THE UNWILLING by Kelly Braffet is a dark and twisted tale of abuse, power, and treachery set in a magical world. The sentence trailed off, and French thought of Gibson, his youngest son. “Gibby’s in school. He should be fine.” Jason wants to spend one more day with Gibby before his little brother graduates and Jason moves on with his life full of bad things. But something very bad happens and it's blamed on Jason, dragging Gibby into the horrific mess. Jacob and Gibby's father is caught in all of it, being a murder cop, but also having to make decisions that mean choosing between the good son and the bad son. The thing is, Gibby's parents had always thought he was like Richard, the good twin, but now Gibby's father can see just how much he's resembling, Jason, the bad twin. Gibby is growing up and becoming his own man, choosing his own way of dealing with the impossible choices of life. Like The Rizen’s choice of casting a strong woman as its lead, The Unwilling’s choice to cast a man who suffers from mental illness (who is not a homicidal manic) as its lead will serve as the pinnacle of my praise. Judah a young woman, who is a foundling raised in the castle alongside the prince and future heir, as his foster-sister. She scorned by the courtiers and detested by the king, but much loved by the monarchy princes and the heir's betrothed.

The story really is about the four children growing up in Highfell, especially Judah as she finds her place and purpose through everything she has had to endure. The book is about Judah, who was adopted by the city’s royalty. The midwife called to deliver Gavin (the heir of the city) had just delivered Judah, and the Lady of the City couldn’t bear to let the parentless girl go. But shortly thereafter, it was clear that Gavin and Judah had an unnatural bond — the emotions and physical sensations one person feels, the other person feels as well. Most notably, if one is injured, so is the other. If one were to die, so would the other. And as she grew up Judah couldn’t be simply cast aside — she becomes a protected, but hated, member of the household. Marion called. She saw him at the square. His hair was longer, but she knew him. She said he was pale, that prison cost him twenty pounds.”Yes, the book is lengthy but Kelly’s prose is lush and not a word is wasted. And I hope that there will be so much more from this mystical universe in the very near future… Gavin and Judah and born on the same day in very different circumstances. Gavin, high born and an heir while Judah is an orphan and taken in by the elite out of duty. The bond between Gavin and Judah grows intense day by day and they have a strange connection and both feel each other's emotions and sensations. Gavin's father, Lord Elban has plans for all of them while his healer Nate has been planted in the family to represent his people and keep the pair alive since if one is gravely injured, the other will die as well. So Judah is both treasured and a pariah.

Nate is introduced in the prologue as a young boy in the Slonimi caravan who is taken in by Derie as a kind of apprentice. She's a nasty, abusive woman who physically abuses Nate and Charles as she trains them to be "useful" to the cause. She is the first of many to abuse, maim, play mind games, and use people as if they were chess pieces on a board rather than human beings. It was so hard to find a single redeeming quality with anyone in this story. Even the unwilling victims are hard to root for as they were forced to make vicious choices to stay one step ahead of those toying with them. For a while, I thought Nate was a decent guy, but the more the book wore on, the more he seemed to fit right in with the most deranged and immoral. Incredible imagery and captivating characters with crisp dialogue, made this one of my all time favorites.

OCD vs Old Ones: Jonathan Heap’s “The Unwilling” gets a lot of things right, including a stellar cast and great premise, but fails to fully electrify. While the first part is filled with overly long and drawn out palace intrigue in which no one has a spine or the guts to just stab Elban in the face, the reader is constantly reminded Judah is special. A magus with secrets that aren’t really secret is very interested in Judah because she is special but we still don’t know why.