The Traitor Baru Cormorant

When her island nation is conquered by the Empire of Masks and her family torn apart, young Baru Cormorant vows that she will gain enough power within the Empire to one day free her people. At 18, she is appointed the Imperial Accountant for the country of Aurdwynn - a country consisting of 13 duchies that are constantly at each other’s throats. Through her position, Baru balances the orders of the empire with her own desire to destroy it.

 

Dickinson has created a fully thought out world in this book and not only did he make economic policies and maneuvers as interesting as the traditional fantasy armed conflicts, he pulled off a twist ending that even I, a seasoned reader of books-with-twist-endings, did not see coming.