by Mary E Pearson
published by Henry Holt & Co.
genre: YA, Fantasy,
Summary (Goodreads): A princess must find her place in a reborn world.
She flees on her wedding day.
She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.
She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.
She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.
The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.
Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.
My Thoughts: This should have been such a higher rating. I enjoyed the story, the characters and the world/mythology that the author created. Yet it just seemed to drag. It took me a week to read this and usually when I'm loving a book I can read it in a day or two.
I found Lia to be an interesting character. I wasn't sure how I felt at first. It jumps right into her fleeing from her marriage. Since we don't really know her yet it is difficult to feel for her at this point. I still liked her just wasn't sure. I did like how she wasn't your normal royal princess. She was a younger sister that clearly grew up a tom boy. I also liked her with Pauline. They had a great relationship that felt more like friends then servant/princess.
Kaden and Rafe both caught my attention as well. I hate love triangles and yet enjoyed all these characters that I was able to overlook it, mostly. It also helped that Lia had a clear favorite even when she was saying otherwise. Both men have their secrets and trying to figure out which is the assassin and which is the prince was not as easy as these things usually are.
There are questions I have. Like who was Gwen a spy for. She seemed shady when her and Pauline were going back to Civica. Also, Pauline herself is about to walk into something that could not only have an effect on her future but the relationship she has with Lia.
Of course the main reason for wanting to read the next book is to find out what happens now that we have all three main characters on their way into enemy territory. Not sure what the plans are that the two men have but cannot wait to watch them play out. I'm also interested to find out more about Lia's gifts and how they come into play.
Rating: 3.5 (only because it read so slow for me)
