Swallow, Daughter, pull them in, those words that sit upon your lips. Lock them deep inside your soul, hide them ‘til they’ve time to grow. Close your mouth upon the power, curse not, cure not, ‘til the hour. You won’t speak and you won’t tell, you won’t call on heav’n or hell. You will learn and you will thrive. Silence, Daughter. Stay alive.

The day my mother was killed, she told my father I wouldn’t speak again, and she told him if I died, he would die too. Then she predicted the king would trade his soul and lose his son to the sky.

My father has a claim to the throne, and he is waiting in the shadows for all of my mother’s words to come to pass. He wants desperately to be king, and I just want to be free.

But freedom will require escape, and I’m a prisoner of my mother’s curse and my father’s greed. I can’t speak or make a sound, and I can’t wield a sword or beguile a king. In a land purged of enchantment, love might be the only magic left, and who could ever love . . . a bird?

Review

I am so happy to see Fantasy Romance having such a good year.

This is a lyrical love story with great world building and imagery. The way the details of the culture and magic systems are feed to us one by one and the mysteries solved is enchanting.

The very fabric of the language engages. I adore the heroine and her troll. Her magic and coming into her power is wonderful. The hero is less known and therefore less beloved to me. Better communication and couple time would have made the book more of a feast but I was very happy spending time here.

I can't wait for the next book!