Wen Spencer, A Brother’s Price

A Brother's Price

Wen Spencer

Roc, July 2005, $6.99, 320 pp.

ISBN 0451460383

Imagine a world where women have trouble giving birth to male children because of an extremely high rate of still births and miscarriages. Women rule the world, run the factories and farms, and keep the males hidden to protect them from desperate females who are husband thieves. Men are considered property with no rights whatsoever. They are sold to wives of their family's choosing.

Jerin Whistler is luckier than most because his family loves him and want to make a match for him that will make him happy. That chance comes when he helps rescue a female on his property who had been attacked. It turns out she is a royal princess and her sister Ren comes to find her. Ren falls in love with the handsome Jerin who shares her feelings. Because they have royal blood flowing through their veins Jerin is considered eligible to be the prince consort. When they get to the capital, all Ren's sisters agree to the match but there is a plot to overthrow the crown and Jerin is caught in the crosshairs.

When it comes to fresh, innovative storytelling, almost nobody is better than Wen Spencer. In a world where men are cosseted and hidden away because they are so rare, the hero accepts his lot in life as the norm since that is how it has always been. Feminists are going to take this book as their symbol because the author proves women can do what are traditional male roles in our world. Once the audience starts this novel, they will find it absolutely impossible to put down.

Harriet Klausner