About this book:
“She’s an outcast. He’s a dying prince. Together, they may be the kingdom’s last hope.
Outcast princess Gwyn Yesen has resigned to in anonymity for the rest of her life. When her only friend, the princess of the land unintentionally granting Gwyn safety, needs help, Gwyn knows she must help—even if it risks revealing who and what she really is.
What would you do to save your family? That's the question dying prince Varrick Landreth find himself answering. Willing to do anything to save his brothers and sister, he finds himself joining forces with a suspicious woman keeping too many secrets.
As death nears and time runs out, Gwyn and Varrick must work together to save the royal family before usurpers and schemers enact their final, deadliest plan. But secrets have a way of being revealed at the worst time, and soon Varrick finds himself not only fighting for his family and kingdom, but being forced to choose Gwyn’s fate.”
Series: Book #8 in the multi-author series, “Cornerstone”. It does not seem to be connected to any other books, however. A stand-alone novel. Click on the books to be taken to that review: Book #1, Book #2, Book #3, Book #4, Book #5, Book #6, and Book #7!
Spiritual Content- Psalm 73:26 at the beginning; God is called the Highest in this book/world; Many Prayers & Thanking the Highest; Talks about the Highest, Him being our strength, & praying; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God (the Highest); Varrick thinks about death and how it isn’t the end; Varrick takes a bit of comfort in knowing the Highest knows how an event will end for Varrick and his siblings; Gwyn is a newer believer and wants to believe that the Highest hears her prayers; Gwyn does have one moment where doesn’t think He cares, but quickly thinks that that isn’t true; Later, Gwyn wonders if the Highest forgot about her and while wants to believe in the hope she’s been told about, finds it dim in the current circumstance; Mentions of the Highest & His plan; Mentions of prayers, praying, answered prayers, blessings over food, & thanking the Highest; A few mentions of miracles; A mentions of Divine intervention; A mention of being Blessed;
*Note: A few mentions of superstitions; A mention of a man not caring for anything to do with the Highest; A mention of an evil grin.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘good heavens’, two ‘bah’s, and two ‘stupid’s; A few mentions of curses (said, not written); A bit of eye rolling; Varrick says a lie about being fine when he is not; Lots of beatings, pain, injuries, blood/bleeding, passing out, being poisoned, & illnesses (up to semi-detailed); Killing, Fighting, Being stabbed, Being choked, Held at knife-point, Beaten, Being attacked, Being tied-up, Being threatened, & Being thrown in jail (up to semi-detailed); Remembering a murder attempt (Gwyn) & a nightmare of it (up to semi-detailed); Seeing someone hurt with a needle to threaten others (barely-above-not-detailed); A landslide (up to semi-detailed); *Spoiler* Gwyn was accused of murdering her parents and planning a coup, but was also almost killed and ran away from her home country *End of Spoiler*; Gwyn has a couple of moments of wishing for her pain to end & asks someone to make killing her quick; Gwyn flinches when Varrick raises a hand to her (though she knows he wouldn’t hurt a woman); Gwyn has a knife for protection and tries to convince herself that she could stab someone “if the need arose” as she learned how to gut an animal; Many mentions of deaths, murders, attempted murders, grieving (including for parents, a mother, and a wife), planning to kill someone, & possible deaths (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of poisons, being poisoned, & symptoms leading up to death (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of torture, beatings, pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of murdered bodies & bodies of murdered loved ones (Gwyn’s parents, barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of criminals, treason, hangings, & executions; Mentions of landslides, places destroyed, & people hurt; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; Mentions of hunting & gutting an animal; A few mentions of bodies being burned or buried without respect; A few mentions of wars; A few mentions of nightmares; A few mentions of taverns; A few mentions of rumors; A couple mentions of criminals; A mention of jealousy; A mention of eavesdropping; A mention of a man looking like a tomcat that devoured a chick which “fell from its nest”;
*Note: Gwyn believes that the dream of having her own child has been stripped away from her; A man talks about killing swans as a message for a group.
Sexual Content- A forehead kiss and a not-detailed kiss; A few Touches & Embraces (barely-above-not-detailed); A bit of noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of a young man being starstruck over a young woman & trying to woo her; A mention of someone possibly being illegitimate; A couple mentions of hand kisses; A couple mentions of blushes; Light love, falling in love, & the emotions.
-Gwyn, age 25
-Varrick, age 26
P.O.V. switches between them
197 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
After reading a clean fiction retelling of the Wild Swans late last year, I was actually pretty excited for reading this one to see another author’s version of the tale. Like with the other one, this one has a fiercely loyal sibling set and that’s definitely want is making this retelling stand out to me.
I did feel like I was missing some background and context at the beginning of the book, like maybe Gwyn was a side character run a previous book by this author. I don’t see that anywhere, but maybe we’ll see more information in the bonus novella collection that will be collected to this series that is releasing next month.
Like with the some other books in this series, I do think this book could have been a bit longer there at the end, but I was overall invested in this story and really liked how the faith content played into the plotline. I’ve had other books by this author on my TBR and I’m more excited to read them now after finding this writing style to be easy and smooth to read.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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