Review of Stolen Songbird

Stolen Songbird (Malediction Trilogy #1)

Author: Danielle L. Jensen

Publisher: Strange Chemistry

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 978-1-908844-96-5

Summary (from book jacket)

For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the mountain. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she realizes that the trolls are relying on her to break the curse.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind: escape. But the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time . . . 

But the more time she spends with the trolls, the more she understands their plight. There is a rebellion brewing. And she just might be the one the trolls were looking for . . . 

Review

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading Stolen Songbird, but this far exceeded any of my expectation. Magic. Check. Underground kingdom. Check. Evil king. Check. All the markings of the types of fantasy books that I enjoy. 

Cécile de Troyes has a talent for singing, but just as she is about to leave her father’s farm to become a singer in the city, she is kidnapped and taken underground to live in Trollus. The Trolls Cécile has heard of have imperfections that make them ugly, but what she soon learns is that some have hideous imperfections while others are unbelievably beautiful. But all of them have the ability to be cruel. The Trolls, trapped underground by a witch’s curse, believe Cécile will be the one to finally break the curse and set them free. Married to the prince — an arrogant Troll who detests humans and resents Cécile — upon arrival, Cécile must learn to survive in the dangerous underground world full of political intrigue.

That is when things really start to get interesting. Although the Prince Tristan is exceedingly arrogant and rude from first appearance, his bad boy charm and snark had me in love with him from moment one. Perhaps part of the reason is his manner of speaking that strongly reminds me of Oscar Wilde’s Earnest. 

Tristan and Cécile hate each other. Tristan does his best to goad and insult Cécile, but despite all that, he is drawn to her singing and when they are alone together out of sight from the other Trolls, Cécile begins to think Tristan is not as bad as he seems. As she comes to know him better, she learns Tristan, his cousin Marc, and others are all involved in a plot to depose the cruel Troll king and free the half-human half-trolls in the kingdom who are, by the King’s law, slaves and disposable.

Cécile now has a purpose in the kingdom: to help Tristan free the half bloods. But beyond all the political intrigue she finds herself in the middle of, her first goal remains to escape Trollus. One of the funnest parts of the story for me was watching Tristan and Cécile fall in love, because boy did they resist their feelings. And, even as they grew closer, they remained in denial of how they felt. Thank goodness for a good YA fantasy story where there is not instalove. Best of all, in a story with a Beauty and the Beast feel to it where Cécile is a captured bride, I love how even after they are ‘in love’ Cécile is still given her chance to escape, and she does. This makes Cécile’s and Tristan’s selfless love all the more believable. 

Although the magical beings are called Trolls, one of the parts that confused me most about the story — at least in the beginning — was the way they were described as eerily beautiful, bound by the promises they make, unable to lie, and weakened by iron, which kept making me want to call them something else. (Hint: the word beings with an 'F'.) There are enough hints in the story to let the reader know that while they are magical beings, they are not actually Trolls, and I hope this dynamic is further explored in Hidden Huntress, book two in the Malediction Trilogy. 

For all the storyline is enticing, the writing is even more so. Vivid and imaginative, the words themselves are so beautifully woven together they could leave a reader spellbound. A very well written, well executed story that leaves me wanting more. 

Cover: 5/5

Writing style: 5/5

Characters/character development: 5/5

Plot: 5/5

Overall: 5/5