stress_reader 's review for:

Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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⚔️👸🏻🗡️ Warrior Princess Assassin ARC Review 🗡️👸🏻⚔️

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

🌶️🌶️🌶️

❓QOTD: Have you ever read a book that has a trooe you typically don't enjoy, but found that this time you did? If so, what was it? Or what's your CR?

💬 New favorite book - I was invested immediately and didn't want to put it down until I finished at 1am. Some won't enjoy the SLOW burn aspect, but I love a good slow burn.  

📖 I appreciate the bigger themes in this book and that Kemmerer takes readers on a journey of the human condition. 

⚠️ There is a good bit of trauma and darkness, so please check TW/CW if that's a concern for you. 

🎢 The twists and turns were well executed and fun. 

✍🏻 Written in a way that grabs you from the get go. Beautifully written with rich descriptions that flow well. 

🗺️ Lushly built world that's well developed and imagined. 

We get lore, political intrigue and machinations, betrayal, and so much more. 

🔮 Fire and storm magic are all I recall, but I suspect future installments well delve deeper into the magic. Now that I think back, there wasn't a ton of explanation regarding the magic system. However, this is still a new favorite book so I don't even care. 🤣

⏳Wonderfully paced this was a difficult book to set down. Kemmerer uses both action, dialogue, and characters to keep the plot moving. I didn't notice any pointless meandering and dragging of the plot. 

👥 These characters!! They're flawed and real, full of dimension and personality. Each with their own traumas and back stories, yet manage to come together as a sort of found family that I adore. Jory could maybe use a tiny bit more substance to her character, but I have a feeling it's coming in the second book (along with her coming into her own magic???).

I appreciate Kemmerer giving us characters that showcase the duality of human nature, the complexities that can come with the human condition. 

🎤 The banter is top tier, up there with Six of Crows, for me. 

💞 I adore the romance in this book. Childhood friends who are torn apart, then she's arranged to marry the of another country. And then they're all enemies. 

I'm not a huge fan of why choose, in general, but this book!! This throuple feels natural, it feels so right for them that I cannot imagine it being anything else. 

I was concerned for a minute that it was gonna be a love triangle, which I typically don't enjoy. This is not that. 

🌶️ The spice hit different for me, in a good way. It felt so realistic and natural, and the payoff after SO much palpable tension for so long (it is the slowest of SLOW burns - totally worth the wait, IMO). 

💭 I'm beyond excited to continue this series and need book 2 in my hands yesterday! 

📚 If you like: Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo), Quicksilver (Callie Hart), Defy the Night (Brigid Kemmerer), or Bound Spirit (H.A. Wills) then I think you would enjoy this.

📕 If Daughter of No Worlds (Carissa Broadbent) was too slow a burn for you, you may not enjoy this. 

Thank you to Brigid Kemmerer, Netgalley, and publishers Harper Voyager and Avon for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and freely given.