Title: The Priestess Trials
Author: A.A. Lee
Pub Date: March 3rd 2020
Pages: 278
Amazon|Goodreads

Famine. Slavery. War. Survival.

When hunger strikes her village, Tala, a war orphan, thought marriage was her ticket out of slavery. But her strategic move only leads to desperation. She’s forced to run from her fiancé to escape the same fate as his three previous wives, who died at his hands.

The Priestess Trials may provide the cover she needs to prevent her disastrous marriage, but it’s even harder than she thought it would be. Her competitors are years ahead of her in skill and social class. Her dark skin and short hair mark her as a slave, and that makes her the target of their ire.

Will she endure their cruelty to save her life and become a priestess, or will she abandon her plans altogether and spend the rest of her life in dire straits?

The Priestess Trials is an exciting, wholly imaginative Asian-based YA novel that is sure to surprise readers until the very end. A.A Lee knows what she is doing (clearly, she is a priestess of words). The world–or in this case the villages–Lee creates is one of stark realism. It’s a grim time for women. There’s no sugar coating the treatment of people like Tala and the attitudes of those around her. Just when you think things get better, they don’t. The ending was unexpected but I liked it. Lee is definitely an author I will read more from in the future.