Pages: 336 Paperback
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: February 5th 2015
Source: Received from publisher
Buy it From: Amazon - Waterstones
Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince, Twylla isn’t exactly a member of the court.
She’s the executioner.
As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla’s fatal touch, avoids her company.
But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he’s able to look past Twylla’s executioner robes and see the girl, not the Goddess. Yet Twylla’s been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the queen.
However, a treasonous secret is the least of Twylla’s problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies, a plan that requires a stomach-churning, unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?
My Review:
10AM on a Sunday morning. I decided to have a few minutes of
reading time with my coffee. Just a few minutes. The next time I looked at the
clock, it was 3:15 in the afternoon. How on earth did that happen?
There is nothing dull about this story. Set in the
wonderfully created land of Lormere, it’s a tale of Kings and Queens, of killings
and curses, and of love and betrayal. It has everything to offer, and delivers
it all.
Our protagonist is Twylla; a girl blessed by the Gods, and can
kill a person by mere touch. She is known and feared by everyone as the
embodiment of Daunen, daughter of the Gods. Because of her ‘gift’, she is to marry
the prince, because he can survive her deadly touch.
I liked Twylla pretty much straight away. I loved her
narration of the story, and the descriptions of her emotions were written
beautifully. I was rooting for her from start to finish. She wasn’t perfect,
she made mistakes, and her judgement wasn’t always on point, but that only made
her more endearing as a character. I was happy to see her develop and grow
stronger as she learnt more about herself and the people around her.
The two guys in the story, Prince Merek and Lief, are both
fantastic characters. I sympathised with Merek’s situation, and I desperately wanted
things to work out for him. I get very easily fed up of love triangles in YA,
and I usually have to fight the urge to roll my eyes whenever I inevitably read
about it. But for some reason, I was totally okay with this one. It worked
really well, and I liked the contrasting characters. The one small downer I had was
that I thought there were a few too many kisses. I wish they’d been held back a
little more, because they would have felt extra special if they were limited. But that’s probably just me.
The story telling in this book is enchanting. I’m a total
history geek, so even if it’s fictional history, I want to know about it. And
this book gave it. I love how in-depth the story goes into the history of
Lormere. Sometimes, chunks of backstory can be quite confusing, but this was
explained beautifully. And I absolutely adored the whole Sleeping Prince story.
I really liked how the characters kept going back to that simple tale, and I
was so excited to see if there was something more to it than just a wild
fairy-tale.
I pride myself on being able to spot plot twists and figure
out mysteries quite easily. I usually have those triumphant ‘I TOLD YOU SO!’
moments when reading most books. But not with this one, oh no. It was more a
case of ‘WAIT, WHAT???’
The final few chapters were completely unputdownable. There
are some wonderful twists and turns to compel you into keeping the book open. It
pulled me out of the reading slump I’d been in since Christmas, and I don’t
even want to admit how much caffeine I needed after a night of binge-reading
this book. One thing’s for certain, I cannot wait to read more.
If you’re looking for a new thrilling adventure, then make
sure this is the book you pick up next.
Also: Shoutout to Melinda for having the most entertaining
acknowledgments.
Royal Rating:
I had the same thing with love triangle: they seem to be pretty standard for YA at the moment but I agree that this one worked and was more interesting than most. I'm really looking forward to the sequels!
ReplyDeleteI know, right?? I found that I liked both of the guys equally as well, so that was a plus!
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