"You can find this review of The Prince’s Raven on my blog,

A big shout out and thank you to the author for giving me this amazing opportunity to read The Prince’s Raven early! All opinions stated in this review are my own.

When I read the blurb (and the thoughtful disclaimer provided by the author) for The Prince’s Raven, I thought I knew what I was walking into.

I absolutely did not, by the way.

I’ve read a few reviews—because I’m a rebel and a rule breaker—and I noticed many of the readers felt that they struggled with the first few chapters of the book. I personally enjoyed the first few chapters of the book!

The author does a fantastic job with the writing in this book. I would not say the blurb translates how serious a book TPR is. With intense action sequences, dangerous ambitions, tense moments and alternating perspectives, the book is a lot more than it appears to be. Given how many pages this book has, every single element gets a lot of time to appear on scene and the author has ensured that you don’t feel the absence of anything you could possible want from a politically intriguing fantasy.

There’s even a gigantic glossary that the book begins with for those who love it!

The world building in this book happens in every single line. There’s not a single sentence in this book that doesn’t have a purpose, not a single word that isn’t there for a reason. That’s not to say that the book has no humour, it does, but even those moments do not take away from the weight of the story and situation. I would say the author has done a fantastic job with the world building, from the way each aspect of the world is introduced, to the way each character’s perspective only adds further pieces of the puzzle to the table that eventually begins to form a picture that will leave you reeling once revealed.

The. Plot. In. This. Book. *slams table with each word for dramatic effect*

The fact that the book begins and ends (well, almost ends) with the same something and the position we are in in the book is what influences our understanding of said something and how far we’ve come from what we knew when we started the book, was such an amazing experience to have. It’s fantastic—to me—that the book begins with something you’re aware is important but you promptly forget it and then when it comes back around, you’re shocked as you realize what it meant and how important it was actually. Essentially you know the plot from page one, but you don’t understand it until the end.

I will also say that TPR has one of the most expansive plot and sub plots that I’ve read in a long while. I would not particularly call this a romantasy or even a fantasy with romance being a big feature in it. I would say this book is a politically intriguing, tense but subtle fight for power filled with secrets and action with a dash of romance. The author gives a disclaimer similar to the above information to the reader and I was super grateful for that so I knew what to expect on that front. The plot threads in this book are extremely complex and I found it fantastically pleasing and shocking watching them find their place in the story and reveal their secrets. This book has fantastic potential to be something very special in the book world.

The pace in this book I would say is extremely even and thus can seem or come off as a bit slow to some as well. The last twenty percent is certainly much faster than the rest of the book, no matter how the reader perceives the first eighty percent of it.

The characters in this book are quite a few, but the author does a fantastic job of introducing them all, slowly establishing their personalities, their backstories and for some of them, their own perspectives. While I’ve never been fond of switching perspectives, I found myself understanding and seeing the merit of (and sometimes even appreciating) them. Given how complex the plot threads in TPR are, it would be impossible to resolve the mysteries created, without a wider more detailed view of the story.

But there was one thing I personally struggled with; which was how heavy the book was for me. It was� emotionally heavy, and informationally heavy in a way that ensured the book stayed in my mind and at the same time also required me to take breaks at many points. There was constantly a LOT happening with deep reaching emotional consequences even though they’re not in your face (which somehow hits you more than if it were) and with how important every single sentence is, I would say be prepared for how much this book will ask from you as a reader.

I mentioned this earlier, but I’m going to touch upon it again, just to say that TPR isn’t exactly supremely focused on the romance as such. It’s definitely one of the many elements of the story; but I would say it’s the least developed aspect in the story (for me, personally) and I certainly didn’t stay in this book for the relationship between the characters, which for a romance reader is a great compliment to give a book in a way.

Four stars! Please check trigger warnings, as there are many themes in this book that can be difficult for some.

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