writehollydavis
Written on Apr 18, 2019
An atmospheric and romantic debut fantasy perfect for fans of Ash and The Winner’s Curse.
Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile kingdoms.
But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a land where magic is forbidden.
Now Denna has to learn the ways of her new kingdom while trying to hide her growing magic. To make matters worse, she must learn to ride Mynaria’s formidable warhorses before her coronation—and her teacher is the person who intimidates her most, the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine, sister of her betrothed.
When a shocking assassination leaves the kingdom reeling, Mare and Denna reluctantly join forces to search for the culprit. As the two work together, they discover there is more to one another than they thought—and soon their friendship is threatening to blossom into something more.
But with dangerous conflict brewing that makes the alliance more important than ever, acting on their feelings could be deadly. Forced to choose between their duty and their hearts, Mare and Denna must find a way to save their kingdoms—and each other.
- ISBN10 0062433261
- ISBN13 9780062433268
- Publish Date 6 February 2018 (first published 22 November 2016)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint HarperCollins Publishers
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 416
- Language English
Reviews
bestmessever
Written on Jan 3, 2017
shannonmiz
Written on Sep 26, 2016
The disappointment stings a bit here, let's be real. Luckily, Holly prepared me before I went in, which I think was good. I had actually hoped she'd be wrong (after all, we differed wildly in our thoughts on Three Dark Crowns and several other fall books!), but alas, I am with her on this one.
I mean, look, it wasn't all bad or anything, so that's good? Let's start out with the good, because I like to look at the positives. In books anyway.
The Good:
- I really did ship the relationship between Mare and Denna! I was rooting for them, but I think that is mostly because I liked Mare. Though sadly I didn't feel... anything really for Denna, but I wanted Mare to be happy.
- The society was pretty cool about women in general. There were women in positions of leadership and in the army, and pretty much everywhere. I also liked that the idea of a f/f relationship in itself wasn't some kind of taboo, it was only made so because of other circumstances, not because it was two women.
- I want to hang the cover up as art in my room. Beyond gorgeous, yes?
The Not-So-Good:
-The world and plot felt so… generic fantasy, I guess. Secret magic powers, forced to marry a prince, royals fighting and scheming, I have seen it all before so many times. I didn’t really feel anything new with this one. Denna had her “family duty”, but oh wait, she has secret powers, but oops, she has to hide them… I feel like I had heard it before, basically.
-The characters were also underwhelming overall. Like I said above, I did like Mare. But she was kind of it. A few side characters held my interest, but mostly, I was apathetic. The names were also quite unwieldy, and I resorted to calling one guy “Lord Blahblah” for most of the book (meaning every part of the book he appeared in, you see).
-I was basically able to predict everything that happened before I read it. Even the end, I could see coming from a mile away, and I was kind of bummed and not as excited to read because of that.
-The dialogue kind of faltered a bit between super old-timey sounding to way too modern. It was like the characters couldn’t decide if they were from 1524 or 2012, and I didn’t know either.
-There were some pretty big instances of telling instead of showing. I am not usually even very critical of this, but it struck me enough to mention. In one instance, Denna was having a conversation with another character, and then randomly spurts out a bunch of feelings that I had no idea even existed, because there was no lead up to them, no sense at all that she’d been thinking anything along these lines. She just randomly tells us, like it’s now gospel because she said it out loud. It threw me off, and is probably one of the reasons I felt disconnected with the characters in general.
Bottom Line: In theory, great. In execution… less so. I still enjoyed the romance, and I am glad to have read it, because yes please to more LGBT+ in fantasy.
tweetybugshouse
Written on Jul 28, 2016
I was swept up in the story as it moves a long a good clip switching between the two main female characters Mare and Denna. I instantly loved Mare character as she really clung to just wanting to be herself and training horses instead of being some princess high in a tower watching over things and getting married to the best alliance. Then you got Denna who is the exact opposite she their simply for an alliance marriage but she got a secret she burning to keep a secret. I also thought the romantic tryst was handled very well and it worked very well for this story.
I really liked how the magic was handled in this fantasy it a wrapped up in this deceit plot where one country wants to rule over another, I got wrapped up in the details of who done what and you really thought was the evil mad man. It a very well done story for debut novel and looking forward to seeing what else the author has to offer.
cornerfolds
Written on Apr 26, 2016
*Review to come!*