I am back again with another wonderful indie read! Cassandra Aston has quickly become an auto-buy author for me. I have read her Deadly Fae duology and loved it! Obviously when I heard about this one, I needed it! The concept of the book is what made me want to read this but when I opened it and started reading…it sucked me in and I devoured this in a sitting!
I did pre-order her PR box for this book and will be posting a video on TikTok, so watch for that on my page. If you are not following me there yet…what are you doing?! That is where you will find all kinds of things from indie author interviews to book giveaways. You are missing out. But alas…on to this great book!
Rite of Unity 
Author: Caz Andra
Publisher: Cassandra D Aston
Published: August 6th 2026
Book Length: 383 Pages
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Buy the Book: Amazon
*I received a n ARC copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. All thoughts are my own. I also bought a harcover copy.*
What if the Hunger Games was a dating show? Welcome to the Rite of Unity.
You have until twenty-eight to be chosen. Marry or die.
In the Covenant States, marriage isn’t a choice. It’s a countdown. Every woman is watched, ranked, and evaluated until a man selects her or her time runs out. Maryn Veil has always known the rules. She just never expected to be chosen by him.
When Elias Hale, the president’s son and the most powerful bachelor in the nation, selects her for his Rite of Unity, Maryn finds herself in a world of televised trials, formal balls, and twelve women competing for the same future. The prize is safety. The cost is everything she thought she was.
Elias is not what she expected. Thoughtful, genuine, and desperate to be better than his father, he’s the kind of man she could almost believe in. But someone else is watching from the shadows, and he sees Maryn far more clearly than she’s comfortable with.
As the trials tighten and the stakes become impossible to ignore, Maryn begins to understand that surviving the rite and surviving the Covenant are not the same thing. In a system built on compliance, the most dangerous thing she can do is feel anything at all.
I’m not gunna lie, I finished the book and had an entire vent session with my husband about the truth behind her letter in her dedication. How so much of what happens in this book is not unrealistic…they are very real possibilities if certain things keep going the way they are in our world with regards to women.
“Men will never understand fear the way a woman does. It lives with us, no matter what choice we make. I refuse to give in to mine.”
Rite of Unity is the perfect blend of The Bachelor and Hunger Games with a little Handmaid’s Tale and George Orwell’s 1984 thrown in, where women are chosen by and Elite and have to compete in trials to try to win his hand in marriage. I really enjoyed the main characters but felt the side characters were a tad underdeveloped. I wanted to know more about them for sure. Near the middle and end, I did get more about a few of the side characters. There was just so much to this story I think it would have been difficult to give us backstory on the other characters. I truly loved seeing Maryn and how she navigated each situation, regardless of how things changed. Also, I have to honorably mention Vera because of the dress with pockets!
“I stepped forward, avoiding the mess, and pulled a tissue from the pocket of my dress. I’d neve had a dress with pockets before, but now that I know about them, I could never go back”
I know there is something more to Vera and I need answers!
There were a few moments that I had to flip back a chapter and make sure I did not miss something. There is something that happens in the middle of the book that I had to reread because I was sure that I had missed key points about. But alas, I did not. That fact was *poof* dropped on us. Other than that, the only thing that did not sit well with me was how forgiving to Caldren Maryn was compared to Elias. I think this may be due to their positions, one being the President’s son…yet they are both elite. I prefer Caldren and loved his POV, but I understand Elias as well.
Quick reminder that although there is a love triangle and some romantic elements, the romance remains a sublot. This story is at its heart, an all too believable dystopian.
This book hooked me and pulled me through the most unique story I have read in quite some time. Highly recommend if you are looking for a quick dystopian read. But that ending?!?!! There are so many questions, and I think CaZ needs to do more than just consider a sequel! We are begging for it!
“OUR WORTH IS NOT OUR WOMB WE WILL NOT BE DISCARDED”
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