Summary:
In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.
But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose."
My review:
⭐⭐⭐
The summary of this book made it sound like the most generic YA fantasy ever, and that's what it delivered. A princess fighting for her kingdom with her ragtag group of supporters, and an enemy King to fall in love with. The story itself wasn't terrible, but the writing was what put me off. The plot and characters felt very cliche, and I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for something unique.
As someone who has tried and failed to write book-length stories, I can appreciate how many sides there are to it. Even if the story is nice, the book can have bad pacing, stunted dialogues, flat characters, or a lack of world-building, and unfortunately, this book had all those problems. The sentences were wordy and confusing, and the dialogue didn't feel realistic. There wasn't an effortlessness to the writing, which also made it an effort to read.
The magical spells were awkwardly worded, with the magic itself being haphazard and unexplained throughout the book. I did not have the patience to read any of those long, slightly Russian-sounding names tossed in with characters named Leo and Gabril. There were shapeshifters and fae casually involved, though overall the land didn't seem to have much magic. It was a fantasy book without the fantasy part adequately connected to the rest of the story. The plot was centered around Lorelai's magic, but the other supernatural elements such as the dragons and their powers were sidelined.
The inconsequential action scenes didn't make much sense and only added to the tediousness of the book. Lorelai kicking off walls and somersaulting through the air hardly led to anything, as ultimately all the battles were fought with her magic. I didn't understand the extent and limits of her powers either, as I always felt she could've just sent an earthquake to the palace and made the earth swallow Irina, instead of creating all this drama.
The fact that the person's name had to rhyme with the spell was inexplicably funny, because what if someone had a long name that didn't conveniently rhyme with 'scry'? "Mirror mirror I like stew. Also, show me where's Bartholomew"?
The story was sped up in all the wrong places. I don't remember much of the climax or major events, just Lorelai tromping through forests. I hardly understood where she was heading, or what her great aims in life were. The author seemed to have an idea of the basic storyline, but the rest of it was just repetitive scenes of them getting attacked by random things.
I liked that the author came up with her own magic spells. I had thought it was mostly random words, but there was a glossary at the end, which helped the book make more sense. Some of the dialogue was nice, but most of it got hidden by the overly-lengthy sentences. The characters or lands weren't developed much, and the book wasn't very deep or thorough. Ultimately, though I enjoyed the overall plot, I wouldn't necessarily call it a must-read. You aren't missing out on much even if you skip this one.
Thank you for reading my review!
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