e-ARC, 416 pages
Release Date: February 13, 2018Published by: Balzer + Bray
Read from: September 1-16,2018Ravenspire, #3Source: Edelweiss (I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss and the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)TW: N/A
For fans of: Re-tellings, Fairy Tales, Magic, Fantasy, Romance, YAJavan Najafai, crown prince of Akram, has spent the last ten years at an elite boarding school, far away from his kingdom. But his eagerly awaited return home is cut short when a mysterious imposter takes his place—and no one believes Javan is the true prince.
After barely escaping the imposter’s assassins, Javan is thrown into Maqbara, the kingdom’s most dangerous prison. The only way to gain an audience with the king — and reveal Javan’s identity — is to fight in Maqbara’s yearly tournament. But winning is much harder than acing competitions at school, and soon Javan finds himself beset not just by the terrifying creatures in the arena, but also a band of prisoners allied against him, and even the warden herself.
The only person who can help him is Sajda, who has been enslaved by Maqbara’s warden since she was a child, and whose guarded demeanor and powerful right hook keep the prisoners in check. Working with Sajda might be the only way Javan can escape alive — but she has dangerous secrets.
Together, Javan and Sajda have to outwit the vicious warden, outfight the deadly creatures, and outlast the murderous prisoners intent on killing Javan. If they fail, they’ll be trapped in Maqbara for good—and the secret Sajda’s been hiding will bury them both.
*MY THOUGHTS*
When I started this series, I knew that it would be based off fairy tales and I knew that it would become one of my favorites. And sure enough, it has. Although this one wasn’t my favorite in the series, it was still a great one!
Prince Javan has been at school for ten years. On his way back to his kingdom, he realizes that someone has come in to take his place. He has fooled everyone and no one realizes that the person there is not the same prince. He has started this horrible tournament for prisoners to help keep them respectful and scared. Prince Javan must find someway to out the Traitor Prince and convince his people he is the one fit for the throne.
I think the main problem I had with this one was the fact that it was SO. LONG. The synopsis gives you basically the entire story. And I’m sorry, but it was just too drawn out for my tastes. The main plot point is the fact that the prince isn’t who he said he was, but then there’s so many CD’s and so many tracks talking about the same thing! I think I got to CD3 and there’s like 20+ tracks on each one and they were still talking about what kind of prince he was. That was just a bit overwhelming for me. If I could have skipped ahead and not missed any of the important parts I would have.
I did however like the setting. I LOVE that Redwine is letting us into the other realms that she created from the original series and I love that she carried over some of the other creatures. I LOVED everything about the world from The Shadow Queen, and I wanted to know more about them then, so getting them in other books is pretty awesome.
I also liked the magic and the fantasy creatures that were in this one. Redwine definitely made for an awesome ending with the way it all came together. And that last scene in the arena also made up for some of the long-windedness of the beginning of the book.
This one didn’t start out as something I was interested in, so I took it to the audio. I find that if read it on audio I can get through it. This one worked so much better for me, I was able to force myself to pay attention and get through it. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was still one I was glad I didn’t miss.
Overall, I give this
There will be no quotes because I listened to the last half of this via audio!