“A dethroned prince wants his kingdom back. His enemy’s granddaughter stands in his way.
Prince Max and his elite warriors, the Wolves, have lived in hiding since Lady Vermilion and her Huntsmen conquered the kingdom of Cadmium over ten years ago. He has spent his time training, planning, and strategizing for the day he can take back his kingdom and avenge his family. But to do this, he must find the legendary red diamond that is said to bear the power to appoint the true ruler and remove those in power who wish to use the throne for their own purposes.
Gisela’s grandmama, Lady Vermilion, has made no secret of her disappointment in Gisela’s scholarly pursuits. But now, Gisela has a chance to redeem herself in her grandmama’s eyes as she’s sent on a journey to find the ancient sage--The Owl--and use her gifts of language translation to decipher ancient texts that will lead her to the powerful red diamond. If she can help her grandmama solidify her place on the throne, Gisela will become what she always has dreamed of being. Wanted.
When Max masquerades undercover as a guide to lead Gisela on a journey to find the red diamond, they must face trouble neither of them anticipated. And learning to trust their darkest enemy, might become their brightest hope.”
Series: Book #12 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, Book #7, Book #8, Book #9, Book #10, and Book #11!
Spiritual Content- Prayers; Talks about God; Most ‘H’s are not capital when referring to God; In the beginning chapter from the point of view of Max, he says he’s killed Lady Vermillion’s huntsmen, but God will forgive him and he will “restore order to this kingdom and then dedicate [his] life to His penitence [after he has avenged his family]”; *Spoiler* Later, someone tells Max that he has let hate rule his heart and Max says that God does not answer selfish prayers so he hasn’t prayed about it; Towards the end, Max is willing to make any bargain with God for something and thinks that God is testing him; Max has a hard time trusting God because God allowed bad things to happen, but realizes he wasn’t allowing God to guide him and at the very end understands what the person meant *End of Spoilers*; Gisela doesn’t understand how her grandmother can tell her to kill someone when that is a sin & that only God has the right to “strike someone down”; Gisela hasn’t prayed since her parents died because her grandmother didn’t insist on prayer; Someone tells Gisela that God will be with her and will always listen and help her (“though, it just may not be the help you are specifically asking for”); The red diamond was a gift from God that whoever possesses it is the king or queen of the country as God bestowed it as a gift to the ruler; Mentions of God & praying; Mentions of prayers & praying, & thanking God; A mention of someone feeling as if God ignored his plea; A couple mentions of the devil being on someone’s heels; A mention of a Bible;
*Note: Max thinks about someone competing with the demons from his past; There are talking birds and a talking fox; Mentions of a talking dragon; A mention of a superstition.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: ‘curse that woman!’ is exclaimed once & a ‘drat’ is also said; Eye rolling & Sarcasm; A mention of a curse (said, not written); Being attacked, being shot with an arrow, being held at sword-point, holding someone at knife-point, knocking someone unconscious, pain, injuries, blood/bleeding, & passing out (up to semi-detailed); Having the opportunity to kill someone and holding a knife to the person’s throat (*Spoiler* Max with Lady Vermillion *End of Spoiler*); Planning to poison/kill someone *Spoiler* Gisela’s grandmother towards her *End of Spoiler*; Max hates Lady Vermillion and her family for killing his family and wants revenge (major plot point as it’s consumed his life); Gisela’s grandmother has ordered her to kill Max, but Gisela doesn’t think she can do that and questions her grandmother about it (which makes her grandmother grab her; Later, Gisela thinks about if Max is really her enemy just because of family ties and history and knows that nothing will bring her mother back; Gisela knows she can’t do it); It’s implied that Gisela has been physically abused (slapped) by her grandmother as well as the verbal abuse she’s been subjected to for years; Despite this, Gisela has tried to win her grandmother’s approval; A story is shared about a young girl almost being eaten by a dragon after her family was attacked by the dragon (but ultimately, the dragon adopts the young girl has her daughter); Many mentions of killing, murders, deaths (including of parents), and an order to assassinate someone; Many mentions of revenge & hatred; Mentions of attacks; Mentions of kidnappings & ransoms; Mentions of prisons & prisoners; Mentions of lies, lying, liars, & deceit; A few mentions of a dragon killing someone & someone killing the dragon; A few mentions of grief; A few mentions of alcohol & drinking (Lady Vermillion has a glass of brandy in her POV); A few mentions of gossip; A few mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of hunters; A couple mentions of hangings; A couple mentions of someone being tortured; A couple mentions of stealing; A mention of someone falling to their death; A mention of a young boy seeing his family murdered; A mention of the huntsmen leaving a child to die in an abandoned well; A mention of a blood oath; A mention of slave labor (by dwarves who kidnap humans for this);
*Note: A couple mentions of the death of a mother and young sibling in childbirth.
Sexual Content- A jawline kiss and a not-detailed kiss; Touches, Embraces, Dancing, Nearness, & Smelling (including muscles, border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed); Wanting to embrace; Noticing (including muscles, barely-above-not-detailed; Gisela’s grandmother has wanted all the male attention on herself, so Gisela has never spent time with a man; A few mentions of feelings & attraction; A few mentions of flirting & blushes; A mention of wooing someone; A mention of a man being frantic about producing a child with his new wife; Some attraction, love, falling in love, & the emotions.
-Gisela
-Max
P.O.V. switches between them, Lady Vermillion (x2), & Hugo (x1)
114 pages
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Pre Teens-
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My personal Rating-
I have to say that some things didn’t make sense to me at times, which may have been due to missing punctuation and typos, unfortunately. I will also add, however, that this is probably one of the ones in the series so far that I didn’t feel like the ending was rushed.
I thought it was interesting how Gisela wasn’t sure if the missing prince was her enemy like her grandmother views him, but then Max automatically views Gisela as his enemy because of her connection to the woman who killed his family. I could understand Max (as much as I could) with his desire for revenge, but that was definitely his main personality trait. I honestly didn’t care for Max even besides his plan for and focus on getting revenge. At one point he purposely pushes Gisela’s buttons and thinks about how fun it is to tease her, but it didn’t feel like teasing to me and definitely not to her. I struggled with his character for the majority of the book. I didn’t love the faith content with Max as it didn’t feel like a satisfying ending in that regard where it was a clear change from what he was the rest of the book.
I’ve noticed some similarities between Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White before, but especially with this retelling. I had to keep reminding myself it wasn’t a Snow White retelling because it felt like one often. The author will be sharing a novella that is collected to this story that is a Snow White retelling (well, after the main events of story), however, so it made sense that I was seeing nods to that classic tale as well.
Despite the small page amount, the events in this book were well paced throughout the story. I liked the different elements of the classic Little Red Riding Hood story that came to play. I didn’t personally greatly enjoy this short story, but I liked different parts and think it would be enjoyable for some other readers as well.
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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