Review: Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

Published: December 9th 2014 by Delacorte Press

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Synopsis:

Game of Thrones meets the Grimm's fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty's daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.

Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora's throne ten years ago.

Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it's too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?

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Review:

After reading so many series, I needed to read a stand alone, and Princess of Thorns fit the bill. I've read Stacey Jay books before so knew I wouldn't be disappointed, and I wasn't.

This isn't a retelling, in its true respect, more of an addition to the original story. After years of mourning the loss of her deceased mother, Aurora persuades her father to marry again. Her new mother is a fearsome magical queen of another realm, who also happens to be her mothers sister and aunt. Queen Ekeeta soon holds the kingdom and its King in a thrall of adoration for her, but Aurora, with the little magic she knows, breaks the curse and Aurora and her brother, Jor, witness the death of their beloved father. Before their own demise, Aurora and Jor are rescued in the nick of time and taken to safety by a kindly guard, who takes care of them and becomes a father figure for the next nine years.  Aurora spends the rest of her childhood planning to retake the kingdom which is hers by right.

Prince Nicklaas is also under a curse. His father loved to rule his own dragon kingdom so much he placed a curse on all his sons to die on their 18th birthday so they wouldn't take his throne. However, the witch who performed the curse changed it without the King knowing. Instead of dying, all the boys turned into swans and didn't die. Prince Nicklaas knows of this curse and hunts for the only way to be redeemed of his feathered fate. He pursued the witch, who eventually told him the only way to escape his fate is to marry a princess of another kingdom. Nicklaas begins his search for the lost Princess Aurora, knowing she's the only one left who can save him, and hoping he can use his wits and charm to get her to marry him before his 18th birthday.

This is a story of adventure, trust and of loss, and learning to deal with that loss. Whilst Nicklaas tends to be flippant and jovial, he carries his burden none too lightly, and feels his fate growing from the beginning. Aurora is more serious. She knows who is accountable for her fate and wants to punish the queen dearly. When Nicklaas and Aurora meet, you can tell fate has a hand and without knowing it, they both help each other overcome the sadness that sits on the horizon, waiting.

Throughout their many adventures, and while Nicklaas believes for the most that Aurora is a boy, their friendship grows steadily. Only near the end do the tangles of emotion hamper them, and that's only because of their stubbornness in trying to do the right thing.

I loved how the twist at the end sorted their relationship out. When they find the witch, the very one who placed the original curse on Nicklaas and his brothers, their paths should have separated but neither of them are that cold hearted as to leave the other behind. When they do, fate strikes again and brings them together for the finale.

For a stand alone, this book had a satisfying beginning, middle and end. And once done, with all ties nicely tethered, the story put my faith back into retelling's of fairy tales. Some authors, particularly Stacey Jay, can do them justice.

-CBx

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About the Author

Stacey Jay is a recovering workaholic (or at least working hard at recovering) with three pen names, two small children, and a passion for playing pretend for a living. She’s been a full time mom-writer since 2005 and can't think of anything she'd rather be doing. Her former careers include theatre performer, professional dancer, poorly paid C-movie actress, bartender, waiter, math tutor (for real) and yoga instructor.

You can find Stacey Jay here:

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Review: The Valiant (The Valiant #1) by Lesley Livingston

The Valiant (The Valiant #1) by Lesley Livingston

Published: February 14th 2017 by Razorbill

 Rating: 3 out of 5

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Synopsis:

Princess. Captive. Gladiator.

Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king, the sister of the legendary warrior Sorcha, and the sworn enemy of Julius Caesar.

When Fallon was a child, Caesar’s armies invaded her homeland, and her beloved sister was killed in battle.

Now, on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is eager to follow in her sister’s footsteps and earn her place in the fearsome Cantii war band. She never gets the chance.

Fallon is captured and sold to an elite training school for female gladiators—owned by none other than Julius Caesar. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon’s family might be her only hope of survival.

Now Fallon must overcome vicious rivalries and deadly fights—in and out of the arena. And perhaps the most dangerous threat of all: her forbidden yet irresistible feelings for Cai, a young Roman soldier.

