Review--The Traitor Prince by C.J. Redwine

Javan Najafai, the crown prince of Akram, has spent the last ten years at school, far away from his kingdom. He’s been eagerly awaiting his return home to his ailing father, but his journey there goes dangerously wrong. A mysterious imposter has taken his place—and no one will believe Javan is the true prince.

After barely escaping the imposter’s hitmen, Javan is thrown in the most dangerous prison in his kingdom—Maqbara. The only way to gain an audience with the king and reveal the truth is to fight his way out in the prison’s yearly tournament, which pits inmates against a coterie of the deadliest creatures in the world.

The one person who can help him is Sajda, a strong and secretive girl who has been enslaved by Maqbara’s warden since she was a child. Working with Sajda might be the only way Javan can escape alive—but she’s hiding something.

Together, Javan and Sajda will have to outwit the dangerous warden, outfight the hundreds of deadly creatures, and outlast the murderous prisoners intent on killing Javan before he can win—in order to fight for their freedom, and take down the imposter once and for all.

The latest in C.J. Redwine’s Ravenspire series is The Traitor Prince and it has a sort of The Man in the Iron Mask kind of feel to it for me. It’s been years since I’ve read all my fairy tales so I might not be remembering a particular one if this one was more fairy tale oriented than not. But still it made for an exciting read! One thing that always drives me crazy and sends my blood racing is when there’s an imposter afoot and everyone believes that the imposter is the real deal and the real person is thought to be the villain! And naturally, we see things turn in that direction with this one.

We basically open up to see a devious plot being formed by a young man named Rahim who is the illegitimate son of the current king. He, along with a posse of other nefarious feigns are plotting to put him on the throne in place of the young prince, Javan who is expected to make his return from a long ten years of schooling. It’s their plan to rule the kingdom of Akram through Rahim, not realizing that Rahim has plans of his own.

Soon, Javan is attacked and almost killed but that’s the least of his problems when he tries to return home and gets tossed into prison instead. Someone has already taken over his life and identity and he’s stuck down in the darkest of dungeons where the prisoners are forced to act in gladiator style battles against terrifying monsters and each other. But if he were to win the tournament he would gain a favor from the king and he hopes that by winning, he can tell his father the truth of what has happened.

In a nutshell you got yourselves quite the thrilling read! It’s hard for me to explain why these mistaken identities always get my blood boiling. I don’t even know myself. But the idea of not being believed you’re the real you and an imposter gets to be you instead, sends my heart racing in fear and anger! C.J. does remarkably well in getting my blood boiling with this particular theme! Adding in the fact that people are still trying to kill Javan in order to go along with the false prince really amps up the danger!

But what would this story be without a little bit of romance? Sajda is a prison guard of sorts, she’s a slave of the warden and is little more than a prisoner herself. She’s only ever known prison bars and criminals and the like. Yet, she yearns for her freedom, to see the stars and live somewhere where she can be alone and herself. She has a secret that she’s kept hidden for years, that only the warden knows, but someone else is about to discover what her secret is.

Javan was quite the character too! I enjoyed his determination in this one! It starts out a little annoying in some sense, because he wants to be the best at everything, but there’s a reason for that and once that’s known, his need for success becomes less annoying! Lol. I quite enjoyed his interactions with Sajda. She’s a prickly sort and he’s more the friendly, go-to guy. And ever so slowly a friendship between them forms.

I will admit that this book started off a little too slow for me. Once the plot was known, I almost expected to dive right into Javan being wronged, but we actually don’t get around to seeing that for around 50 pages or so. But once you get passed that part, the tension and danger and excitement never let up!

This was a most intriguing and well developed read! While the beginning was hard to get into, I persevered through that part knowing the best was yet to come! And naturally it does. I would’ve liked to know more about a few loose-ends after the resolution but the details were a little sparse beyond the few basic understandings. All in all, it was still a fun read and I am anxious to read the next one already!


Overall Rating 4/5 stars