Catalina Pedraza

I don't know if this was a good book or a bad book. I only know that it was raw, and I feel queasy inside.

This is definitely a 4.8 book. Oh, what a ride!

Let's do this one in English, shall we?

So, you already saw the rating, I Mcfrigging™ loved it.
Spoiler alert, this review might be a little biased. (And will probably contain, duh, spoilers).
Ready? Go!
We find ourselves in a fictional land where there's an empire on the grow: Valoria. The story follows young Kestrel, the daughter of the most renounced general, who has given the valorian territory several conquers, within them: Herran, a fertile peninsula, former home to the Herrani people, who are now slaves. One day, Kestrel accidentally finds herself witnessing an auction, impulsively, she buys a herrani slave that captures her attention, things escalate big time from there.

When I first came across this book I had the impression that this was a dystopia or set in outer space, I was certainly expecting a voice like that of The Red Queen, very... YA heroine™.

First off, characters.
You haven't the faintest idea of how much I enjoyed the characters.

Kestrel is everything I wanted of a YA heroin and more, she is not your average protagonist, she is a skilled liar, a deep observant, a brilliant strategist and also a gifted musician... yet she is far from perfect: she is too trusting, exactly because she believes her judgements to be without fail, she thinks she is foolproof.

She is a cold and calculating strategist. But she can also be kind. She is stubborn, she is selfish and proud, and caring and selfless too. She feels balanced and human.

She is pretty but, and here goes something I really like about the way this book is written, we never have a description of her looks. Yes, there are hints of she looks like but that's it. We know she's blond, fair and has brown-ish eyes... because every valorian has those traits. We know she is agreeable, not unattractive by the emperor's words.

And last, for now, I like the fact that she is average to bad with weapons. The thing is... she isn't a helpless damsel in distress, she's been trained, but her weapon of choice (though sometimes isn't a choice because she does suck with weapons) is her intellect. There's a common trope these days that our female characters must be deadly fighters for them to be badass. Well, not you, Kestrel, not you.

Now onto Arin. Oh, you little shit.

Arin is also very intelligent, he beat Kestrel in several Bite and Sting games (a board game based on deception, strategy and reading your opponent) and also in life, like, she shared information with him that helped murder a ton of people, but then, he was trying to free his people.
He's a little brooding, tall, dark and handsome but he deserves it, with having your family killed and being enslaved and all. He is, indeed, quite the looker, however, he's not the typical cold bastard with the huge ego that knows what he's got going and knows also how to use it at his advantage (don't get me wrong I do love my fair share of sexy bastards), quite the opposite actually; he, as with Kestrel, is not described outside of his ethnicity. Kestrel really doesn't pay attention to his appearance until the very end, she concentrates on the color of his eyes, the sound of his voice, and the things he says (and doesn't say).
Although, this doesn't mean that he is a modest nun, he is prideful and it is this very thing that catches Kestrels attention at the auction, his refusal to bow down, his defiance.
Arin wouldn't know how to be cold even if an ice cube hit him on the face. He is cold blooded, surely, he isn't squeamish when it comes to kill but he is ruled by his emotions, his feelings draw the best and worst of him. He is intelligent and has a mind for strategy, but ultimately he would choose his heart over what is wise.
He, too, is a breath of fresh air.

The story & writing

The plot is very simple. What makes you stay is not the fast pacing but the way the author decided to take on the story.
The way she deals with this kind-of-a-taboo-thing that is Kestrel and Arin's romantic plot, this master/slave thing, is masterful. The feelings the characters have in the first place are the correct ones: curious indifference (Kestrel does find him intriguing but she doesn't really care) and hatred/contempt on the other side, but then they strike this deal that sets them both in a position of equals which allows for the relationship strive forward in a way that lets them build a kind of kingship between them, then respect, friendship and something else by putting aside the elephant in the room that is Kestrel's position of power.
Not much is described about the internal struggle that Arin has throughout the narration but we do see Kestrel's gradual change, trust, grow at finding someone that sees things in a light not unlike her own.

I think that one thing that I like the most about this is the slow burn of feels, and that it is not built on looks alone but upon thoughts and the understanding of the other.

There are some other things I think I could mention but you got the point of my gushing.

Ps. There was just one thing I did not like and was this... thing about (spoiler?) Arin being a singer. Did she have to make him a music prodigy too?

I'm going to discuss specific plot points so reader caution is advised.

So, you already read the summary blurb: girl is Sleeping Beauty's daughter called Aurora (SB is now nameless) and she needs to reclaim her throne from the evil ogres that took it ten years ago. After years on the run her brother was captured because of plot... I guess? And Aurora sets out on a mission to rise an army to distract the queen so that she can slip into the castle unnoticed and free Jor (her brother, yes, also her nickname is Ror). She is captured by bandits she tried to recruit but fortunately the also cursed prince sex god (no, really, she describes him as a literal god) Niklaas from the neighbouring kingdom finds her and the adventure begins!

