Reviewed by Silvara on
I like when a girl pretending to be a boy is done well. This book does it well. In part because Aurora never actually means to pretend she's a boy with Niklaas. It happens by accident while she's still under the influence of the drugs the slavers gave her.
And when she's in her right mind again, she's afraid to tell Niklaas that she's not her brother. Partly because he's a big guy and she isn't sure if he won't try to capture her himself. And partly because she needs him to help her save her brother.
I like that there is no insta-love. They both fall for each other gradually, after becoming friends first. They deal with the issues of Aurora's deception, as well as Niklaas' stubbornness. And Niklaas had his own secrets, so it wasn't all on Aurora lying to him, he was basically doing it to her even if it was mostly by omission.
There was a lot of world building, without it ever being too much or too complicated. I also liked how Aurora and Niklaas picked on each other during their journey. It was funny and you could see just how well they got each other, and got along together.
There are 3 different POV characters in this: Aurora, Niklaas, and the Ogre Queen. It wasn't hard to follow who was the current POV, and I loved getting to see inside the heads of all of them. The Queen is the evil one, everyone knows it including herself. She has moments of doubt that her path is actually the right one, which makes for a really wonderfully rounded character.
If you haven't read this one yet, you need to do so.
This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 6 July, 2016: Finished reading
- 6 July, 2016: Reviewed