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Review:

A book I've been wanting to read for a while is The Valiant. I love history and anything to do with the Roman era so a female gladiator? Bring it!

The story starts with Fallon, (not sure how Celtic that name is, but still). She's a tribal kings daughter, practising an attack move involving her friend, Mael, a chariot and spear. The move called Morrigan's Flight wasn't ever perfected by Fallon's brilliant deceased sister, who Fallon worshipped, but Fallon believes she can do it. It involves running along a pole and throwing the spear at a target, while standing between the horses.Fallon fails but her friend Mael suddenly gets all concerned when Fallon falls beneath the chariot and narrowly misses out on death. They've been friends since children, and now a different kind of edge to their friendship arises from Fallon falling from the attempted attack move. Mael kisses her, and Fallon understands that she's deeply attracted to Mael, and she never realised it before.

That night at the ceremony to announce her possible joining of her fathers war band, Fallon is unexpectedly forced into a marriage arrangement with Mael's older brother, Aeddan, who is head of his own tribe. She knows she can't reason with her fathers decision so she rips off all her jewellery denoting her station as princess, and plans to run away with Mael. But Aedden gets to her first. Mael and Aedden fight, and Maels is mortally wounded. Now Fallon knows she has no choice but to run. But before she gets far she's knocked on the head by a stranger. She comes to in a boat, and despite her protests, she knows she's been captured by a slaver. Her fate is now in her own hands. She can try to escape and return home, to a marriage with a man she doesn't love and who murdered her new found love, or she can see where this road takes her. In the next months, she actually becomes friends with the slave master, called Charon, who takes a keen interest in her welfare despite the chains that now mark her neck and wrists. She also makes some friends and enemies amongst the other slave girls. Fallon proves her strength of character and never falls short of her desire to kill Julius Caesar, the man who killed her sister.

Eventually, Fallon and her friend Elka, are paraded to be bought at a slave market. They are purchased by Lady Achillea who runs a ludus, a fighting school for female gladiators. The only thing is - the school is owned by Julius Caesar.

From here, Fallon has to prove herself in the arena. And must prove herself in the ludus amongst the other spirited women who also have to fight in the arena on a regular basis. It's a fight for survival.

Along the journey, Fallon meets Cai, a Roman Decurion. An officer in the legion of Julius Caesar. He also singles Fallon out and gets close to her. Eventually with romantic inclinations.

Fallon is a strong character. Her indecisiveness around Cai is understandable because of her hewn hatred for the Romans, but she shows compassion when she gets to know him. He is only a man after all, and no one can help where they come from in the beginning. Fallon also discovers the truth about her sister, and some more truths about her father. But mostly, Fallon lives her life in the Ludus and becomes a really strong warrior.

This is the part where I get stuck. Because amongst all of this that has happened, which if I'm being honest, I saw straight out of Gladiator (even some of the dialogue is similar), there isn't an awful lot else that happens that is not clichéd or anything you haven't seen before, including the nasty girl and the hidden enemy who wants you dead.

As much as I was looking forward to Valiant, I didn't read anything that was completely original and beyond anything I'd heard or read before, which is a shame, because so much is known for the Roman era but also so little is known.

I am looking forward to the next book in this duology, but I couldn't help feeling disappointed at the end.

-CBx

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About the Author

LESLEY LIVINGSTON is a writer living in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of twelve books to date. Her first novel, WONDROUS STRANGE, was winner of the CLA Young Adult Book of the Year 2010, a White Pine Honour Book, shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Speculative Fiction, and in 2015 was named one of CBC’s “100 YA Books That Make You Proud To Be Canadian”. DARKLIGHT, the second book in this series was a finalist for the Indigo Teen Read Awards. The concluding volume in the trilogy, TEMPESTUOUS, was a finalist for the Monica Hughes Award. These books have sold to more than ten countries to date, and WONDROUS STRANGE has been optioned for film/TV by Shaftesbury Films. Her other trilogies have both won the Copper Cylinder award for Young Adult fiction.

