The Stolen Kingdom
Jillian Boehme
2/5
I'd like to start with saying thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for providing me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. The Stolen Kingdom is a standalone fantasy that alternates between the perspectives of Maralyth, a vintner's daughter, and Alac the spare heir to the throne. Maralyth becomes embroiled in a plot to overthrow the king and his two son's via a coup that would result in the death of the whole royal family. They infiltrate the castle as nobles, but Maralyth and Alac quickly grow closer and she doubts her resolve on their plans.
I love a good standalone book, but only if the events of it can be neatly tied without feeling rushed. Everything about this book felt rushed and so the fruition of the events was weak. There wasn't enough time spent on the characters, the relationships, or the magic. There was no training for anything, just doing. Maralyth was instantly capable of being a noblewoman and instantly capable of using her magic for whatever she needed it for. There was no real huge conflict or roadblock to their success aside from their feelings which weren't developed enough to feel like a huge issue.
The book had the potential in the basic plot to be super interesting, it just didn't have the time to make any of these points feel impactful. Major things would happen and I would just be like, that's it? Maybe I'm too used to long series in which people come back from the dead multiple times for their revenge, but everything was just too easy. If you want a quick read, this could be an easy fantasy book to digest but only if you're the type of person who avoids emotional entanglements with your characters.
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