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A review by julia_stark
The Awakening of a Princess by Samantha de la Porté
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
When Katherine is kidnapped, her friends are gathered into safety by mysterious people who claim Katherine is not who they know her as. She's soon returned and suffers a fatal blow - but she's not lost to her friends. Unbeknownst to everyone, including Katherine, she wields godlike magic that she must awaken piece by piece. Her awakening has started the clock on an ancient prophecy and all life hangs in the balance. While those around her try to figure out who she will become, Katherine is focused on two questions: who set the prophecy wheels in motion and to what end?
The Awakening of a Princess is undoubtedly very well written, with plenty of thoughtful descriptives that really set out the visuals in the scenes. Princess Katherine turns out to be a total badass (always here for this theme) who has a tormented back story, involving a number of plot twists and boy drama that she deals with while ruling a kingdom and being in the fray of battle - can we say boss queen?
The narrative and period setting is a little tricky to keep up with, and at times I was reading a 'mortal's' POV wondering where this was going and why; on that note, it was an interesting method to use writing from a less important character's POV, especially when that character doesn't know the ins and outs and back story - does it make them an unreliable narrator that they don't have all the information, or are they learning along with the reader themselves to provide an affinity with the reader?
All in all, it was well written and the characters had a nice range of personalities, but it did start to feel drawn out and slightly anticlimactic at times; it did also get confusing to see modern day features in a setting I would have taken to be olden timey (though the time passed is mentioned briefly and character efforts to 'modernise' the surroundings)
The Awakening of a Princess is undoubtedly very well written, with plenty of thoughtful descriptives that really set out the visuals in the scenes. Princess Katherine turns out to be a total badass (always here for this theme) who has a tormented back story, involving a number of plot twists and boy drama that she deals with while ruling a kingdom and being in the fray of battle - can we say boss queen?
The narrative and period setting is a little tricky to keep up with, and at times I was reading a 'mortal's' POV wondering where this was going and why; on that note, it was an interesting method to use writing from a less important character's POV, especially when that character doesn't know the ins and outs and back story - does it make them an unreliable narrator that they don't have all the information, or are they learning along with the reader themselves to provide an affinity with the reader?
All in all, it was well written and the characters had a nice range of personalities, but it did start to feel drawn out and slightly anticlimactic at times; it did also get confusing to see modern day features in a setting I would have taken to be olden timey (though the time passed is mentioned briefly and character efforts to 'modernise' the surroundings)