Everything wrong with The Princess of Souls by Alexandra Christo
Let me preface by saying that I love To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo so no hate for her or her works. But, with that said, this book was not as good as the other book I read, and I will go as far as to say that it wasn’t good.
The Princess of Souls takes place in the same world as her other book, however, that doesn’t affect the plot nor the characters, so I will not be talking about the world-building or the relations between the two books. I do believe that it was used as a marketing strategy to those (like me) that had loved her first book because there were only two mentions (that I could find).
Also, furthering the fact that this was a marketing strategy, it was marketed as a Rapunzel reimagining, but I do not believe it had anything to do with the original story of Rapunzel, the only thing is that for 30 pages the main character has long hair, and she is stuck in a castle but soon in the story she leaves.
Selestra is a witch, and when she touches people, she sees their death. Nox is an army officer, strong, handsome, sarcastic, and 16?! (I’ll get back to their age in a second). Selestra’s mother is the king’s witch, and they have not been close since they killed Selestra's mentor, who is also Nox’s father. After a series of events, Nox and Selestra end up together trying to save the world, basically. Nox saves Selestra, and Selestra saves Nox, trying to find the ultimate weapon to kill the evil king, who is trying to kill them because Selestra is a traitor to the crown, and Nox is trying to kill him. They explore the world together, running away from death and the king. Oh yeah, they both have sidekicks, Micah and Irenya, who I’ll talk about further on.
Here are my book-sins:
Where are their parents?
Why in god’s name does every single YA character have to be 16?! They are getting almost killed, talking about forever love and talking about being kings and queens. And they are the best warriors in the world! Usually, YA book characters don’t bother me, but in this case, I hated it.
Why do Micah and Irenya exist?
This is my biggest problem. Every YA main character has to have a best friend, I don’t know why that is, but they always do. This book shouldn’t have sidekicks. We know nothing of them, who are they? I have no idea. What do they do? One makes dresses, the other one whines over and over again about Nox always getting killed. What do they do in the story? Absolutely nothing.
Furthermore, they never talk. I think you could the number of lines Irenya says with one hand. Micah might have more lines, but all of them will be about Nox almost being killed. The characters might be there and say nothing in so many scenes. The thing is, their non-presence was bothering me the entire time. Christo should not have added these two characters because as a reader it just felt like she had added them and then forgotten them, creating a rushed, flawed story.
I completely forgot about the enemies-to-lovers trope.
I even forgot that there was a romance trope. I know it’s YA, and I am not asking for smut not too much romance but, why add it if it doesn’t exist
I did not care for the mother
The entire book was setting up to be a very good character growth for the mother. Christo kept looking back into Selestra’s memory of when her mother was kind and good to her. I was looking forward to a good resolution. Not a happy ending for her mother, but maybe something that would make us feel fulfilled with their relationship. What did I get? Just a look from her mother as she died.
What happened to Micah?
Again, what the hell did Micah do in the story? Nothing! So his death has no effect on the story or the readers.
Finally, I wish I had enjoyed this better because I was genuinely excited about this release. Hopefully, her next book is better, but sadly I will not be reading it.