The Wish Granter by C J Redwine

The Wish Granter (Ravenspire, #2)

by C.J. Redwine

The world has turned upside down for Thad and Ari Glavan, the bastard twins of Súndraille&#x;s king. Their mother was murdered. The royal family died mysteriously. And now Thad sits on the throne of a kingdom whose streets are suddenly overrun with violence he can&#x;t stop. Growing up ignored by the nobility, Ari never wanted to be a proper princess. And when Thad suddenly starts training Ari to take his place, she realizes that her brother&#x;s ascension to the throne wasn't fate. It was the work of a Wish Granter named Alistair Teague who tricked Thad into wishing away both the safety of his people and his soul in exchange for the crown. So Ari recruits the help of Thad&#x;s enigmatic new weapons master, Sebastian Vaughn, to teach her how to fight Teague. With secret ties to Teague&#x;s criminal empire, Sebastian might just hold the key to discovering Alistair&#x;s weaknesses, saving Ari&#x;s brother -- and herself. But Teague is ruthless and more than ready to destroy anyone who dares stand in his way -- and now he has his sights set on the princess. And if Ari can&#x;t outwit him, she&#x;ll lose Sebastian, her brother... and her soul.

Reviewed by Jordon on

2 of 5 stars

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Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

I absolutely adored the first book in this series The Shadow Queen. I loved how strong and grown up the main character was, I loved the magic aspect, and I loved the romance. Naturally this has given me high hopes for The Wish Granter. I mean a Rumplestiltskin retelling in a YA fashion? I was definitely intrigued.

What I thought

  • Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. It was a fun, light read and was quick to get through.
  • This story felt a bit juvenile. If I were younger when I read this book I think I would have absolutely loved it. However, reading it at 27, it felt a lot more juvenile than it's predecessor The Shadow Queen. This is a YA and it is aimed towards teenagers, however, I didn't feel like the first book was in anyway juvenile, so I was surprised when reading this. What I mean by this is:
    • Ari is very optimistic about beating the fae that no one in decades has beaten. She runs headfirst into doing everything she can to change the situation, with no thought of consequences. It's all a bit too much; it's unrealistic expectations with such massive consequences. I felt like this story should have been darker.
    • The romance felt very cute-sy and cliche. Sebastian was all lovey-dovey for Ari in all of his chapters, and Ari was feeling guilty about wanting to kiss Sebastian considering she's trying to save her brother.
  • The dual POV chapters gave away half of the suspense of the story. I love when point of view's change between chapters, it's usually such an interesting way to progress a story. However, sometimes it gives away too much of the story and kills the suspense. In this book, the dual chapters killed the suspense of the romance.
  • In my opinion, Sebastian's chapters didn't progress the story. Well actually, the first few of his chapters provided us more information & background story to what a monster Teague is and how he affects the Kingdom. But after a few chapters, Sebastian's chapters became nothing more than him trying to keep it in his pants. I would have loved to see more of a story line with Sebastian, and then have both his and Ari's story lines to converge into one. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Have you read The Wish Granter? Did you like this book? What did you think about the retelling of Rumpelstiltskin?

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 25 October, 2017: Finished reading
  • 25 October, 2017: Reviewed