was in a picture with Eva and Elia that were taken. He wanted to talk to Iris about it so the night of Vera's party they went to the ruins together while his brother Cody and Zoe went to the party together. They worked on the walls a bit more and found the word uprising and waited to see if Vera would be called but was not cause it had not been at least five days since the last bride was chosen. During this time they talked and Iris felt compelled to kiss him.

They talked about maybe there was a war and that why the sky was gray the plants gone, and people died. Or another idea that the council just made up the story about the beast and they really don't exist. They left the ruins and found out Zoe got hurt at the party by Vera and her friends. She was taken to the hospital with cuts and bruises and emotional trauma. When Zoe wakes ups she tells Iris she saw a beast and it was Colton he was ugly and disfigured. 

Iris doesn't know what to say to that thinking her friend is just hallucinating. Iris is mad at Colton and won't talk to him, because it was his friends that did this to Zoe, but later she decides to stop being mad and blaming him for what happened. So they are now officially a couple. Colton takes Iris to the top of the council's HQ building the tallest in the world called Sinai He then kisses her properly and they taunt the beast with their love for each other. Zoe tells Iris she and Cody been talking about getting married. A few days after Zoe returns the school the horn is blown. 

Iris and Colton are scared it will be her because they found love and do not want to lose each other. As luck would have it it was not her name, but her friend Zoe. Iris is distraught after her friend goes to the beast does not leave her room and her dad has to make her eat. The council makes a decree that it was illegal for anyone to have a rose in their possession that it was a sign of the uprising. All the parents who lost a daughter to the beast were told to get rid of everything she owned and stop grieving for her. 

One day she decides to make a choice and pulls out her last two roses. She takes one to Zoe's mom and lets her and everyone knows she is the beauty, then she gets into the council HQ and makes a challenge to the beast. While holding up the rose and the police coming to arrest her. She demands that the beast take her as a bride and the do the bright light comes and she is gone. She wakes up on the ship and sees the beast and notices she has a paintbrush in her hand and she uses it to erase them from existence. Then she wakes up in a lux bedroom and looks around she sees stars outside the window. A servant girl with a white veil over her body comes in and talks to her and asks if she slept well. She gives Iris a towel and tells her to rub her face so she can see better and get rid of the toxins. 

The girl says her Master as they are called in named Andre a prince and bid for her, and Iris needs to clear her mind before meeting him. She wants to know about Zoe but the girl can not tell her anything. The girl asks her about the stars and what they look like, but they are just stars so Iris head and eyes are not clear yet. Later Andre asks to see her and Iris is taking to a dining room and the table has a veil that divides it down the middle so she won't be able to see him. He arrives and they talk. She contemplates her decision to provoke the Master and left her love Colton behind to find out the truth. 

He asks if she slept well she wonders why everyone is concerned about her sleep. Andre talks about dreams and how they are different from reality he also says that we dream to balance out our psyche.  She wanted to see his face but he said she was not ready for that yet. He is treating her differently than any of the other brides. Iris gets upset and asks what he does with the other hurt them and she ask about Zoe and stands up makes like she going foreword toward him. Andre gets mad for her not respecting his wishes. 

She is told to go back to her room and clear her mind and look at the stars. He also tells her "We have some sort of a list we use in choosing our Brides... It's a very delicate list... Next week's Bride was going to be you." The servant girl comes and takes her away. Iris is later shown another room with paintings in it with the Pentimento's she that was in her dad's possession but actually belongs to Andre. Andre shows up with a veil on and talks to her about the art and a story about the Indians who did not know what ships looked like when Columbus should up in America.  
He says Pentimento is more than just a painter's term, but there are many different kinds of them like when you look at a picture and remember that moment or humans as a whole they have many layers. She is moved by his words and starts to feel attracted to him which is confusing because she loves Colton. She asks him what it horrible what happened to Earth before the Second and he said its called that to give humans a second chance. 

Back in her room the servant girl gives her the towel again and gives her a massage. Iris notices that her hair is stiff and it looks worst than it did in the Second. Iris gets mad at the girl for not answering her questions and pretends to be sick from the food, but the girl says that can't happen and they don't have any doctors. Iris demands that the girl leaves she does not want her as a servant anymore. As she goes to the door to leave Iris knocks her down and runs down the hall looking for Zoe. Iris comes to a room with a waterfall and beautiful grass with other brides. She finds Zoe and sees the bride's faces and they are all disfigured and ugly. 

Iris asks her did the beast does this to her trying to understand what she is seeing. Zoe tells her there was a terrible nuclear war in the First, and it destroyed everything and the survivors were deformed had diseases, and couldn't produce normal offspring as in us. Iris just thought Zoe was hallucinating. Zoe said we are the real Beasts. Then Iris was forced back to her room where Andre was waiting for her. She thought he was the one hurting the girls. He said surrender is not a bad thing that it is necessary sometimes to see the truth. He said girls are the seed of life and give nurturing love. She demands to see his face and he allows her to remove his veil and she sees him as a beast all grotesques and hideous. 

Zoe finally gets to talk to Andre in private. Andre fell in love with Iris at first sight but was upset she could not see what the stars really were. He gives Zoe the answer she been asking about. She asks how can the people in the Second not see the Earth as it really looks. He says it has to do with some technology wired in their brains that makes their eyes see what they want to see like living in virtual reality and the ruins are there as an identifier The beast came to Earth, yet do not think they have any redeeming quality and what attracted them to humans was their denial of the truth.

Andre says the criteria they used to pick the brides was that all most all of them visited the ruins, was curious, and rebelled against the council, but some like Eva and Elia were chosen for a balance. Also, they will start taking boys soon first you have to safe women so they can build the Third with the people knowing the truth. The stars are an illusion they are really "chunks of burned ball-like clouds" in the sky and no real sunlight can be seen from the ground. Zoe asks why he can't just pull the wiring from Iris's eyes, his answer is he has to send her back to the Second. She needs to find the truth on her own. He tells Zoe he fell in love with Iris and believes in humans and doesn't wang to lose her by having to send her back. They are confused about why Iris could not see what the stars really were but she saw Zoe how she truly looks. 

Back in the Second Colton was shocked at what Iris did, and trying to figure out why Iris did not talk to him first. Also, how could she just leave him like that without even saying goodbye? He was in the ruins digging for a rose and he finally found one. He ran and had his brother help him get into the council HQ. He was there to challenge the beast and get on their ship so he can save Iris and Zoe. Iris was allowed to practice her Pentimento and got to talk with Zoe still just seeing the stars. Then she feels the presence of Colton and finally realizes she is deformed like Zoe and the rest of humanity. 

She knew the Master's were beautiful and knew what the stars really were, but she decided to keep this information to herself in hopes that they would send her back to the Second. She wanted to be with Colton her true love and spoke in heart for him to hold on, that if she keeps saying they are just stars she would be reunited with him. But she does not know how in love Andre is with her and wants to keep her there and then Colton's love for her by him trying to get the Beast to take him so he can save her. 

A very good book I sure hope Cameron Jace writes a sequel to this book to finds out what happens to Iris and Colton and will they get to be together.