A review by im211
The Traitor Prince by C.J. Redwine

4.0

This book had the sweetness of self-discovery and unexpected friendships I think that was the best part of the story although slow to start and had to wait for a good 35% for things to start getting interesting.

A short vague summary would be:-Naïve Nerdy MC, the true prince after being imprisoned instead of executed had to compete in bloody tournaments, using school skills to survive his stay. The false prince, on the other hand, doesn’t appreciate being a pawn and works towards being the sole player in the game.
Surrounding this Javan strives to do whatever it takes to gain an audience with the king and in turn avoid trouble at the prison which gets tougher when the false Prince followers have infiltrated the prison as well making it difficult for Javan to escape. We have Sajda who is the warden’s slave and is hardened living in Maqbara. Being allies with her may help him but things are never as easy as it seems.

Thoughts

Javan was a fairly likeable character with some wooden characteristic making him a typical ‘good prince’ which didn’t really add to his character simply distinguished him from the other prince. But I appreciated his growth throughout the story, the falls he took in the Maqbara dilemma seem all too dire to handle and his rises as he discovers his role.

Sajda, I felt she softened up too soon, I would’ve expected a few more interactions before she fell for the friendship and eventually plotting an escape. I admit I loved JAvan-Sajda interactions which went from clipped words to banter to sweet moments, this one stuck with me more than “The wish Granter “ relationship.

Rahim’s POV was short and that was adequate since his motives are pretty straight cut - Typical greed-revenge consumed villain- who wants his right no matter the cost. But honestly, I expected more of Rahim’s nefariousness to play out in the story than what we are given.

We don’t get much of glimpse of Aqram as we do of the places in the Ravenspire series (understandable given the nature of the story) I suppose I missed that since we mainly dealt with Java’s struggle.
Unexpectedly I enjoyed The tournaments scenes with various creatures and beasts brought in for the kill, that sort of provided the real excitement for the story; the anticipation, training, and finally the showdown.

The ending left much to be desired. What happened to his friends and school mate who were banished? I'm sure that was an important tangent of the story?

All in all, this was an atmospheric read where Wish granter felt lacking in having memorable characters relations this book makes up for it for having a promising one.