You can find Lesley Livingston here:

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Review: Wintersong (Wintersong #1) by S. Jae-Jones

Wintersong (Wintersong #1) by S. Jae-Jones

Published: February 7th 2017 by Titan Books

 Rating: 2 out of 5

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Synopsis:

Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.

All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.

But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.

Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.

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Review:

Wintersong is a keen start to a duology that focuses on pretty poetic language, with a pseudo historical story of a girls slow burning love for a fabled goblin king.

While I admit the writing is classy and spellbinding in the most, I found the story to be a little drab. Elizabeth is the middle child of two eccentric parents. One who used to be a worldly musician turned drunk and one who's effervescent nature attracts the locals to drink at her tavern. On a night, the towners come to be either entertained or to gossip.

Elizabeths sister, Kathe, is the belle of the town. She is a beautiful by nature but we soon learn that she stole Elizabeths love interest, and now Hans comes across as creepy rather than the lover scorned. Liesl, (she has two names in this book) also has a younger prodigy brother who is a marvel when he plays the violin. Liesl herself is a musician too and plays the klavier (piano) but is constantly being put down by her father. She helps Josef train for his audition which will take his to music halls around Europe, if he impresses the Maestro.

One day, while shopping in the town Liesl and her sister come across the goblin sellers of the market, and she gets her first sighting of the goblin king. Naturally, she finds him alluring but strange, and she encourages her sister, Kathe, away. But the goblin king tries to lure Liesl to the goblin world by using Kathe. She then makes a bargain to exchange places with her.

From here the story is really, really slow. So much that I began to lose interest. There also wasn't a whole lot of story going on, once you got past all the purple prose and constant droning of Liesl going on about how plain she is, and how her music isn't that great because everyone tells her. You see, the Goblin king is enchanted by her music, and even tells Liesl that its her music he wants to hear, not her.

Personally, I didn't find the story romantic, or even a slow burning love, the constant flips between emotions made it impossible for me to even like the two main characters. Liesl couldn't ever decide if she wanted to stay with the goblin king. And the goblin king seemed to prefer his 'god' to anything else. This was also a no-no for me. You can't bring this worlds religions into a YA fantasy.

At the end, this isn't a faery or goblin story with its wild parties (I think there was one but that was all) and its wild hunts, and its seelie/unseelie versus who's going to rule when someone off's the goblin king. This is really a story which shades on the intricacies of leading a normal boring life to, maybe, living underground with someone who can't decide if he wants you or your talent.

So, in short, I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped. Too wishy-washy and drawn out to really get a grips with the little story there was.

The writing, however was diverse enough to read in the beginning, but even then I got bored with its over-poetic-ness and lyrical eccentricity.

-CBx

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About the Author

S. Jae-Jones, called JJ, is an artist, an adrenaline junkie, and the author of Wintersong, forthcoming from Thomas Dunne in February 2017.

Born and raised in sunny Los Angeles, she lived in New York City for ten years before relocating down to Dixie, where she is comfortably growing fat on grits and barbecue. When not writing, she can be found rock-climbing, skydiving, taking photographs, drawing pictures, and dragging her dog on ridiculously long hikes.

You can find S. Jae-Jones here:

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Review: The Beauty of Darkness (The Remnant Chronicles #3) by Mary E. Pearson

The Beauty of Darkness (The Remnant Chronicles #3)
by Mary E. Pearson

Published: August 2nd 2016 by Henry Holt

 Rating: 4 out of 5

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Synopsis:

Lia has survived Venda—but so has a great evil bent on the destruction of Morrighan. And only Lia can stop it.

With war on the horizon, Lia has no choice but to assume her role as First Daughter, as soldier—as leader. While she struggles to reach Morrighan and warn them, she finds herself at cross-purposes with Rafe and suspicious of Kaden, who has hunted her down.

In this conclusion to the Remnant Chronicles trilogy, traitors must be rooted out, sacrifices must be made, and impossible odds must be overcome as the future of every kingdom hangs in the balance.

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