August Read: Rise of the Vicious Princess

Hey everyone! This review is super late, for which I apologize, as I actually didn’t finish this book on time (the first one this year I failed to complete by the end of the month). And then it took me a couple more weeks to actually write the post up and post it. But better late than never, right?

August’s book I read was Rise of the Vicious Princess by C. J. Redwine! The political intrigue, assassins, and royal/bodyguard romance caught my attention, seeing as I have a WIP with those elements, so I knew I had to try this one!

As always, my content review comes first, then my personal review! There will be spoilers in the content review, so scroll down to the personal review if you’d like to avoid those!

The Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads)

Princess Charis Willowthorn is the dutiful sword of Calera. Raised to be ruthless and cunning, her only goal is to hold her war-torn kingdom together long enough to find a path toward peace with their ancient foe, Montevallo, even if the cost is her own heart.

When violence erupts in the castle itself and an unseen enemy begins sinking Calera’s ships, Charis realizes a threat much greater than Montevallo is coming for her people. So she forms a plan. By day, she is Calera’s formidable princess intent on forging an alliance with Montevallo. By night, she disguises herself as a smuggler and roams the sea with a trusted group of loyalists, hunting for their new enemies. And through it all, there’s the one boy she can’t have—who guards her life but steals her heart.

But her enemies are much closer than Charis realizes, and her heart isn’t the only thing she has left to lose.

Content Review:

Positive Messages: Even though the book is supposed to portray Charis as “vicious”… she’s really not. She has to act cold and hard to keep on a mask, but in reality, she’s very compassionate and kind to others beneath her.

Charis is very close to her maid, helping her with chores and even apologizes to her, though a princess isn’t supposed to. She wants to do what’s right for her people, which is what keeps her going even when she wishes she could give up.

Charis has a very strong relationship with her father. The two clearly love each other enough to die for one another, and her father often compliments her. He also comforts her, telling her it’s okay to cry and that it’s someone’s choice if they choose to walk through life alone.

Charis’s relationship with her mother, although slightly colder, clearly shows the two care about each other in their own ways, although it’s hard to show when their lives are constantly endangered. When her mother compliments her, which isn’t often, it makes Charis happy.

Tal, Charis’s bodyguard, is also kind. He comforts her when she is grieving the loss of several people close to her, and throughout the book looks after her, making sure she eats and takes care of herself. When she gets angry at him for contradicting her, he says maybe someone should start talking to her in that way, since she needs to take care of herself. When a misunderstanding rises between them, Tal apologizes for treating her coldly, and she apologizes to him too for her part in it.

A girl defends a man against another man who says he’s untrustworthy just because of where he was born. A guy dances with an older, grandmotherly woman instead of a prettier, younger one. A boy misses his sister. He also rescues a kitten and the princess lets him keep it, although it’s against the rules. A supposedly cruel man volunteers to do something which not only saves his country, but also his enemy’s country, and truly cares for his starving people.

A guy wisely says that just because you feel something, doesn’t mean you have to act on your feelings. Ultimately, you decide what you will and won’t do.

Rating: 5/5

Spiritual Messages: Other than the author thanking Jesus in the acknowledgments, I didn’t see any obvious spiritual messages in this book!

Rating: N/A

Romantic Content: Seeing as the romance in this is a pretty big part of the plot, there are plenty of romantic mentions and scenes in this book, but all pretty appropriate!

A woman flirts with a guy, despite him telling her he’s not interested three times, and finally he shakes her hand off his arm. A man looks at a woman’s bodice and says she’s attractive when she asks (in annoyance) if he sees something he likes. A guy recalls trying to impress a girl, but failing and discovering she ended up kissing another boy behind a barn. A girl decides to offer herself in marriage to her enemy’s son so they can try to stop a war. A woman mentions giving a wounded boy a sponge bath. A man insinuates becoming a woman’s illicit lover if she wants (she doesn’t). The queen tells Charis she can take a consort after marriage if she wants. A man tells his fiancée he intends for her to be his alone.

A girl thinks she’d rather swim naked in freezing water than marry a certain man. A girl undresses and gets into a tub. A knight rushes shirtless into the princess’s bedchambers in the middle of the night when she cries out. An older, grandmotherly woman goes into a bathroom to get laundry while a man is in there, shirtless, surprising him. She says it’s nothing she hasn’t seen before, and the man complains he barely got his pants on before she entered. A guy helps button a girl’s dress, but doesn’t look at her back, instead doing it by feeling for the buttons. He also helps her fix her hair.

