Book Review: The Wish Granter by C. J. Redwine

12/11/2017

SYNOPSIS

The world has turned upside down for Thad and Ari Glavan, the bastard twins of Súndraille’s king. Their mother was murdered. The royal family died mysteriously. And now Thad sits on the throne of a kingdom whose streets are suddenly overrun with violence he can’t stop.

Growing up ignored by the nobility, Ari never wanted to be a proper princess. And when Thad suddenly starts training Ari to take his place, she realizes that her brother’s ascension to the throne wasn’t fate. It was the work of a Wish Granter named Alistair Teague who tricked Thad into wishing away both the safety of his people and his soul in exchange for the crown.

So Ari recruits the help of Thad’s enigmatic new weapons master, Sebastian Vaughn, to teach her how to fight Teague. With secret ties to Teague’s criminal empire, Sebastian might just hold the key to discovering Alistair’s weaknesses, saving Ari’s brother—and herself.

But Teague is ruthless and more than ready to destroy anyone who dares stand in his way—and now he has his sights set on the princess. And if Ari can’t outwit him, she’ll lose Sebastian, her brother…and her soul.

Synposis from Indigo.ca

PERSONAL REVIEW

I continue to enjoy Redwine’s way of retelling classic fairy tales. In The Shadow Queen, and now in The Wish Granter, she encourages us to jump in the fictional world for fairy tale characters while bringing us a fun new take on these old stories. This was an easy-to-read book with fun characters, and a very brief mention of some old friends!

Why I Liked It:

Pie Is Constantly Mentioned: I love Ari. She’s smart, funny, and has an excellent taste in dessert. Ari doesn’t apologize for her food of food and curvy figure and I love reading from her perspective how little she cares about the opinions of others. She’s gone from bastard princess to heir to the throne, and it doesn’t change her opinion that every day needs to start with a healthy breakfast and pie should be an option at some point.

A New Favourite Princess: Ari is definitely on my favourite princess list. Even her brother Thad acknowledges that she is the smarter of the two. While he is born first and becomes the King, by the end of the book they are ruling the kingdom together. Ari’s intelligence, passion, courage, loyalty, and love for her brother and her people make her a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention, she has actual skills, like being a pretty awesome baker, which I loved because it’s an acknowledgement that although she is an official princess now, Ari grew up as an ignored and illegitimate daughter of the king and was nowhere near the type of arrogant royal we see from others in the book. I loved reading from her perspective and from Sebastian’s to see how he saw her – this girl is great and I hope we see more of her in the next book.

A Different Kind of Hero: Sebastian is definitely different from the “hero” character we normally see in fairy tales. He’s been abused throughout his life, and while strong now, he still cannot handle people touching him. His struggle to comfort Ari without touching her broke my heart, so it was a double win for them to be able to kiss by the end of the book without him getting anxious because they were touching. I think it was well done how we were able to see him overcome his fear of his father without killing his father (which definitely would’ve broken his soul). In Ari’s words, Sebastian is a “loyal, kind, protective, self-less person” and although he’s good at fighting, I think it was important to see how much he hates actually having too.

You could definitely read The Wish Granter without reading The Shadow Queen because besides some slight references to other kingdoms, they are definitely their own books. I would definitely recommend both if your in the mood for a fantasy/ fairy tale that you’ll read quickly and then anxiously wait for The False Prince to come out next year!

FINAL RATING: 4/5