Ok, so first let's talk about the plot structure... what the everloving fuck is that? The author wouldn't know how to build conflict or expectation on a reader's mind even if her book's success depended on it.

My biggest issue was the queen subplot treatment: we're some chapters into the story and suddenly the PoV changes to the queen, honestly we don't care, we don't even care about the hero yet and you're trying to make us what... pity? understand? care? For the antagonist? Is it to create conflict? Well, it doesn't work because we won't have other narrative from the queen's mind in a bunch of pages later so by then we've already forgotten it and is the all same first impression: jarring and out of place.

I actually applaud the author's intent, I do, but it comes off as awkward. Let us believe our own take on the story just to turn it upside down in the end. Our main character believes the queen is evil, let us believe that too, so that when we learn about the prophet's manipulation we feel conflicted too. Even better, change our paradigm some chapters before the great confrontation, let this new knowledge trouble our minds while we read about Aurora's need to kill the queen.

I would've like this book much better if Stacy just would've changed a bit the order of the chapters.
I also have issues with the pacing... but I wouldn't know how to explain why I found it kinda boring...

Now onto... characters...
I just can't with Niklass. I didn't matter how many times Aurora went on how he's the most beautiful being on earth I couldn't get my first mental image to go away. As soon as Aurora said:

“his golden hair falling in waves to his shoulders, his bee-stung lips, his eyes as bright and blue as the sea stone I stole from Janin's treasure box.
He is ... magnificent.”
This guy appeared on my mind never to leave again:



But my main pet peeve is his sudden newfound lust after a person that two days before he could call a brother. I mean, it is one thing to lust after a person only to discover that he's your brother (a call out to The Mortal Instruments) but a very different thing is to consider a person your brother, find out it's a girl and then consider her the most beautiful being of creation and woohoo-worthy.

There wasn't any desire from his part at all. We people box other people according to their relationship with us. You have your friends, your family and your romantic interests all in different boxes, of course you can move your friends to the romantic interest box, but you wouldn't do that with your little brother.

Yes, yes, he thought of her as a brother only for three weeks, but he was thinking of being his big brother while married to her “sister”. I would accept it if Nik would've refused to think of her as a brother, the author could've brought up an interesting issue about sexual orientation besides the one concerning gender.

Is just that is a tad creepy to have all that brotherly love and just because she has boobs it is no longer brotherly but romantic.

Also, Niklass is a very convoluted way to style the name Nicholas.

Good, now, Aurora. She's... fine.
I have nothing to say about her. She's less whiny and swoony than other YA protagonists (she's still swoony, just try and count how much of the word count she spends describing how godly he is) and that's it.

Other little problems I had.

1. Why didn't Aurora tell Niklass about her curse after he told her about his? She just woke up, she hasn't thought of her idiotic plan to rob him of his will. It was the perfect moment, he just told her that he's not interested in kissing her so why not tell him, she owes it to him and I would certainly fell compelled to tell him about it even if it is just to make him feel better. My pick? The author only decided not to reveal it then because she wanted some cheap drama for the end.

2. Is it me or this book has some real weird prose? I have read “whiskers” and “babe/s” far too many more times than is advisable. And just read this: “thank all the gods and goddesses and the little baby demigods in their downy cradles” or “Less than two minutes later, I am born into my new life in a rush of filth and wet”. What?

3. Magic, oh, magic. Gettel says that Niklass curse won't break if Aurora forces him to marry her or some bullshit about love... but there weren't any mentions about love in the curse, we suppose that a way to break a curse is to find a loophole in the rules set up by the curse and take advantage of it, because that's what Niklass is trying to do, but now you're telling me that there's another clause that wasn't mentioned at all before? You telling me that even if he managed to marry one of the other girls he wouldn't be free from the curse because of some bullshit random rule you just came up with? Because the gods you haven't even mentioned before wouldn't approve it? That's a new level of cruel.

4. And, finally, what's that bullshit about succession lines? He wouldn't leave his line because he is married to another ruler. That's literally what the royals don't want, how awesome it is for your children to be the the heirs of two kingdoms at once. I would've like for the author to research royalty, because apparently there are no convenience marriages in this generic medieval land. Also no one would set 18 as the age to inherit the throne, why would you anyway? Not one eighteen year old is fit to rule a country. Why not just leave it so that you inherit the throne when the former ruler dies? As the king is immortal you can change the motives for the curse to be that... I don't know there's a vision of one of his sons discovering a way to kill him and so he curses them.

Jezz.

I'm finished now. Phew!

This is definitely a five star book, the only reason I gave it four is that five is reserved for books I will re-read, and Meyer has undoubtedly broken my heart thus making it almost impossible to read this again without breaking out in weeps, sobs and tears.