ARC Review: Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen

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Book summary: 

For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.
But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever.

            It's rather rare for me to sit down just after finishing the book and start the review. But here I am, only few minutes after reading the last word of this book writing this. I cannot tell you how much this book makes me happy. But enough of my blabbing, gushing and fangirling (yeah, like that will ever stop), and let me tell you more about this book.

            This is a story about Cecile, a young girl who suddenly gets kidnapped and soon enough finds herself in a world she heard stories about. I cannot tell you about time she is living in but as soon as we entered Trollus I forgot about our world in general. The caves are magical not only because they indeed are filled with troll magic but because they're beautiful. We cannot tell the same for most trolls living there but Tristan is someone you must notice. His ideas aren't those of marriage and mostly not of breaking the curse, but actually they are quite different. But his attitude and impoliteness aren't those of the the next king. When forced together they must find a way around games and intrigues because they are now part of their lives. Soon enough they see that they both have more in common than they believed.

            While some parts of this book sound really predictable and in fact they are, there are other things that make this book unputdownable. It's not just that the author made me fall for trolls but at the same time she created characters who are actually not special nor perfect. Cecile and Tristan are far from it. Every her decision is weighted and even though well aware of her love for Tristan she still has life outside and she still cannot let go the idea of the future that once was very near. She is rational as much as emotional. What more there is Tristan, a boy who is really rude and far from Prince Charming and he has all right to be. His will has been broken so many times and every his move is well calculated and planed. He is strategist after all. There is no insta-love here, here is romance that's built out of friendship and mutual desire to break so many rules and built a place for better tomorrow. Of course their relationship is not an easy one, when both of them are forced to be something neither of them wants to be.

         This review is too long already, but I need to take a moment and tell you more about supporting characters, about Marc, who won me from the first appearing or Victor and Victoria who are hard not to like. Same as King, Queen and Duchesse who all played their parts in royal manner.

          Lastly, this book is apparently over 400 pages, but I haven't felt if for a second and I'll gladly read 800 pages more if necessary.

Rating: 5 stars.

Until the next time,

***NOTE: Copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher, Strange Chemistry, via NetGalley. Thank you. 

I'm not paid for writing this review - I do it as a lover of written word. All opinions are personal.