The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid

This story is set in the future when the leaders of the world are slightly crazy.  (Even more so than today.)  They assassinate their relatives, bomb other planets, have pushed the regular humans off the current planet to another world as "Excess", and they are vying for even more power.  To keep their children safe, they buy a "Diabolic".  That's a human looking guardian who will kill anyone who tries to harm the person they are guarding.  They would rather die than lose their human.  Everyone thinks of them as machines but they're not...

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published November 1st.

No one trusts anyone in this world, especially not your relatives.  The political ploys are far reaching and there are two factions in the world.  Those who believe they need to go back to science and learn more about their world to survive and those who believe in the god they have created and see no need to do so.  Since the emperor is the religious kind, he wants to get rid of all his opponents.  He accuses them of heresy.

The story moves a bit slowly but every little piece you read is important.  Without being obvious about it, the emperor has moved all the children to his world to live with him.  That way he can control them and promote them to the new positions when the parents die.  

The emperor has an evil mother.  She killed all her other children so that the one she wanted would become the emperor.  Now she has an eye on the upcoming nephew and is thinking of getting rid of the present emperor.  To be honest about it, he's thinking about killing her, too.  These families are blood thirsty and sadistic.

When the girl is called to the emperor's world, the guardian goes in her place.  Trying to act human, feel emotions, and keep her secret identity is hard.  It gets even harder when the nephew asks her to work with him to overthrow his uncle and grandmother.  Especially when she begins to have feelings for him.

It isn't until the very end of the book you see how it's going to turn out.  The ending is totally ironic and I loved it.  I'm just hoping that the new world will be better than the old.