"Enchanting, visceral, and twisty." - New York Times bestselling author of Ash Princess, Laura Sebastian "Bloodleaffeels like a classic in the making." - Sara Holland, New York Times bestselling author of Everless A roar of a dark and luscious epic fantasy that's layered with heady romance, bloodthirsty magic, and ghostly intrigue - an absolutely wicked delight. AGES: 14 plus AUTHOR: Crystal Smith is a writer, photographer, and artist who developed an early love of storytelling in a family of voracious readers. She resides in Utah with her high school sweetheart husband and two lively sons. When she isn't writing or creating, she can be found re-watching Jane Eyre or reading ghost stories with all the lights on Princess Aurelia is a prisoner to her crown and the heir that nobody wants. Surrounded by spirits and banned from using her blood-magic, Aurelia flees her country after a devastating assassination attempt. To escape her fate, Aurelia disguises herself as a commoner in a new land and discovers a happiness her crown has never allowed. As she forges new bonds and perfects her magic, she begins to fall for a man who is forbidden to rule beside her. But the ghosts that haunt Aurelia refuse to abandon her, and she finds herself succumbing to their call as they expose a nefarious plot that only she can defeat. Will she be forced to choose between the weight of the crown and the freedom of her new life?
I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A princess goes undercover in another kingdom after a failed assassination attempt in this young adult fantasy romance.
No way to break this easily – princess Aurelia is the dumbest princess I have ever met. This novel should be renamed to Aurelia and Her Awful, No Good, Stupid Choices. It seemed to me the author had the plot outlined, but she didn’t know how to make it move in that direction without sacrificing her main character. Over half of Aurelia’s problems are her poor choices and lack of awareness. It would be one thing if she started the novel with poor critical thinking skills, learning them as she developed her magic. However, Aurelia continued to make either poor decisions or rash decisions as the novel progressed.
On top of a problematic protagonist, the novel suffered from too many tropes and a data dump of world building. It was easy to guess the twists for everything from Aurelia’s love interest to the big bad of the novel. I liked some of the secondary characters, particularly Kate and Zan, but they are never used beyond propping up Aurelia’s story line. I will say the ending includes a satisfactory resolution to the plot as well as the characters. Perhaps there will be a sequel, although I have no interest in reading it.
tl;dr A problematic protagonist, too many tropes, and unorganized world building left me not really enjoying this novel.
