Review--Heart of the Raven Prince by Tessonja Odette

 

A playboy prince in want of a decoy bride.
A servant girl desperate for a disguise…

Raven shifter Prince Franco is every social climbing debutante’s dream. He’s handsome, heir to the Lunar Court throne, and deliciously single. Every young woman wants to bed him, wed him, or steal a moment of his time. Except, of course, for Ember Montgomery.

Half fae Ember craves freedom from her conniving stepfamily. As if they weren’t enough to deal with, a chance encounter with the arrogant Prince Franco leaves her humiliated and in a fiery rage. Nothing could convince her the prince is anything but a rake. But when the opportunity to evade her scheming stepmother falls into her lap, she’ll pay the price—even if it means impersonating the prince’s newest flame…

To prove himself a worthy heir, Prince Franco must marry a princess. But after far too many unsatisfying trysts, he’s given up on love. With the social season in full swing, and bringing with it a horde of husband-hungry socialites, he’ll do anything to delay the pressures of both marriage and the crown. And what better solution than an alliance with a desperate servant girl glamoured as his false future bride?

Locked in a bargain, Ember must pose as a princess until midnight at the full moon ball. Until then, all she has to do is wear the glamour, pretend to court the prince, and above all else, not fall in love. But when feelings emerge on both sides, she starts to wonder if there’s more to their contrived courtship than either of them planned…

Can Ember and Franco find love when the masks come off? Or will illusions and lies prove stronger than their hearts?

ACOTAR meets Bridgerton in this standalone fairytale retelling of Cinderella. If you like slow burn romance, fake engagements, and snarky fae royals, then you’ll love this swoon-worthy story in the Entangled with Fae series.

 

 

Tessonja Odette returns to the magical world of Faerwyvae with Heartof the Raven Prince! It’s a magical retelling of Cinderella that pays perfect homage to the original tale while shiny perfectly on its own as well. It’s pure magic for a fairytale retelling and is absolutely perfect!

Ember is half fae and half human. For the past three years since her father’s death that she believed she caused with her wild fae abilities, she has been her stepfamily’s servant. Her stepmother forced her into a faery bargain where Ember has no choice to do what she says until she turns 19…which is just two weeks away. After her stepmother’s attempts to have her horrid daughter, Imogen marry a fae king failed, she has moved the family to a new kingdom with new fae royalty to try again. And Ember is just along for the ride.

Franco is a playboy prince with a reputation. He has no desire to seek marriage or responsibility, until his sister pleads for him to take the throne from her so she can live happily ever after with her wife. Franco learns he must attempt a courtship with the fae princess of the Sea Court, Maisie.

Ember soon finds herself in dire circumstances when she learns her stepmother is itching to steal Ember’s inheritance from her by forcing her into a marriage with a horrid man. Through a series of events she’s at Maisie’s door at the palace and that’s when Maisie has the bright idea to have Ember take her place at playing “potential bride” to Franco while she runs away…from unknown problems of her own.

Franco though is not so fooled by the deception. He doesn’t know who Ember is, he just knows she’s not the princess she’s pretending to be. It serves both of their purposes though if Ember continues the ruse and he continues to pretend a courtship to please his sister.

I was delighted by the dual point of view in this story! Not only do we get Ember’s side of the story but we see what Franco is thinking both with her and without. It’s truly eye-opening to see what he thinks, as this roguish playboy is hiding a few secrets as well.

The relationship that slowly develops between these two is one of the sweetest I’ve read in a long time! They did not get along on their first meeting—which was before their bargain takes place, but that’s another story—and they really didn’t get along too well when the bargain is struck either. Franco is part psy-vampire and can detect feelings from people and when he’s around Ember in disguise, he gets a sense of what she’s feeling. While I wouldn’t really call this a hate-to-love romance, there’s definitely an animosity between the two that slowly evolves into friendship then something more and oh it was so tantalizing!

If you’re a fan of the slow-building romances, you’re going to love this one! The Cinderella elements ran pretty strong in this one too! There’s magical slippers, a ball, evil stepmother and stepsisters…it was pretty perfect in my opinion! And if you read the original fairytale, you know there was no true fairy godmother either, so the absence of one here isn’t even important!

The story was impeccably paced! Ember is counting down the days until she can escape and leave her stepfamily behind, but with her stepfamily so close and acting suspiciously, you just know something is going to happen to strike up chaos! And chaos does ensue in this ending! In some twisted sense, it made me think of the movie Ever After! Another Cinderella retelling with a few different twists. I positively adored that movie and I love seeing a few similar threads from that one feel similar in this story! Totally different stories, mind you, it’s just that overall feeling is the same  and I loved it!!

If you’ve yet to journey to Faerwyvae, I highly encourage you to do so! I am finding that I am enjoying every single minute of it! I plan to go back and read the “first” series Odette wrote that sort of setup this new series of hers. There was past mention of it in this one and I am eager to find out the meaning behind those mentions! Fans of all fairytale retellings will rejoice with Tessonja Odette’s New Adult series! This is not a series to be missed out on!

 

Overall Rating 5/5 stars