A girl falls asleep on a guy’s shoulder. Charis feels pleasure when her bodyguard looks at her, even though she knows she shouldn’t be feeling that way. Tal clearly feels the same about her. A guy walks a girl home. A guy teaches a girl how to sword fight, touching her when he’s trying to help her get into the right positions when she’s struggling. Since she likes him, she becomes more aware of his touches and wishes she could flirt with him and kiss him. A guy hugs a girl to keep her from panicking. A girl wants feel a guy she likes touch her.

A father tries to set up a boy who’s like his son with a girl, asking him if there’s someone he likes. He also teases his daughter about finding a guy. A girl confesses she likes a guy to someone in order to get their opinion. A guy calls a girl “sweetheart”. A guy confesses he loves a girl who is being forced to marry someone else. A girl tells a guy she loves him and kisses him. A couple kisses and a girl touches a guy’s face. A man kisses a girl’s forehead.

Rating: 4/5

Violence: Seeing as war and assassinations are a big part of this book, there is some violence here, but all handled in a pretty common YA level way, with just enough description to know what’s going on.

A maid exits a room with blood on her hands. Another maid scrubs blood out of a tub. A woman is injured in the abdomen. A man runs an assassin through with a sword. Another assassin is killed in a bathtub. A man is hit with an arrow and bleeds badly. The arrow is removed. An assassin is cut while being interrogated. A man is found stabbed through the heart in an alleyway. A girl is poisoned. A man runs through a sword to kill himself so he won’t face torture. A woman kills a traitor with a sword. A group of strange creatures come and attack a party, killing several people, pooling blood. One creature digs their fangs into a guy to kill him.

The queen orders all guards and maids in a certain area killed since they don’t know who helped the assassins because they all claimed innocence. An entire town is slaughtered by an enemy country. A guy says he can kill a guy on his wedding day if his unwilling cousin has to marry him. A woman talks about how she killed assassins as a child, mentioning blood and lightly describing how she killed them in order to threaten another assassin. A guy tells Tal if he fails to protect Charis, he will personally disembowel him and feed him to sea monsters.

A girl dreams of stepping on bones, an assassin with blood pouring through his wounds growing fangs, and a killed friend with a red slash across her face. She also imagines beheading a man, and tells someone she’ll send him home in pieces if he crosses her. Another woman says she’ll have someone’s head delivered in a crate if they spill sensitive information.

Men are killed at sea by a strange threat, and their bodies wash up unrecognizable on shore. A merchant ship is attacked and men are dumped overboard.

Rating: 3.5/5

Language: No language here, which shocked me seeing as this is a general market YA fantasy, so a great big thank you to the author for this!

Rating: 5/5

Other Negative Content: There aren’t too many other negative things in this book, however I found a couple worth mentioning!

A woman teaches her daughter nobody can be trusted. People talk about the death of servants as if it’s no big deal.

All the nobles complain about things they have lost when a peace treaty with an enemy arrives, which annoys Charis. But in the same vein, Charis also thinks she’s the one who has lost the most, becoming just like them in essence.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Total Content Rating: 4.3/5 Stars

Personal Review:

This book was definitely an interesting read for me! I enjoy political intrigue, and this book definitely had it! The mask Charis had to wear, how she had to act all the time and her exhaustion in doing it was executed very well, and Tal was a very sweet love interest. I really enjoyed her relationship with her parents as well. There were two plot twists towards the end–one I called, but the other one did surprise me, so it was very well done as well!

But really. Holland was like, the best character in the book. Totally relate to his aversion to marriage and I hope he stays that way and doesn’t find some love interest in the sequel because I will feel very betrayed, haha!

I also really appreciated how the author left out curse words, even “light” ones, an issue I’ve seen most YA books have, and I liked how she acknowledged Jesus at the end!

My only dislike about the book was that I felt at times it went a little too slow. I really enjoy watching nobility bicker and argue over things with their silver tongues, but there was a lot of it in this book which got a bit repetitive and bored me–but once I got past that, things got pretty good!

Personal Rating: 4/5 Stars

---

Have you read this story? Do you want to read this story? What are some good political intrigue stories you would recommend? What is your favorite romance trope? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for reading! ~ Kay Adelin