ARC review: Stolen Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy #1) by Danielle L. Jensen

Summary:

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.

Expected publication: April 1st 2014 by Strange Chemistry

My review:

I am really in love with this book. I love the world Danielle Jensen built, the characters she created, the dialogue, the romance and all the magic of Stolen songbird. I love fantasy and I have to say that I never read anything with trolls in it, at least not these kinds of trolls. I always imagined them as enormous, green, dumb things, but the way some were discribed in the book, they are gorgeous. At least those not deformed. I loved how Trollus was described, beautiful yet broken from the curse. All that beauty, only to be forever in the dark. I loved Cecile, she was a bit irritating at first, but as she sees the world is not all she thought it was, that some myths are true, and that she has the power to break the curse and free the trolls and half-bloods (half trolls, half human) and when she saw that like humans, there are both good and bad trolls, she matured, she fell in love and she found great friends. Tristan was a jerk at first, but we see that that is just a facade, that everything he saids or does is scrutinized and since trolls cant tell lies (like the fae) he learned from a young age to go around truth. He is strong, clever, handsome and powerful, also compassionate, rebelious and full of life. The book ends on a little cliffhanger, no happy ending yet in sight, and Cecile hell bent on finding the witch who cursed the trolls. I hope the sequel comes soon and we see Tristan and Cecile together and that the half-bloods are free of the terror trolls are putting them through. Unputdownable!