“She is meant for beauty. He is meant for destiny.
The Queen is meant to be an Empress. But who will bear the crown of Whiteshire?
Princess Eira White has only ever wanted to know and feel the love of a mother and the protection of her father. Instead, she’s had to endure the harsh hand of her step-mother, Queen Amara, who seems bent on openly despising Eira and sheltering her away from the duties of one day becoming queen of Whiteshire.
Suddenly, Eira is thrust out of her kingdom by her father with only his signet ring and her book of prayers in hand. Left to experience the dangers of life outside the safety of her castle walls, Eira begins to hear rumours of her father’s death. Not sure if it’s true, Eira grieves both the possibility of her soon-to-be heirdom and the potential lose of her Papa.
When Eira’s life is actively threatened, she has to face the decision to fight as the only heir of her kingdom or flee everything she knows. The decision comes at a great cost as Eira is hiding a secret. One that could jeopardize the fate of her Kingdom if she chooses to fight. A secret she was told when she was young and can’t remember.
Will Princess Eira be able to remember the secret in time to stop the wicked queen from turning her kingdom into complete anarchy? Or, will she end up dividing her father’s kingdom further and failing her family’s legacy for good?”
Series: Book #1 in the “Kingdoms of Anarchy” series.
Spiritual Content- Proverbs 14:30 at the beginning; Scriptures are referenced, mentioned, & quoted; Prayers; Talks about God, miracles, having faith, & praying; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; At the beginning of the book, Owen is on a pilgrimage and hopes to receive a miracle; Many mentions of God, Jesus, having faith, trusting Him, & Jesus making us white as snow; Many mentions of monks & monasteries; Mentions of prayers, praying, thanking God, & blessings; Mentions of Bibles; Mentions of those and events in the Bible; Mentions of miracles; Mentions of cathedrals, shrines, bishops, pilgrimages, & a Holy hole; Mentions of a Book of Prayers; A few mentions of Heaven; A few mentions of hymns & monks chanting; A few mentions of a cross; A couple mentions of reading the holy scripts;
*Note: “Heaven’s, no!” is exclaimed once; Queen Amara has a prayer closet in her room, but does not use it as such due to believing that “no God deserved her pleas or the begging of a queen”; *Major Spoilers* Amara has cut God out of her life due to thinking “Wasn’t He manipulative, cruel, and controlling like her father? Didn’t He always point out her flaws, waiting to pounce on any mistake she made, like when she was an adolescent?” but Eira saves her from being killed and Amara wants to know God as Eira knows Him; The epilogue shares that Amara is in a monastery and that Eira has touched many lives with the love of Christ, including hers *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of evil people and wicked looks/grins; A few mentions of luck & being lucky; A couple mentions of envy being an evil & the devil and his followers knowing the harm it causes; A mention of tempting fate; A mention of a woman possibly being a witch.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: Two ‘idiot’, two forms of ‘shut up’, and two ‘stupid’s; Some eye rolling; Lying once & feeling guilt; Killing in battle, Fighting, Being held at arrow- and knife-point, Holding someone at knife-point, Being poisoned, Being near death, Slapping someone, Pain, Injuries, Blood/Bleeding, Being suffocated, & Passing out (up to semi-detailed); Seeing others killed and/or shot (including in the eye), held at knife-point (including a child), & fighting (up to semi-detailed); Grief over the death of a loved one (*Spoilers* Eira for her father *End of Spoilers*, up to semi-detailed); Seeing fights/fighting & bad injuries (up to semi-detailed); Seeing a horse being stabbed & killed (and grief, up to semi-detailed); Queen Amara wishes to eat Eira’s heart and smear her blood on her lips (she eats a heart that she believes is Eira’s heart but is implied to be actually an animal’s heart); Many mentions of deaths, grief, & illnesses (including parents and a parent being ill and near death); Many mentions wars, fights/fighting, attacks, battles, injuries, pain, blood/bleeding, & infections (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of executions/hangings; Mentions of beatings from a parent & scars; Mentions of torture & threats of killing; Mentions of a possible kidnapping; Mentions of thieves & stealing; Mentions of poisons; Mentions of lies, lying, liars, &deception; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of rumors; Mentions of nightmares (including ones of Eira thinking she’s is going to die); Mentions of human waste & manure; Mentions of hunting, shooting animals for meat, & eating organs (including implied human organs as well when Queen Amara thinks she’s eating Eira’s heart); A few mentions of a death of a mother after birthing complications (Eira’s mother); A mention of slitting someone’s throat; A mention of throwing up;
*Note: Queen Amara’s father was physically and verbally abusive to her growing up & she often recalls his hateful words (including calling her a failure and ugly & his beatings; barely-above-not-detailed); Eira’s stepmother, Queen Amara, hates her & recalls her hateful and belittling words and when she locked Eira in her room for days; Eira think she’s to blame for her father’s pain and that if she had died with her mother, he wouldn’t have had to marry her stepmother and would have been happier without her; In a moment of grief, Eira thinks that everyone she loves is dead and that it is her fault; Eira wonders if she is tainted or too damaged to be loved; Owen’s sister is missing and he wonders if he is to blame for her disappearance (due to telling her that he hated her and wished she had never been born before she disappeared); When Eira meets the seven dwarfs, she thinks of them as “adorable” and later wanting to “squeeze and pinch their cheeks as if they were children” but does not because of fearing their pride.
