Week 4 Review: Stolen Songbird

From Goodreads:
For those who have loved Seraphina and Graceling comes another truly fabulous fantasy...

For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.

But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.

As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever.

My Review:
This was a fantastic book! So complex, so good, loved the characters, loved to hate the world, and yeah, it's so freaking good!!! They were interesting, never boring, and very, very unique, I mean, intelligent trolls? Not something that we as a popular book culture, what with Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, have led us to expect, and that uniqueness, is just one reason why I loved this book!

Cecile was an amazing character, she was strong against the odds, and she found out things about herself that were quite important, like that she was a witch, and she persevered through being kidnapped, and then forcibly married in troll fashion, and then be trapped down in Trollus for the rest of her life. Which, seeing as she was human, and how the full blooded trolls treated humans, and half bloods, well, that life just might be shorter.

And there was this one part, where she went down in the mining, to work with the half-bloods, to see how bad their lives actually were, and work for 12 hours. And she saw some good and bad in the situation, to how horrible it could be, to some trolls who were decent and caring. The way the half-bloods were treated, just argh!!! Blood boiling!!!

There was another scene, with this pretty prominent troll family, and through her quick thoughtfulness, she pretty much got a half-blood free from a bad situation, even in the girl didn't appreciate her efforts. I just loved that Cecile won against the troll, in that case!!!

And I haven't mentioned Tristan, who was so complicated, and Cecile's husband, the future king of Trollus, who was the opposite of Cecile, who planned out everything, and his actions for events years in the making. So yeah, Cecile was good for him. To loosen up, just a tad, because running the rebellion, yeah, pretty stressful!!

Marc, and the twins! They were great secondary characters, and according the the author, each get a character arc throughout the trilogy! If I ever wanted to play a game, the twins are the ones I'd want to play with me, of course, with others, too, because, yeah, it's the twins! And poor Marc, so torn apart over his love's death, and blaming himself for it. Such great characters! Can't wait for the next 2 books, to see all these characters again, to get more!!!! Especially after that ending, which was going to be earlier, but thank goodness there was that last chapter added, because yeah, I don't think I could have stood having the book end at was is now the second last chapter!

Lastly, is the cover. I mean, it' gorgeous, and the rose that she holds, it has significance, and you can kinda see Trollus in the background, the fantastic city...buried under a mountain. And her dress! So pretty! I can't wait to see the title, cover, synopsis, and read the 2nd, and 3rd book! It's going to be evil waiting for it!!!

Author: Danielle L. Jensen
Series: The Malediction Trilogy #1
Read: January 24th, 2014
Source: NetGalley
Reason Why: Because it sounded good, and it's a Historical Fiction 2014 Book, DAC Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Book, and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Expected Publication: April 1st 2014

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars