From Goodreads: The first boy disappeared on the day of his birth, on a night when the pale yellow moon of the nighttime sky turned red and bathed the heavens in the ghastly color of blood, on the same night the Kingdom of Cokyri abruptly ceased its merciless attack.

Across the land of Hytanica, under the shadow of the crimson moon, infant boys continued to vanish. Not until the blood had faded from the sky did the disappearances stop and the bodies of the murdered infants were found outside the gates of the city, a final word from the greatest enemy Hytanica had ever known. For the next sixteen years, peace reigned, but one mystery remained unsolved. The Cokyrians had abducted forty-nine newborns, but returned only forty-eight bodies.

Now, as seventeen-year-old Princess Alera of Hytanica is besieged from all sides by suitors vying for the Throne, a teenage Cokyrian boy, Narian, is encountered within the walls of her Kingdom, a boy who will show Alera a world where women serve a purpose and not just a husband. As Narian helps Alera find her voice, she struggles against an arranged marriage that will shatter the life she has scarcely begun to live. And when Narian’s shocking past is uncovered, and war with Cokyri looms once more, he must fight to defy a fate ordained at his birth.

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Harlequin has been extremely gracious to allow me to read a copy of this novel, via Netgalley, and I must say I was intrigued.  I was pulled into the novel by both the synopsis and the first few pages of the novel, as it begins by talking about the disappearance and murder of 48 infant males.  With a beginning like that, I just had to know what it was all about, and I dove headfirst into the novel.  I did enjoy the novel, but I must state that the ending completely ruined the book for me.  Kluver does a great job maintaining reader interest, and while there are a lot of feminist undertones within the novel, speaking out about the treatment of women, I did thoroughly enjoy it—until a key character disappears from the plot altogether and… things do not end well.  I think that I’m one of those readers who wants to see good befall good characters, and this novel doesn’t deliver that.  Instead, I see more evil befalling the good characters, while the evil ones get their hearts desire, and that, in and of itself, makes me dislike the novel.  Don’t get me wrong, the writing is magnificent and Kluver has a great idea for this series, but the way the story pans out really turns me off.  I’ll probably read the beginning of the next book in the series, just to see if things get better for the good characters, but, unfortunately, it’s not high on my list of things to do.  I wouldn’t be able to stand it if more bad things happened… Three stars.