Kate Stradling

Another great story from Kate Stradling. This kept me up well past my proper bedtime, chuckling at the witty dialogue and yet really wanting to know what happens next. And it's one of those stories that have characters you want to spend time with; I've already reread it twice.

An apparently hapless but unbearably honest and loyal illiterate peasant finds himself up drawn into the schemes of first a witch and then an evil princess who might or might not be a witch. But nobody in this story is show more who you think they are when you first meet them. Nobody. You know what the hero is hiding (or you will after the first few chapters), but it turns out that all the other major characters have hidden agendas that are intertwined in awkward and interesting ways. Can't say much more without giving away the pleasure of the surprises.

It is based (I think) on some fairy tales, but they are sufficiently obscure tales that I certainly didn't know them. (Edit: it's apparently based on https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1367660.The_Magic_Tree_and_Other_Tales .) This is NOT another Beauty-and-the-beast or Cinderella retelling (in fact, she makes fun of those in this book). This is not a story very much like any others that I know of. show less

One of the best fantasy novels I've read for several years. Well-plotted, not at all obvious, and above all, funny, with the kind of humor that comes from character rather than merely clever or sarcastic lines (though there were some of those, too) or ridiculous magic (there was none of that). It was full of surprises, in a good way.

Ingrid is an eighteen-year-old peasant girl now in charge of her 5 younger siblings due to her parents' recent death in a plague. While out practicing with a show more wooden sword, she happens to kill a swamp monster that had been ransacking the castle (a la Beowulf). As a "reward", the King adopts her--over her protests--as his heir Prince Inge (NOT as Princess Ingrid). (This novel is NOT about gender fluidity--far from it.)

Inge's flustered state in this ridiculous situation provides a good bit of comedy. (Kate Stradling is *fantastic* at this delicious character-based humor; it shows up in many of her early novels.) But at the castle, more is going on than the king's apparent lunacy. Without anyone willing to explain what is going on, Inge must navigate jealous nobles, uncaring guards, a mysterious magical foe, and threats to the kingdom's stability. On top of that, somehow her five younger siblings have to be cared for (and my oh my her little brothers are a handful!) and protected from their rapacious landlord. Her few allies are the ever-cheerful princess to whom she is "betrothed" and a taciturn but incomparably competent soldier.

The surprises come thick and fast in this story. No one, not even Inge, is who they seem to be at the beginning. This story is carefully plotted, and it does all fit together in the end. This is one of those novels where the resolution is extremely satisfying, on an emotional as well as a dramatic level. My only criticism is that towards the end, the magic elements (which are never very prominent) suddenly become harder to swallow. show less

Awesome story! The protagonist, Iona, is a second born princess who is severly bullied by her older sister, the crown princess. It has been so bad that she was regurlarly hidden from her sister in different castles and sent to another country, Capria, to study. At the start of the story however, she is back living at home, trying to stay out of her sister's way as much as possible, while the court waits for guests from Capria. They are trying to form an alliance by marrying the crown show more princess to Capria's crown prince.
The prince and his entourage turn out to be fellow students from Iona's school who bullied her and other low ranking students quite sverely. So, Iona is caught between two kinds of enemies, with each side thinking that Iona might try to sabotage the alliance, while she wants nothing more than for them to get married and take her sister away.

This book is really great. Iona was a compelling character and I could really feel with her, her fear of her sister, her disappointment that her parents don't protect her better, her anger at constantly being accused of sabotage, her devastation after Lisenn destroyed her arts studio . I didn't expect to ever really like Jaoven but he ended up really growing on me. It helped that we had chapters from his POV and we could see how much the civil war in Capria had changed him.
I like that there are more layers to the story than I first expected. I honestly expected the conspiracy to put Iona on the throne to be somehting the Caprians imagined because of their prejudice towards Iona and I thought the king was just oblivious or negletful! show less

The author begins this book with apology for writing a sequel (according to the author, they're usually just a rehash with different names). This sequel felt a lot like the first book, preface notwithstanding, but it's truly not just a rehash.

As with Kingdom of Ruses, a level-headed girl is thrown into a magical situation she does not expect. And, as with all of Stradling's stories, through a sequence of misunderstandings and miscommunications, her progress toward getting the guy goes show more through a lot of ups and down.
She starts out being an outsider, new to the capital, with no friends, and definitely not one of the elite of society. But, as the story progresses, she becomes the insider of insiders, triumphing over those arrogant and haughty society ladies, in what to me was a rather satisfying way.

Like others of Kate Stradling's stories, this book is very, very funny. The heroine, in a moment of pique, sarcastically suggests that the Prince's upcoming search for a wife will have tests of skill (like balancing books on your head) and other similarly silly things. She is appalled when the elite of society think she's serious, and start practicing for it. She's even more appalled when the Prince seems to think it's a good idea.

Of course, if you've read the previous book, you know this search for a wife is something of a sham, because the candidate is already chosen. But Flora doesn't know that, and, in the end, it's not as much of a sham as we would have thought anyway. show less