Synopsis:
Princess Ava used to be a weapon – sharp, strong and beautiful. But when she fails at her most important task, she’s forced to flee from her own family.
Only her personal bodyguard, Hans, remains loyal. Hans claims to know the real Ava but she finds that hard to believe – after all, she’s been the villain so long that she can’t remember anything else.
But deep in exile, Ava learns her kingdom needs a hero and she might be the only one who can save it. The catch? She’ll have to ally herself with the very people she blames for her downfall.
But in a game of life and death where the stakes are an entire kingdom, winning over her enemies will only be the beginning. Can one fugitive save her people, her kingdom and, hardest of all, herself?
In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood, the girl in the red hood has been swallowed up by the wolf and must decide if she’s willing to fight for her freedom, no matter the cost.
Review:
I never thought I’d say this about a Melanie Cellier book but this was a DNF. I loved her Spoken Mage series but this one just isn’t doing it for me.
Last year I struggled through The Princess Companion and I’m pretty sure I said I only finished it because I put the audiobook on a high speed. I thought reading the ebook format would make me like this series more, but apparently not.
The majority of this book was boring. The opening was high stakes and fast-paced, but then it really dropped off. There was too much time spent on things that didn’t matter and I’m really not sure where the Little Red Riding Hood inspiration was. I got over 70% through this book and the only thing mentioned that could have anything to do with it was Ava saying her father raised her to ‘be a monster’ – which was referred to as a wolf on one occasion.
I was hoping Princess Ava was going to turn into a wolf and that’s the twist this retelling was going to take. But no. Magic isn’t really present in this world other than fairy godmothers.
After hearing that her brother Konrad plans to take the throne, Ava decides to challenge him in the royal trials. You hear about these trials constantly, but it seemed like they were never coming. I even started skimming the pages to just read the trials to see how this ends, but after quickly reading the first one (which was a sword fight between Konrad and Ava’s chosen champion) I lost interest. There was no sense of excitement and I found that I didn’t care about the outcome.
I’m pretty sure these books come with a guaranteed happily ever after, so I’m assuming Ava wins the throne and ends up with her guard Hans. I do like a happily ever after, but when you don’t care about the characters, that doesn’t make a difference.
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