Stolen Songbird Book Review

It's book review time! Since I'm really excited to share this book with everyone, let's get right to it, shall we?

Stolen Songbird
The Malediction Trilogy #1
Danielle L. Jensen

Summary Without Spoilers

Cecile is a teenage country girl who is on her way to the city to live with her mother to become a world-class singer. However, on her way she is kidnapped and sold to trolls, whom, until this point, she thought were just a fairy tale. They believe if she is married to their prince, Tristan, a 500 year old curse will be broken. If you click on the photo of the cover above, you'll be sent to the Goodreads page where you can get a more detailed summary.

My Thoughts

The Cover: At first I wasn't crazy impressed with the cover. A headless torso of a girl on the cover of a YA book is overdone. However, they did a great job of tying in the cover with the story. She wears a green dress for the wedding, the glass rose has significance, and the background gives a great image of what Trollus (the underground world of the trolls) looks like.

The Premise: The idea isn't very unique, let's be honest. Being thrown into a world you don't know and you end up being the "chosen one" or something. It also reminded me a bit of Beauty and the Beast. However, this premise kind of goes along with the territory of the fantasy genre. So if you aren't into that sort of thing, then maybe this isn't the genre for you.
There were also some political and social issues in the world of Trollus which are discovered through the story that made it very relate-able to our world. However, some of these social issues and such seem to been popular in novels - especially YA Fantasty/Science-Fiction - right now, so I could kind of see where it was going. This didn't bother me much, however.

The Characters: I loved them! Cecile was strong and determined but also compassionate. She fights to escape Trollus but learns to love those around her and makes her own choices. Her character isn't super unique, you could probably find her in other books as well. However, she's still loveable. I also really enjoyed Tristan. At first Cecile thought he was arrogant, which I guess he was, but I thought he was hilarious right away. He also has some interesting twists to his character which brought him some depth. He was my favorite in the story. The supporting characters were great too and made things interesting.

The World: So cool! I loved the underground world of Trollus with the mines and caves and gardens. Unless it's the movie Frozen, trolls aren't done in pop culture very often unless they are the villain, so this was fun to read about. It made this novel a bit more unique.
What did bother me is how I felt like trolls were a bit too much like humans. They looked a lot like humans, which is fine because then you're not going much into the "gross that seems like beastiality" when you get to the love story. Yet, they didn't seem "troll-like" enough, if that makes sense. Personality-wise I could see it, but not always. Especially Tristan. He was basically just a super good looking human. The story sometimes reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, except the beast was really attractive according to human standards. Not all of the trolls were this way, but some were and it bothered me. Not enough for me to not enjoy the book though.

The Love Story: Super cute! It's wasn't quite "insta-love" the way other fantasy/YA novels are, which is really refreshing. (There was a little, but not the way others are.) There also wasn't a love triangle. There was a slight hint of one, and I can see where in future novels there could be one, but I'm hoping the author doesn't take that route. Cecile really had to grow into her feelings for Tristan and she also had some big choices to make in regards to her relationship with him. I, however, loved Tristan right away.

Overall Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. I loved the world, the trolls, the love story, and it kept my interest the whole time. The day I finished it I read well over 100 pages because I couldn't put it down. It was very fairy tale-esque and it was a cool twist because of the trolls and some of the political/social issues thrown in. However, some of it was a bit predictable and not outrageously unique. (But what is, really?) Yet, these things didn't bother me much but does prevent this book from getting a full five stars.

I'm giving it 4 stars - and I can't wait for the next one in this trilogy!

If you like fairy tales/fantasy, young adult, and romance, you'll enjoy this book! It comes out APRIL 1st! Click the links below if you would like to pre-order it.

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Half.com

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Note: I received Stolen Songbird as an eARC book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm also linking up with Meg for Mingle Monday today! You can link up here.