I am not sure I can rate this book. I did finish it. I really enjoyed the concept and story line... up to a point. Approximately 2/3 the way in a detailed scene is added of a brother getting younger 14 yr old sister drunk and raping her. Now, there are several areas of the book where a more detailed description could have been given of mutually consenting adults. But was not. WHY, WHY, WHY do authors feel the need to rape/sexually abuse a child in detail (when suggesting it in the story would have been more than enough) - just to prove how bad a character is? It's beyond my comprehension and acceptance! For this alone I leave the book unrated.
Now, for the story itself - intriguing and had me curious as to what would happen in the end, but it is left at a cliff hanger. Problem for me is, do I really want to chance the second book? Considering the offensive subject matter I ran into within this book? I don't know. There are many strong women characters brought into this story, for me they didn't scream "women's right fanatics", which was a good thing. I think the man/woman relationships were quite balanced. Many things are dealt with here, relationships, decisions, rape, fanaticism, when to go against command, the list goes on. This all brought several layers to the story. For the rest of the book outside my opinion of some subject matter, I would give this a 3 - 3.5 stars.
Now for the editing - horrible. Several words are used incorrectly, almost as if auto correct was totally relied upon but not checked in a final edit. At times this was so bad I had to reread several sections, because I was scratching my head thinking "what the heck?". So, if your a stickler about proper editing then stay clear. In my mind, punctuation was pretty good. For this I would have to give it 2 stars. Thus, rounding it out to about the low side of a 3 star total.