Title: The Fire Prince [The Cursed Kingdoms 2]
Author: Emily Gee
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 344
Rating: 4.5 Star rounded up to 5
Series Review: 1, 2, 3
Description/Synopsis:
The long awaited and much anticipated sequel to 2011’s The Sentinel Mage. The Fire Prince continues the saga of Prince Harkeld, Innis the shapeshifter and the imperiled Seven Kingdoms.
The Seven Kingdoms are in the grip of an ancient and terrible blood curse. Thousands have died. Thousands more will die. Only one man can end the curse.
The fugitive Osgaardan prince, Harkeld, is that man—whether he likes it or not. But the bounty on Harkeld’s head is high. He has outrun his father’s soldiers, but he can’t outrun the assassins who seek him—Fithians, trained in the art of killing. Even the Sentinel mages who guide and guard him are no match for Fithian steel. Faced with the ever-present threat of death, Harkeld must learn to use his fire magic. Or die.
Meanwhile, dark plots are unfolding in Osgaard’s gold-tiled palace, snaring Princess Brigitta and those she loves. And in the eastern kingdoms, young orphan Jaumé journeys with a band of mysterious and dangerous fighters, heading north for a purpose he does not understand.
Review – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
This will be filled with spoilers, so move on if you care about those things.
I received this book from the publishers through Netgalley. I loved this book. In some ways it was better than the last but in others it wasn’t quite as good.
I think the thing I loved the most was the growing kind of love that Innis and Harkeld, but of course he doesn’t realise that any of it is real! He thinks its all part of his dreams. I like the fact that the romance is growingly slowly and is so complicated. Harkeld still has no idea about the truth and if he did find out it would have bad effects on his relationship with the mages, but now that Innis has told Cora and others about the fact these dreams are happening she must eventually spill the beans to him because its an invasion of his privacy.
We also get characeter development. Harkeld not only has to deal with the fact that he has witch blood, he is infact a witch. He agrees to train with Cora so that he doesn’t hurt anyone with his extreme power and so that a mage will remove his magic at the end of the quest. He must also deal with the fact that he feels like the mages keep on tricking and betraying him. While these struggles were just as interesting as in the first book, they also got on my nerves. He still thinks degrading things about the mages yet he is training to be one right now so he has no right to think those things specially since he knows them better now. Innis must also develop. Thanks to the fact that Petrus caught her breaking Primarily Laws without reason to share dreams with Harkeld, which cause serious issue with their own relationship, she has to finally admit how much she is struggling with the want to be Justin and the dreams.
We still get the other two stories woven through. Brigitta’s story seems to go from bad to worst to over the moon happy to much much worst. We got alot more of this side of this story in this book. We also see more of her brother Jaegar. While this side of the story takes place in their kingdom, we get many hints that Jaegar may not be all he seems. He gets blisters on his body and a touch of his burns some of Brigitta’s clothes. His is magical? If he is how come his power is hurting him? It has already been said it cannot hurt the person is came from unless they set their hair on fire or something. Brigitta proves herself time and time again that she is a strong person who doesn’t give up. We also get Jaumé travelling with his assassins. He thinks they are off to help the prince, and when they finally catch up to him he finds out just how wrong he was. The book ends before he must do anything and it kills me that I have to wait to find out what his choice will be from here.
The story answered alot of the backstory and magic related questions that I had asked myself through the first book and I really appreciated. That cliff hanger though I didn’t really appreciate. It ends with Harkeld nearly dying and in a desperate attempt to save him ends up revealing that she is infact Justin. Then the book ends. We get nothing else. How am I going to live until the next book comes out, between this one and the last there was over a 3 year gap. I pray that they don’t make me wait that long.
I recommend this series to any he has patience and a love of simple but very well written fantasy.
Till Next Time…