(Untitled Trilogy #1)
Publication
Date: April 24, 2018
Hardcover, 432 pages, Delacorte
Genres:
YA, Fantasy
Theodosia was six when her country
was invaded and her mother, the Queen of Flame and Fury, was murdered before
her eyes. Ten years later, Theo has learned to survive under the relentless
abuse of the Kaiser and his court as the ridiculed “Ash Princess.” Pretending
to be empty-headed and naive when she's not enduring brutal whippings, she
pushes down all other thoughts but one: Keep the Kaiser happy and he will keep
you safe.
When the Kaiser forces her to
execute her last hope of rescue, Theo can't keep her feelings and memories
pushed down any longer. She vows revenge, throwing herself into a plot to
seduce and murder the Kaiser's warrior son with the help of a group of
magically gifted and volatile rebels. But Theo doesn't expect to develop
feelings for the Prinz. Or for her rebel allies to challenge her friendship
with the one person who's been kind to her throughout the last hopeless decade:
her heart's sister, Cress.
Cornered into impossible choices
and unable to trust even those who are on her side, Theo will have to decide
how far she's willing to go to save her people and how much of herself she's
willing to sacrifice to become queen.
My Review
You ever read one of those books that just frustrates you to
no end, but you still want to know what happens in the next few pages,
chapters, or sequels? Well, that was me with this book.
Be prepared, because I have some thoughts on this one. A lot
of thoughts.
Okay, so first off, Theodosia, or Thora, as she’s referred
to by the Kalovaxians who invaded her homeland, is a very frustrating main
character. She reminds me a lot of America from The Selection series. There
were always choices that I wanted her to make that just seemed to never come to
fruition. The same with speeches. She’s the princess/queen of her decimated
people, so I wanted her to really inspire her citizens and chew out her
enemies, but she just never went there. I wanted some gruff and power from her,
but she was just too weak and naive at points.
Now, there were other characters in this book that were also
just as frustrating. Soren, the prinz (aka prince) was cute at first, but then
you learn he’s been letting dear ol’ dad hit an innocent girl for years. He’s also remained complacent for
a lot of the massacring of Theo’s people. That was a major turn off. Yet,
somehow, Theo still had feelings for Soren… Stockholm syndrome, perhaps?
The other characters, like Blaise, the book’s second love
interest, is a pretty decent character for like 75% of the book. HOWEVER, him
and his posse of rebels as well as the rest of Theo’s people somehow believe
that she’s a spoiled princess living it up in the Kaiser’s castle, yet she’s
being tortured??? How can they be that stupid? There just wasn’t a good enough
explanation for why her people had such animosity for her when these “punishments”
weren’t private events. A lot of people know the Kaiser was having her whipped.
And that brings me to my biggest and weirdest pet peeve of
this book. The word “whippings” is atrocious, and I hate it. It sounds so
unsophisticated and hickish (I’m from the Midwest, so I know hickish). Also,
the way it’s used in this book along with the word “punishments” sounds eerily
like some sort of naughty romance book. I just wanted those two words to stop.
Ick.
Oh, and is anyone else tired of the poor beautiful princess
being tortured trope? Especially by two-dimensional cliché ugly, evil kings? I
don’t know. I just think there’s too much violence for the sake of violence in
this book. Also, the plot is kind of slow because no real action happens. I’d
say it’s more of a political fantasy, but it’s not even really that…
Another small thing, but still. Thora, even though she’s
been beat by the Kalovaxian’s multiple times, she somehow always knows what the
Kaiser is thinking, even though she never knows what anyone else is thinking
and she makes bad choices because of it?
Okay, the next thing I want to talk about is how the
Kalovaxians won this invasion when Theo’s people are supposed to have Avatar-esque powers? It wasn’t really
explained as well I’d like how exactly the war/invasion went down. I needed
more backstory there.
All in all, Ash
Princess is eerily similar and as frustrating as Kiera Cass’s Selection series
and Marie Rutkoski’s The Winner’s Curse.
I’ll probably continue with the series, just like I did with those books, but I’m
still wary. I also just really want a physical copy of this book, because hey!
Pretty cover!
*Note: I
received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way
affected my opinion/review.
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