Sexual Content- Three hand kisses, a nose kiss, a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, and a semi-detailed kiss; Remembering giving someone mouth-to-mouth resuscitation & lingering (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); Staring at lips (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Hand holding, Warmth/Heat, Sparks/Electricity, Butterflies, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Noticing & Staring (including muscles, barely-above-not-detailed); Jealousy; Eira is grabbed and nearly captured by men who intend to sell her; A few mentions of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation; A mention of a woman of the night (prostitute); Love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: *Major Spoilers* Queen Amara is pregnant and says when questioned that “because I hate my husband doesn’t mean I do not perform congenital duties as his queen. I can keep up with the duties of a wife, so long as it benefits me” and comments on it being “dreadfully unfortunate for one’s beauty”; Towards the end, she is concerned for the baby’s wellbeing and starts to hesitate at the thought of killing her child’s half-sibling, Eira *End of Spoilers*.
-Princess Eira, age 17
-Prince Owen
P.O.V. switches between them, Queen Amara, & Mason
Set in 1137 AD
362 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
Trigger Warning: Animal death (horse).
This book was written by a dear book friend of mine and I was excited to heard that it would be a non-magical fairytale retelling! It was definitely in the style of a Melanie Dickerson fairytale retellings, but with more medieval words used like “thee” and “prithee”.
I wasn’t expecting to get four POVs of this story, but it added in a different dynamic of this Snow White retelling to have not only the princess and prince, but also the evil queen and the huntsman. Obviously, I didn’t like the evil queen for most of the story (she was a complete psychopath) but we aren’t supposed to like her! I liked Eira and Owen, but I wished we had seen more of them together as they fell in love very quickly as per the story of Snow White.
Like Eira at the beginning, I also had a dozen questions on what was going on. It wasn’t until towards the end of the book when I realized this was roughly based off of some actual history! So I did a quick readthrough certain Wikipedia pages to find out the historical background and contexts of this war between Queen Matilda and the others. Some parts of it matched up and some parts did not, so I’m not sure if it would be helpful or not to know about that time period before reading this book. I think had I known more about the general idea prior, I probably would have been a little less confused about what was going on as I was lost at times due to old-fashioned words and items mentioned. (There’s a handy glossary of words/items at the back of the book, as a heads up!) At first I thought we were dealing with a fictional country in between real countries like England and Germany, but it was all a historical time period that I am not familiar with in the slightest. I think those more interested in that element will enjoy it more than me.
The writing style was very poetic, which admittedly is not my personal favorite, but that’s a me thing and other readers may enjoy it more!
The faith content was very sweet and well done. I wasn’t sure how it would end, but I was pleased by the faith content throughout the story especially at the end.
While this book might have not been my normal cup of tea because of the setting, I did like different elements of it and Eira’s kindness and compassion. It was also a great book to read in the winter time with all the snowy settings!
(As a note for potential readers: There is an author with a similar pen-name that writes very sexual, dark books. Please be cautious when searching for this book’s author and I suggest searching by the title instead to avoid seeing the other author’s books.)
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment