Waiting on Wednesday: Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. This meme spotlights upcoming releases that I'm eagerly anticipating. ---
Sword and Verse
Kathy MacMillan 
Expected Publication: January 19, 2016
Genre: YA Fantasy

Raisa was just a child when she was sold to work as a slave in the kingdom of Qilara. Despite her young age, her father was teaching her to read and write, grooming her to take his place as a Learned One. In Qilara, the Arnathim, like Raisa, are the lowest class, and literacy is a capital offense. What’s more, only the king, prince, tutor, and tutor-in-training are allowed to learn the very highest order language, the language of the gods. So when the tutor-in-training is executed for teaching slaves this sacred language, and Raisa is selected to replace her, Raisa knows any slipup on her part could mean death.

Keeping her secret is hard enough, but the romance that’s been growing between her and Prince Mati isn’t helping matters. Then Raisa is approached by the Resistance—an underground army of slave rebels—to help liberate Arnath slaves. She wants to free her people, but that would mean aiding a war against Mati. As Raisa struggles with what to do, she discovers a secret that the Qilarites have been hiding for centuries—one that, if uncovered, could bring the kingdom to its knees.

Literacy is a capital offense. 
It's YA fantasy with a girl who's raised as a slave but taught to be literate by her father in a kingdom where literacy is only exclusive to [probably] the noble class. Oh, it does not stop there because she's not only literate but knows the language of the gods which is only permitted to be learned by four people.
Of course the struggle does not stop there. There's forbidden love and a kingdom with deep, dark secrets.
Who can resist that?