What a brilliant book!
We follow a young Princess Alyrra from a small kingdom who is betrothed to a powerful Prince called Kestrin. The marriage alliance doesn’t make sense as Alyrra’s kingdom is small and offers no real advantage but it goes ahead.
The story is based loosely on The Goose Girl from the Brother's Grimm tales and while is covers the basics, Intisar has taken this story in a lovely new direction.
Alyrra is young and is treated awfully by her family, especially her brother. She is beaten and belittled because of an infraction that happened with another lady whom her brother wanted to marry. Now she is betrothed to the Prince, she has her chance of freedom but is visited by two sorcerers, one who threatens and one who tries to protect her.
This sorceress wants the Prince for herself and swaps Alyrra with another girl who will do her bidding for her. Alyrra, now stuck in another’s body and no longer a princess must navigate this new world and her new freedom or choose to honour her promises and marry the Prince.
Alyrra becomes a Goose Girl and meets a horse called Falada who was a gift from her brother, a bitter gift as the horse cannot be broken but there is something else about this horse in that he talks. Falada challenges Alyrra and makes her question her duty.
The story navigates the pain and trauma that Alyrra has gone through and doesn’t brush over any violence.
This is a really great story, I loved how Alyrra might have been written off by most people but she saves herself and becomes quite a force to be reckoned with.
I highly recommend reading this, it is a little slow at the start but just stick with it and you won’t regret it.
We follow a young Princess Alyrra from a small kingdom who is betrothed to a powerful Prince called Kestrin. The marriage alliance doesn’t make sense as Alyrra’s kingdom is small and offers no real advantage but it goes ahead.
The story is based loosely on The Goose Girl from the Brother's Grimm tales and while is covers the basics, Intisar has taken this story in a lovely new direction.
Alyrra is young and is treated awfully by her family, especially her brother. She is beaten and belittled because of an infraction that happened with another lady whom her brother wanted to marry. Now she is betrothed to the Prince, she has her chance of freedom but is visited by two sorcerers, one who threatens and one who tries to protect her.
This sorceress wants the Prince for herself and swaps Alyrra with another girl who will do her bidding for her. Alyrra, now stuck in another’s body and no longer a princess must navigate this new world and her new freedom or choose to honour her promises and marry the Prince.
Alyrra becomes a Goose Girl and meets a horse called Falada who was a gift from her brother, a bitter gift as the horse cannot be broken but there is something else about this horse in that he talks. Falada challenges Alyrra and makes her question her duty.
The story navigates the pain and trauma that Alyrra has gone through and doesn’t brush over any violence.
This is a really great story, I loved how Alyrra might have been written off by most people but she saves herself and becomes quite a force to be reckoned with.
I highly recommend reading this, it is a little slow at the start but just stick with it and you won’t regret it.