The Stolen Kingdom intrigued me from the moment I read the excerpt, but, of course, a new author is always an unknown quantity and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. While it took me a little while to get into the story (likely due to Life Stuff and not a fault of the novel) once it grabbed me, it grabbed hard. I liked Maralyth, the main character, from the outset, but it was Alec, the bookish and kind younger son of the king, who I found myself really identifying with.
Maralyth is a vintner’s daughter who is kidnapped and informed that she is the rightful ruler of the kingdom she has lived in all her life – a kingdom ruled by cruel Thrungrave kings after the throne was stolen from her ancestors. The root of their power is magic that was stolen from the rightful rulers. She is then forced – by threat against her father – to go along with a plan for a coup. She does, however, start to think that perhaps she could do better as Queen than the horrible Thungraves.
Alec is the “spare” in the heir-and-a-spare equation for the King, and he knows the truth of his father’s power, that the stolen magic turns good men bad, and Alec wants no part of it. He is searching for a way to free his family from the curse so that, perhaps, his brother could turn out to be a good king instead of an awful one.
The two start out on separate but converging paths, both wanting to save their beloved kingdom.
The story is engaging, and where there is no real villain other than circumstances, you find yourself rooting alternately for Maralyth and then Alec and then, eventually, both of them together. The romance is there, but it takes a back seat for both characters as they are far more concerned with ensuring the survival of their kingdom, no matter who ends up on the throne, and neither of them are entirely right about how to go about doing that.
This book had a very similar feel to me to The Goblin Emperor, and if you loved that book, you’ll love The Stolen Kingdom. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and am looking forward to more from this author.
Disclaimer: I received this book for free as an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This has in no way impacted my review of this book.
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