Flamecaster: Shattered Realms, Book 1

Parents need to know that Flamecaster, by Cinda Williams Chima, is the first book in the Shattered Realms fantasy series, a spin-off of the bestselling Seven Realms series. If you haven't read the first series, you can still keep up -- there's a map and some explanation near the beginning of how the magic in this world works. With the realms in question perpetually at war and the four principle characters working as spies or revolutionaries, expect plenty of deaths. Soldiers are killed in attacks with explosions, swords, throat slittings and stabbings with knives and poison daggers, poison, and burning. More jarring than war violence: Scary fanatic priests run around trying to drain and drink the blood of mages to "cleanse" them; a main character is attacked twice in two tense scenes, and other mages are found bled dry. A young girl's neck is snapped, and a boy is stabbed to death repeatedly in front of an audience. Both main characters watch their fathers die by stabbing. One then kills someone else, then stabs herself, and the other runs away with a broken ankle that is later, painfully, set. The content is mature across the board, with teens (with lives like hard-living adults) who drink wine, ale, and rum. There's some swearing, although not beyond "bitch," and a few scenes of kissing and rumpled clothes with talk of how much can be done in a chair. The main characters are both resilient and brave, often willing to sacrifice themselves to save others.