Not sure how I feel about this one ... I think I would have been quite captivated had I read this in my younger years, before the overabundance of teen girls/dystopia that hit the market. I'm not sure if it's readers/publicists or the author herself creating comparisons between "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Lord of the Flies" ... there is a quote from both books here to start this one. To plant the similarity if someone hadn't thought of it on their own (which granted, they likely would). I'd throw in "The Giver" as well, with the colored ribbons designating age/duties, the assignment of work & marriage.

I just felt like we (the reader) were dropped into this world without any background, and that so little information was given. It was a little hard to understand. The very first words are "no one speaks of the grace year" and that's a little hard for the reader to then understand the story! 

Everything was just abrupt and kept me disconnected. Told in first person/present tense - so much just the mind ramblings of the MC Tierney. Very limited Table of Contents - five sections ... Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer, The Return.  As I attempted (for my own sake) to write up a little recap (below/SPOILERS) ... it actually made me like the book less. Just so much didn't make sense to me, so much was easy to miss (major reveal that I hadn't even realized was a possibility). The ending ... was really like most of the book. Nothing clear, you (the reader) have to read between the lines and determine things for yourself because things are not said outright. Uber ambiguous. 

So - some spoilers ahead - this is mostly for ME to see if I can understand by attempting a recap ;)

in this community, the "grace year" is a girl's 16th year, when the community feels she comes into "magic" that can damage others. All of age girls are banished to a location outside the community for a year. Here they come into their magic, and often destroy each other in the process (killing, cutting off pieces of each other, etc) ... plus, on the "outside" their are "poachers" who want to kill them and return them to the community in pieces/bottles for payment. Any girl who simply disappears, her family back in the community will be punished. She has to return (in person or in pieces). Before the girls go out, the "eligible" boys/men of the year will select "wives" (giving a veil) and the veiled girls have some distinction over the others - will wed on their return (if they return) whereas all others will be assigned to a work duty. 

There seem to be more girls than boys in this community. Tierney has several sisters, no brothers. There's a big thing about flowers - all flowers mean something, and every flower in the world seems to be available and around and used as a language ( I never really got this).  Our MC is having dreams, visions of a young girl (this is explained at the end, totally predictable to me, but it just interrupted the flow early on).  As the girls leave to get to the place where they will spend a year, there is conflict and horror (Lord of the Flies moments), mostly inhumanity between the girls themselves. I never fully understood why they were acting this way rather than working together (there was a newstory about a 'real' "Lord of the Flies" situation, a bunch of kids stranded on an island, and they ended up working together to survive, not turning savage). Here ... it ends up that the water is poisoned, so that explains much, that and the mystery, that no one really knows what "the magic" is.

At one point, our MC leaves the compound and is rescued/captured by a poacher Ryker. Again - I never really understood the whole "poacher" thing, the "outskirts" community. Total SPOILER here, but it turns out both of Tierney's parents are working with the people on the outside. Tierney spends some time with Ryker ... and apparently they fall in love. Really, I never felt anything between them, in fact, at the end, when SPOILER it's revealed that Tierney is pregnant, um ... I totally missed that was even a possibility! Now there's closed door sex scenes, but this had been written in such a way that I didn't even realize sex had happened at all! One of Ryker's friend/brother? tells Tierney to leave or else, so she returns to the community and tries to get the girls to give up the poisoned water and come back to sanity, with some success. 

I don't know if I was distracted or just not interested enough to pay attention as needed, but I can't give a totally clear recap of next steps. Some poachers attack the girls. Tierney sets a trap ... it's Hans (a guard) but is he also Anders (the friend/brother?), Ryker is killed (how's that for a buzzkill!) and the girls make it back to the community. Tierney wants to reveal what she's learned (the poisoned water, there really isn't magic or need for a grace year, the people outside aren't all bad, the people in the community set everything/everyone up) but she has her own reveal ... pregnant belly. Her betrothed still claims her/ the child (dreams/magic). Tierney finds out her mother is "the usurper" working with the outsiders.  Tierney has the baby ... it's the little girl from her dreams. She dies, and is reunited with Ryker in death.  

So ... this one didn't do it for me. The kindle copy was available in Kindle Unlimited, but the book was also at the library in ebook and audio. I went with the audio, but had the Kindle copy for reference.