The Registry by Shannon Stoker

Morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Shannon Stoker's New Adult debut, The Registry.

Imagine a future where daughters are a commodity, auctioned off to the highest bidder based on their assessed value as a potential wife. This is Mia's world. Like all girls her age, Mia has looked forward to the day she'd be entered into the Registry. But things change when Mia's sister Corinna passes along a grave message: the Registry is not what they were raised to believe it was. Now Corinna is dead and Mia is sure it was at the hands of her husband. Mia vows to escape but not before one of the wealthiest and most resourceful lunatics in the country sets his eye on her. Now she's on the run, trying to outwit a man with the brains and the connections to make sure she never gets away.

I rather liked this debut from Shannon Stoker! The futuristic world is interesting as are the hints we get about the origin of the Registry itself. Mia is determined to learn the truth so the question then becomes who can she trust - who's telling her the real story.

As a character, Mia is headstrong and smarter than she's been raised to believe (smart isn't going to get you a husband in this world), but she's also incredibly naive. I thought Stoker did a great job in creating a character who is sheltered and young and experiencing the outside world for the first time. There were times when Mia's actions began to border on kiddie behavior but in all honesty I felt it was more proof that her upbringing had given her such a skewed view of the world and such a lack of experience beyond her own home.

There is of course a massive cliffhanger of an ending here with a big showdown and everything, so I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment.

The Registry was fun and offered up a truly chilling future that's not far off from the way things have been handled at times throughout history - the mandatory draft for men, the dowry for women - of course in this case it's not the parents but rather the potential husband who must pay, and the overall treatment of women as well. It is perhaps a better read for teens than adults but there is definitely some cross over appeal (I enjoyed it).

Rating: 3.5/5

To see what others on the tour thought, check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Shannon Stoker, you can like her on Facebook and follow here on Twitter. And for a taste of The Registry, check out this excerpt from the publisher.