So, I nabbed this book after seeing a comment somewhere about it on social media. It's a young adult fantasy/ romance but with a unique twist from the traditional romance, in the sense that it is the tale of a Princess who falls in love with the sister of her betrothed. I feel like there aren't nearly enough LGBTQ books out there, especially in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. I've only read one other recently and sadly they both gave me the same vibe. I don't know what it is exactly, but it seems as if writing lesbian romance instills some feeling of dullness. I loooove some love in my fantasy, but why are opposite sex romances so much more exciting and passionate on paper?
FIRST, I'll say, this was a lovely enough story but not something that left me wanting more. The main character is likeable and the storyline is unique. Its an alternate world where magic is revered by some kingdoms and feared by others. Princess Dennaleia has a secret gift but as she is set to unite two kingdoms through marriage, she must find a way to rid herself of magic while maintaining its secrecy. In the meantime, someone is out to get the royal family and find a way to end the alliance between the two kingdoms. Princess Dennaleia unites with her fiancés sister, Princess Amarathine (Mare) to try to discover who is assassinating the royals and they fall in love.
Ok. So. The characters.
Dennaleia is alright when she's narrating (the perspective alternates between her and Mare) but when Mare narrates she seems like a frigid idiot. If this is how Mare sees her, why did they fall in love?
Truly though, she is not an idiot and this is the part I liked about her. She is well read, intelligent, and has a desire to help the kingdom and be useful(instead of planning parties).
Mare- Oh Mare. Ok so is it me or is it totally cliché for one of them to essentially be butch? Mare is a Princess who hates all things princessy. She swears and is dirty and only wants to wear pants....because one of them has to be the boy in this relationship right? It's not that this isn't a realistic character, it's just to me it seems like this is the easy go-to dynamic in a girl/girl relationship.
Thandilimon (The Prince)- I don't know much about this guy but that he is awfully dull and a complete idiot. How the fiancé of the main character barely exists in the book is beyond me but the reason she fell for his sister instead of him is apparent.
Most of the other characters don't matter much. What information is provided about them is either useless fluff or a means to distract you from the trail of the real villain. The only character who might be really interesting was killed off at the beginning of the book.
World building- I read a lot of other reviews on this book that complained of the lack of world building. How you are just thrown into the story and don't know anything about it. This is true, but I find that to be no different than most fantasy books I've read. All the questions I've read about the world building of this book were answered throughout the story. It would be awfully boring if chapter 1 was a history lesson. This book seemed to be no different than any other on that concept, for me.
So all in all, not a BAD book per se. Just extremely underwhelming.
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