The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doué
Fairy Tale. 244 pages. 4 Stars
Synopsis:
Princess Lily, the eldest of twelve sisters and heir to a mighty kingdom, desperately seeks a break from her mother’s matchmaking. Tradition forbids marriage with the man Lily loves, so she would rather rule alone than marry someone who only wants the crown.
Fleeing an overzealous suitor, Lily stumbles into a secret underground kingdom where she and her sisters encounter a mysterious sorcerer-prince and become entangled in a curse that threatens the safety of her family and her people. Lily can free them, but the price for freedom may be more than she’s willing to pay.
The Firethorn Crown, a re-imagining of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” is the first in the Firethorn Chronicles, a series of stand-alone novels inspired by fairy tales and other stories. Follow the sisters on their adventures in a land where sorcery is feared, women can rule, and dragons fly.
My Review:
Ahh, and I have stumbled across another 12 Dancing Princesses! Score!
Okay, first my complaints: the world-building. I feel like the setting and world-building had so much potential! I mean, this could have been GREAT! But, for me, it was just good. I loved the ideas presented: the dragons–apparently there are different kinds–the history of the kingdoms with the Dragon War, which we still know practically nothing about by the end of the book; the tension in the society between the people and sorcerers; the significance of the Soldier-king and of the firethorn crown? These are all questions I had and loose ends that I didn’t feel were even attempted to be tied off. Maybe it’ll be cleared up in the subsequent novels? I’ll certainly keep reading, but the presentation was hard to swallow. I was thrust into the deep-end of the pool, not in the good way. It was just so much that it was hard to grasp and it even hindered my reading in the beginning of the story. I wanted to know what all of the terms meant, the special kinds of trees and dragons and other things, but I finally had to accept that I wouldn’t understand and just move on.
The good: everything else! The characters were sweet, though in the classical 12 Dancing fashion, a little difficult to keep up with all of the sisters. That said, they were the only characters I struggled to keep up with and only some of them at that. The rest of the cast were all a brilliant pop of color on the story’s canvas and I look forward to seeing more of them in the second and third books. The plot was very well done. I really enjoy this fairy tale anyway, but I’ve seen it done well and I’ve seen it done not-so-well. Doué did it well. I loved how she captured the darkness of the underground realm and of the curse, but without making it despairing or hopeless to the reader. I also really enjoyed the necklaces. Not gonna say more than that, other than that I thought that was…well-done. From their physical formation to what they represented and how they operated throughout the story. That was a piece I truly admired. (Though, to be perfectly honest, I was a little disappointed in the way that ended. It had such a great build up and then felt almost like a cop out. Borderline.) I liked the interpretation on the tale and how some of the classic elements, such as invisibility, the underground realm, the slippers, the boy, and the mystery were handled. It was paced pretty well, not exactly a page-turner, but it didn’t drag by any means.
This was a dynamic piece. It was a good read, truly, but I do feel that it just…fell a little short at times and had the potential to be epic.
Subtle romance, no swearing, mild violence. Some mild thematic material, though, involving a kind of disturbed character and a little sorcery, though nothing explicit. Totally clean. Personally, I’d probably recommend high school and up.
More:
Book 2 in the Firethorn Chronicles is The Midsummer Captives (4 Stars)
Book 2.5 (a novella) is Red Orchid (Read, but not rated or reviewed)
Book 3 is The Red Dragon Girl (5 Stars)
Book 4 is The Moonflower Dance
Snapdragon is a Firethorn Chronicles short story (4 stars)
Book 2.5 (Red Orchid) is free for Leah’s newsletter subscribers!
I have reviewed each of the above on Goodreads, except for Red Orchid; it wasn’t available on Goodreads when I read it. I may go back and reread it to leave a rating and review. Follow the links to find more info on the books and then scroll down to see the reviews. Mine is among them.
This series should be read in order. Snapdragon isn’t directly related to the main story line and can be read at any time.
On GraceBought
Check out my thoughts on the next book in the series here!
The Midsummer Captives