Review: Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen

Stolen Songbird

Danielle L. Jensen

(Malediction Trilogy #1)

Publication Date: April 1, 2014

Paperback, 469 pages, Strange Chemistry

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

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For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.

But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.

As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever.

My Review

Stolen Songbird is definitely a fun, entertaining read. I wanted to know what was happening/was going to happen/what had happened throughout the entire book. However, when I first read the description, I really thought it would be a darker read than it was. And oddly enough, that’s what I was hoping for. Sadly, it was more of a lighter fairytale story than a dark, nitty-gritty adventure.

Since I was hoping for something along the lines of a Daenerys Targaryen plotline, I had a little bit of a tough time getting into this. Cécile is a good character. She’s not afraid to act, and she’s definitely brave, but sometimes her emotions got a little wishy-washy. I wasn’t sure why she changed her mind so fast on some issues, and how she could feel so strongly on certain things during some parts of the story. The same was true of Tristan. While I really enjoyed his character, his emotions did tend to baffle me. Maybe it was the fact that their love connection was forced and they weren’t able to actually grow to like each other like a normal couple?

The plot of the book is fun. There are so many twists and turns that are really hard to guess. In the first half of the book, I thought I knew what the ending was going to look like. I was wrong. And I’m really happy about that, because no one wants to know how a book is going to end, it ruins the magic.

Speaking of magic, I did love that aspect of the troll world. In fact, the entire troll community was amazing to read about, I kind of wish there had been more of that world-building weaved into the story. Some of the secondary characters got their own backgrounds to expand on Trollus, but even that wasn’t enough for me to really ingratiate myself into the area as much as I would have liked.

All in all, it was a good read. If I hadn’t gone into it thinking that I was going to read something else, I probably would have enjoyed it ten times more. So if you want an adventurous, fairtytale-esque story, then Stolen Songbird could be what you’re looking for.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review via Netgalley. This in no way altered my opinion/review.