Reviewer: Holly Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen
Narrator: Eric Michael Summerer, Erin Moon
Series: The Malediction Trilogy #1
Also in this series: Hidden Huntress , Warrior Witch
Publisher: Angry Robot
Publication Date: April 1, 2014
Format: eBook, Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Point-of-View: Alternating First
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 469
Length: 14 hours and 30 minutes
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Holly's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
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Series Rating:
For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the mountain. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she realises that the trolls are relying on her to break the curse.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind: escape. But the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time…
But the more time she spends with the trolls, the more she understands their plight. There is a rebellion brewing. And she just might be the one the trolls were looking for...
Stolen Songbird is the first book in Danielle L. Jensen‘s The Malediction Trilogy. I’m not generally a fan of YA novels, but I read and enjoyed Jensen’s The Bridge Kingdom series, so I figured I’d give this one a try. This is the first book in a trilogy, so it ended with something of a cliffhanger.
Cécile grew up on a farm with her siblings and her father, but she was promised to her mother on her 17th birthday. Her mother is a famous opera singer, and she plans to groom Cécile to follow in her footsteps. On the day before she’s supposed to leave for the city, she’s kidnapped and taken below the Forsaken Mountain to the cursed city of Trollus.
Five hundred years ago a witch cursed the Trolls to live forever Under the Mountain. They are bound to their city until the curse is broken. A new prophecy names Cécile as the one who can break the curse. She’s immediately bonded to the Troll Prince, Tristan. Now she only has one goal in mind..to escape Trollus and free herself. But nothing is as it seems in Trollus, mostly especially not her new husband…
Stolen Songbird is a well-written, very engaging novel. I really enjoyed the court politics and intrigues, and I loved getting to know the city. The secondary characters were wonderful, and I loved how nuanced they were.
I found Cécile to be rather impetuous and the way she and Tristan treated each other for much of the novel was frustrating, but I can’t say I blame either of them for acting the way they did. Tristan had lived his entire life hiding his true intentions, and Cécile had been stolen away from everything she ever knew. Their bonding meant they could sense the other’s emotions, and if one died the other was likely to die as well. I think this worked against the romance. I never really believed they had a true love connection. They spent little time together getting to know one another, and they never really came to trust each other. It felt like the only reason they were “in love” at the end was because they were forced to through the bonding. I’d have liked to see that play out a little different.
Still, I enjoyed the novel as a whole and I immediately picked up the second book. The politics, intrigue, hidden (and some not so hidden) monsters all made for lovely tale.
Rating: 4 out of 5
The Malediction Trilogy
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