The Reader by Traci Chee

Sefia was living the typical life of a child until she comes home from playing at the neighbor's house and finds her father tortured and dead on the kitchen floor.  She knows the plan and has practiced it enough she doesn't even have to think.  She grabs her supplies and opens the secret door and heads out to what she hopes is safety.  It takes her back to the berry patch and she goes to Aunt Nin for help.

G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published September 13th.

Sefia learns to fend for herself in the woods with Aunt Nin teaching her.  They avoid towns for the most part, only going in to sell furs.  They are on their way to the port to find a boat to take them further away from those who after them.  Sefia takes the furs in and trades them for money.  When she returns, Nin has been captured.  She knows she should go, but Nin is all she has left in her life.  She goes after her instead.

She has a secret treasure with her.  It's a book that the powers to be would kill for.  They already have, that's why her father died.  She doesn't know why it's so important.  She decides to try to make some sense of it and eventually learns to read.  She reads the stories in it thinking they are fictional.  They're not...

When she finds a young boy being kept in a cage, she knows he was stolen from his family and has now become part of their fighting team.  She helps him escape.  Now she has two groups of people who want to find her.  Not good.

This story is long but there's plenty happening.  You see the past of Sephia and her friend.  You watch her develop powers she had no idea she had.  And you get to meet the ship captain she was reading about.  She hasn't read about the future yet, but it's most likely in that book also.

When this segment of the story ends, there's still much more to the tale so there will be sequels.  This is the Sea of Ink and Gold series and it's quite impressive if a bit bloodthirsty.  The next book should be even more interesting.