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A review by whitneymouse
The Cup and the Prince by Day Leitao
4.0
**Thank you to Netgalley and Sparkly Wave for an eArc in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my rating**
The Cup and the Prince has two main protagonists: Zora, a girl who leaves her dangerous village as a means of petty revenge on her cheater ex, and Griffin, a prince with a secret. Both enter into a dangerous series of competitions, as well as games of political intrigue.
This was a perfectly good Fantasy book. The idea of the shadow creatures Zora has to fight in her home village and her underlying motivation to win the competition to help her people were bright spots. Additionally, I liked all three royal brother characters (although Larzen was my favorite). I liked that Zora was a capable female character with capable female friends, which is a trait that is all too often skipped in YA series nowadays.
That said, the idea that the main motivation for another female character appears to be jealousy the entire book up until the bitter end was a problem for me. The actual issue behind her character was so much more intriguing than "a pretty girl is flirting with a prince" and I would have liked to have been let in on that earlier. Additionally, the ending left a lot open. I would probably read the second book of this series because it was left in a place that I want to know what happens and the writing was good enough to check it out. I just am hoping for a little more detail on the parts that were left open (where did the shadows come from? can they be stopped for good? What's going on with Griffin?) and less petty girl fights and open underestimation of female characters due to sexism.
4/5 stars
The Cup and the Prince has two main protagonists: Zora, a girl who leaves her dangerous village as a means of petty revenge on her cheater ex, and Griffin, a prince with a secret. Both enter into a dangerous series of competitions, as well as games of political intrigue.
This was a perfectly good Fantasy book. The idea of the shadow creatures Zora has to fight in her home village and her underlying motivation to win the competition to help her people were bright spots. Additionally, I liked all three royal brother characters (although Larzen was my favorite). I liked that Zora was a capable female character with capable female friends, which is a trait that is all too often skipped in YA series nowadays.
That said, the idea that the main motivation for another female character appears to be jealousy the entire book up until the bitter end was a problem for me. The actual issue behind her character was so much more intriguing than "a pretty girl is flirting with a prince" and I would have liked to have been let in on that earlier. Additionally, the ending left a lot open. I would probably read the second book of this series because it was left in a place that I want to know what happens and the writing was good enough to check it out. I just am hoping for a little more detail on the parts that were left open (where did the shadows come from? can they be stopped for good? What's going on with Griffin?) and less petty girl fights and open underestimation of female characters due to sexism.
4/5 stars