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A review by mcaliz
The Conqueror's Princess by Jeanette Rose, Alice Callisto
2.0
Special thanks to NetGalley and Rose and Star Publishing for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Content warnings: slavery, gore, sexism/misogyny, child abuse, pedophilia, off page rape & mentions of rape
Rep: forced marriage, enemies to lovers, sisterly love, ASL rep, animal companions, family relationships, soulmates, HEA
Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:
This is dual narrative and we switch back and forth between Charlotte and Evan throughout the whole book. This literally felt like a movie script in my head, it is VERY cinematic. I could literally picture everything in my head. And the chapters are VERY short so I was flying thru this book
There were also full on sex scenes in this one. Not that, that bothers me in any way, I just wasn’t expecting it. But they were spicy so if you’re looking for that, there’s that in here for you!
I think that if you liked The Savage & the Swan by Ella Fields then you’ll like this!!
Pros:
There is ASL rep in this! I honestly CANT recall a book to have a deaf or mute character in a book before & not have it be seen as a negative thing. Essentially everyone was open to learning ASL or having already learned it in this cast of characters so that they could all communicate with Mountain (also known as Seamus)
I loved Evan’s relationship with his horse Black. It was so cute. I’m a sucker for animal companions/bonds
I liked learning about the different “Ancients” or, Deities, that we learned in the book.
There were female warriors in this & it was pretty cool to see.
I liked the ending. It was cute (even if the book as a whole was a bit of a mess) & I was satisfied with the ending & the HEA our two MC's get
Gripes:
I had some issues with the magic system. It was never clearly explained what the limitations were. Yes we learn the “who” can do it (to an extent), symbols & some explanations of the Deities in this world & what they can and can’t do, it was just really lacking overall. So while it was interesting it wasn’t fleshed out. Maybe in the next book we will learn more, but it was just very underwhelming in this first installment.
I had trouble believing/understanding the shift in seeing/determining who was the “enemy” and who were “allies”. Understandably Evan and Charlotte see each other as the enemy to one another (Charlotte comes from a family that is involved in slavery and the mistreatment of the enslaved; while Evan is “evil and a barbarian taking away their kingdom/lives”) Yet the moment they meet and they get married, like that *snaps* they no longer see each other as the enemy and they want make sure that they have the other’s trust before we even hit the 100 page mark. It just had me like,

I just wish it was slow burn? That we as the reader actually had to suffer thru the “will they, won’t they” tension that usually comes with enemies to lovers. But this just did not have it. And when we DID experience the “will they, won’t they” it was completely unnecessary.
It kind of got on my nerves that he kept calling his horse “The Black” instead of just Black. Or there’s a character who was only referred to as “The Mountain” when he could have just been called Mountain. The “The” was not needed.
The romance(s):
Charlotte & Evan:
It was VERY insta-lovey. Evan right off the bat was all like ✨“She’s making me feel things that I have NEVER felt before & I can’t get her out of my head” ✨ And in this respect, it was nice to see that it was the MALE going all goo-goo-gaga for the girl, opposed to the female because “she can’t help it
Content warnings: slavery, gore, sexism/misogyny, child abuse, pedophilia, off page rape & mentions of rape
Rep: forced marriage, enemies to lovers, sisterly love, ASL rep, animal companions, family relationships, soulmates, HEA
Thoughts
Neutral thoughts:
This is dual narrative and we switch back and forth between Charlotte and Evan throughout the whole book. This literally felt like a movie script in my head, it is VERY cinematic. I could literally picture everything in my head. And the chapters are VERY short so I was flying thru this book
There were also full on sex scenes in this one. Not that, that bothers me in any way, I just wasn’t expecting it. But they were spicy so if you’re looking for that, there’s that in here for you!
I think that if you liked The Savage & the Swan by Ella Fields then you’ll like this!!
Pros:
There is ASL rep in this! I honestly CANT recall a book to have a deaf or mute character in a book before & not have it be seen as a negative thing. Essentially everyone was open to learning ASL or having already learned it in this cast of characters so that they could all communicate with Mountain (also known as Seamus)
I loved Evan’s relationship with his horse Black. It was so cute. I’m a sucker for animal companions/bonds
I liked learning about the different “Ancients” or, Deities, that we learned in the book.
There were female warriors in this & it was pretty cool to see.
I liked the ending. It was cute (even if the book as a whole was a bit of a mess) & I was satisfied with the ending & the HEA our two MC's get
Gripes:
I had some issues with the magic system. It was never clearly explained what the limitations were. Yes we learn the “who” can do it (to an extent), symbols & some explanations of the Deities in this world & what they can and can’t do, it was just really lacking overall. So while it was interesting it wasn’t fleshed out. Maybe in the next book we will learn more, but it was just very underwhelming in this first installment.
I had trouble believing/understanding the shift in seeing/determining who was the “enemy” and who were “allies”. Understandably Evan and Charlotte see each other as the enemy to one another (Charlotte comes from a family that is involved in slavery and the mistreatment of the enslaved; while Evan is “evil and a barbarian taking away their kingdom/lives”) Yet the moment they meet and they get married, like that *snaps* they no longer see each other as the enemy and they want make sure that they have the other’s trust before we even hit the 100 page mark. It just had me like,

I just wish it was slow burn? That we as the reader actually had to suffer thru the “will they, won’t they” tension that usually comes with enemies to lovers. But this just did not have it. And when we DID experience the “will they, won’t they” it was completely unnecessary.
It kind of got on my nerves that he kept calling his horse “The Black” instead of just Black. Or there’s a character who was only referred to as “The Mountain” when he could have just been called Mountain. The “The” was not needed.
The romance(s):
Charlotte & Evan:
It was VERY insta-lovey. Evan right off the bat was all like ✨“She’s making me feel things that I have NEVER felt before & I can’t get her out of my head” ✨ And in this respect, it was nice to see that it was the MALE going all goo-goo-gaga for the girl, opposed to the female because “she can’t help it