Author: Danielle Jensen
Format Acquired: ARC
Publication Date: April 1, 2014
Publishing House: Strange Chemistry
ISBN: 9781908844965
Source of Copy: Requested from publisher
Summary:
For five centuries, a witch's curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the mountain. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she realizes that the trolls are relying on her to break the curse.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind: escape. But the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time...
But the more time she spends with the trolls, the more she understands their plight. There is a rebellion brewing. And she just might be the one the trolls were looking for...
Review:
Cécile was on her way to the city to further hone her skills as a singer and join her estranged mother, when she was abducted to become the troll prince's bride. Now bonded to Tristan - against her will, of course - Cécile could feel his thoughts and feelings, and vice versa. Humans aren't exactly favored in Trollus, a town that used to revel in sunlight but what has now become a mountain of rubble, so half-bloods are definitely discriminated against. If it weren't for the prophecy, and the fact that harming Cécile definitely will hurt Tristan as well because of the bond, Cécile would obviously not be the bride the town wants for their prince. All the while steering clear of her hot-and-cold husband, Cécile stumbles onto a revolution that vows change for the half-breeds, headed by a very unlikely leader.
This initially reminded me a lot of Chloe Jacobs' Greta and the Goblin King (which I reviewed here), and I kept hoping and praying (my co-blogger can attest to this) that it could fill the "fantasy creature-human romance" hole in my heart.
While it does indeed deliver what the blurb promises, Stolen Songbird has not stolen my heart or my whole attention when I was reading it, for that matter. I don't know, but there seems to be something almost a bit too rehearsed about the whole book, but I think it manifests most especially in Tristan's lines. Yes, he's the prince and he's supposed to be worldly and everything about the workings of the Royal Court, and it's not exactly surprising that he is glib and sarcastic about absolutely everything (aren't almost all YA princes?) I wasn't so into Tristan probably because he reminded me so much of Defy's Prince Damian (which was absolutely pas terrible for me; you can read the review here). Tristan and Damian can fool all the people they want, but they're definitely not fooling me with their bored rich kid attitude. The main protagonist, Cécile, wasn't much interesting either, except when she uses her voice to lure Tristan simply because it's amusing to watch him kind of follow her in a stupor.
Stolen Songbird does get a bit more action as the story progresses, so it wasn't as boring and monotonous as I make it out to be. I did like that there were some French terminology (Francophile that I am). The ending was surprising, but not unexpected, and it did leave me a tiny bit curious as to the next book.
I think that if you liked Prince Damian from Sara Larson's Defy, then you will like Prince Tristan, which I think is a pretty big factor since he plays an important role in the book. I do think that this is considerably better than Chloe Jacobs' Greta and the Goblin King, so if you were disappointed by that one, you can give this one a try.
Source of Copy: Requested from publisher
Summary:
For five centuries, a witch's curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the mountain. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she realizes that the trolls are relying on her to break the curse.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind: escape. But the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time...
But the more time she spends with the trolls, the more she understands their plight. There is a rebellion brewing. And she just might be the one the trolls were looking for...
Review:
Cécile was on her way to the city to further hone her skills as a singer and join her estranged mother, when she was abducted to become the troll prince's bride. Now bonded to Tristan - against her will, of course - Cécile could feel his thoughts and feelings, and vice versa. Humans aren't exactly favored in Trollus, a town that used to revel in sunlight but what has now become a mountain of rubble, so half-bloods are definitely discriminated against. If it weren't for the prophecy, and the fact that harming Cécile definitely will hurt Tristan as well because of the bond, Cécile would obviously not be the bride the town wants for their prince. All the while steering clear of her hot-and-cold husband, Cécile stumbles onto a revolution that vows change for the half-breeds, headed by a very unlikely leader.
This initially reminded me a lot of Chloe Jacobs' Greta and the Goblin King (which I reviewed here), and I kept hoping and praying (my co-blogger can attest to this) that it could fill the "fantasy creature-human romance" hole in my heart.
While it does indeed deliver what the blurb promises, Stolen Songbird has not stolen my heart or my whole attention when I was reading it, for that matter. I don't know, but there seems to be something almost a bit too rehearsed about the whole book, but I think it manifests most especially in Tristan's lines. Yes, he's the prince and he's supposed to be worldly and everything about the workings of the Royal Court, and it's not exactly surprising that he is glib and sarcastic about absolutely everything (aren't almost all YA princes?) I wasn't so into Tristan probably because he reminded me so much of Defy's Prince Damian (which was absolutely pas terrible for me; you can read the review here). Tristan and Damian can fool all the people they want, but they're definitely not fooling me with their bored rich kid attitude. The main protagonist, Cécile, wasn't much interesting either, except when she uses her voice to lure Tristan simply because it's amusing to watch him kind of follow her in a stupor.
Stolen Songbird does get a bit more action as the story progresses, so it wasn't as boring and monotonous as I make it out to be. I did like that there were some French terminology (Francophile that I am). The ending was surprising, but not unexpected, and it did leave me a tiny bit curious as to the next book.
I think that if you liked Prince Damian from Sara Larson's Defy, then you will like Prince Tristan, which I think is a pretty big factor since he plays an important role in the book. I do think that this is considerably better than Chloe Jacobs' Greta and the Goblin King, so if you were disappointed by that one, you can give this one a try.
Rating:
I'm glad you sorta kinda liked this book. And yeah, the ending does make the reader really curious to read the next book :)
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