Book Spotlight: Rise of the Vicious Princess by C.J. Redwine

Welcome to book spotlight where instead of giving you another book review, I’m just going to talk about books I’ve read recently that I enjoyed. Prepare yourself for the fangirl gushing.

My plan was to wait to read Rise of the Vicious Princess by C.J. Redwine once the sequel was published. I’ve stated before that I’m tired of waiting for the next book in a series because I usually forget what happened and don’t always want to reread a book just for the sequel. But when my library’s copy of Rise of the Vicious Princess came in, I checked it out and decided to read it after all. And I’m glad I did. Because even if it’s another year or two years for the sequel, this is one book I want to reread.

This book definitely starts off slow and I wasn’t sure I was up for it. It leans heavily into the politics of a fantasy kingdom, which can be fun in it’s own way but sometimes I have to be in the right mood to keep up with it. But what caught me immediately and compelled me to keep reading was the romance trope. I’m a sucker for a good slow burn romance and a royalty-bodyguard pairing and the relationship between Charis and Tal exactly: slow burn, forbidden, hopeless. But it gave me all the feels. If a book can do that, can latch on to my emotional side, I’m usually a fan.

Add in that Charis is a fantastic protagonist, constantly maneuvering the court politics as a ruthless heir and trying to also stay true to herself in order to save her kingdom, and this book has everything I want in a YA fantasy. I adore that she wears fancy dresses and also carries around daggers to both protect herself and threaten others. I love that she’s willing to do anything to help her kingdom.

Many of the other characters are incredible as well. Tal is more than swoon-worthy, and the banter between the two is so good that there were times where I just couldn’t handle the tension between these two. I normally hate when YA fantasy turns into a cover for a romance story, but this one had a good balance. The romance subplot was woven well into the main plot so they were interlaced but one didn’t overwhelm the other.

Charis’s cousins are so fun and a great foil for Charis. The queen is ruthless and cunning, and the king is so sweet and heartwarming. I also appreciate that the “enemies” have more to them just being evil or villainous or whatever. There’s a lot of depth to all the characters and the plot lines in this story.

The world-building is typical YA fantasy with kingdoms and the like, but it didn’t bother me. I was so wrapped up in what was happening that I didn’t mind that it wasn’t super unique. There are a few aspects that set it apart from a lot of the same old YA fantasy stories, but overall, I cared more about the characters and what was happening than I worried about the world.

And the twists and turns! So much exciting stuff happens in this story. I love when an author does a good job setting up their twists so I can guess them and be right and feel like it’s satisfactory and not predictable. I’m so excited to see where all of this is headed in the sequel because some of these twists are so freaking good. I was internally screaming for about half of this book.

C.J. Redwine has yet to disappoint me with her stories. I was a little hesitant about her other series, the Ravenspire books, but I found myself loving the characters and adventure. The same goes for Rise of the Vicious Princess. I’m already looking forward to rereading it (because of all that tension!) and picking up the sequel.

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