Reviews

The Conjurer Princess by Vivian Vande Velde

duriangray's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

kateslowreads's review

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1.0

Vande Velde likes to play with irony and moral ambiguity, but the problem with her nihilistic tack is that somewhere in the midst of this novel, nothing seemed to matter anymore. Near the beginning of the book, Lylene receives her wizarding power (note: one crappy power) through something suspiciously like a demonic summoning ritual, and in exchange ages eighty years. She can will away the years onto other people to make herself younger, but what kind of jerk would do that, right? Apparently, the main character. And not on bad guys, no, she wills a few years away to random villagers, shopkeepers and even the mercenaries that help her. The plot seemed very weak in this book, and the characters’ struggles rather pointless, which left me a very unimpressed reader.

linglynz's review

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3.0

Not the best I read from Velde. Being familiar with her style, the ending was predictable. As a great fan of fantasy, the lack of explanation for the magic in the story was disappointing. A 3/5 just because it's Velde and unlike many other young adult authors, she's not afraid to kill off characters and/or involve a great deal of fighting and blood.

Overall, an ok read if you just want/like stories involving magic, violence and damsel-in-distress.

declaired's review

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4.0

YES YES YES!

on the minus side i think this means I've read every VVV book that isn't explicitly for 8 year olds

on the plus side this is one of the only series with multiple in-universe books, and while I am going to have to imagine a lot of hasty fanfic, I really appreciated the chance to return to the characters from The Changeling Prince, and also the chance to binge read a lovely, sensible, high fantasy adventure in a single afternoon/evening
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