Bloodleaf
Crystal Smith
4/5
Aurelia has been bullied and resented by her kingdom for her entire life. She is the first princess born to the kingdom in hundreds of years, at least the first that wasn't hastily hidden away and adopted by another family. But the prophecy says that she will marry a foreign prince and end their feud, unfortunately the people don't really want the feud to end. Accusations of heresy and witchcraft get women burnt alive, and Aurelia is in fact a witch. When she tries to run away from her accidental exposure, an attempt on her life forces her into hiding.
It was entertaining and had a lot of the elements of books I love. It also made me cry twice so it's definitely not lacking in emotion. It's a very rough retelling of the Goose Girl fairy tale, kind of a lesser known story so not bad. It also features a lot of magic, witchcraft and blood magic and so on. It's pretty unique in terms of magical systems but it also could be developed a lot better.
I'm a little conflicted in the rating because the thing is that I liked it well enough while reading it but upon reflection all of it's shortcomings become super obvious. The characters were a little weak, the relationship was kind of insta-love and forgettable, but it had some nice underlying messages. I wanted to give it five stars but then I was like, okay no it's four, then I was thinking of three but honestly it's very entertaining so I think it deserves the four at least. I don't know if I'll go for the sequel because I feel like things were pretty nicely summed up at the end.
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