SOLVED. YA Fantasy series. Young medieval lady with Ruby Stone power. She's married to unfaithful husband who considers her ugly & reliable, she runs away to remote village that is cursed. Cover: large ruby stone, reds. Read 2009-2011. Spoilers ahead. [s]

[Alannah]

I believe I read the book from 2009 to 2011. It was a young teen fantasy novel that was quite popular for the time and became a series of novels. The color of the cover back was reds and had a large ruby stone on the front of the cover, and the writing title was in handwriting.

a young noble lady in medieval times was married and considered ugly by her husband who referred to her as a steady and reliable Clydesdale or a draft horse, nothing to look at but got the job done who cheated on her with a higher noble lady whose power level was a purple amethyst, the husband compared the mistress as a thoroughbred beautiful and elegant and someone to prize and wish for in marriage.

She runs away to a remote village that is cursed and drained of magic. She revives it by poring her magic into the land to make it fertile again for the village by physically sticking her hands in farmland. In the process, she almost dies by almost breaking her stone that is a part of her it's a ruby. From so much energy being drained into the soil of the village as no previous noble families have done the task of caring for it.

Each person is born of class the darker their stone is the strength they are for magical abilities. The strongest being in the kingdom dark grey and black where they control necromancy, and the ability to talk to the dead. The weakest being opaque or white where those people live as commoners and have very little magical abilities. The woman begins to fall in love with a man who values her abilities and passion for caring for the village townspeople.

There is a celebration matchmaking party at night where available bachelor's dance naked in the moonlight in front of a fire to court and tempt their desired woman. As time goes on she begins a passionate relationship with this man and brings value to the village and gains allies amongst political warfare of who has the most power. As well gaining favor with one of the strongest families of a man whos drop-dead gorgeous where his stone is black, and the other strongest bachelor in the kingdom is his son who has the power of dark grey stone who competes with his father for power and women

[Becca]

Shalador's Lady by Anne Bishop? It's actually the 8th book in the Black Jewels series, but this review seems to match your description of the plot:

Lady Cassidy is trying to be a good Queen for Dena Nahele except Theran Greyhaven is undermining her at every step. He isn't shy about his disappointment that she isn't prettier and more powerful. Fortunately the rest of her dozen sworn Warlords and Warlord Princes are much happier with her. So are the landen and the other people she rules over in Greyhaven.

She takes a trip to the Shalador Reserve in Eyota to meet more of the Shaladoran Queens and discovers a land parched and almost barren. She knows how to transfer her power to enrich the land but she has never dealt with a land so empty. She almost drains all of her power and shatters her jewels before her Court realizes what's happening and takes her away.

Another review mentions that in this series, a darker coloured gem means more power.

[Kris]

Alannah, I added some details to the header/topic title. You can update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website or app. (On the Mobile website, click the "Desktop version" link at the bottom of the page.)

[Caroline]

following

[Alannah]

Becca wrote: "Shalador's Lady by Anne Bishop? It's actually the 8th book in the Black Jewels series, but this review seems to match your description of the plot:

Lady Cassidy is trying to be a go..."

This is it! Thank you :)