Book Review: A Court This Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark

A Court This Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Court This Cruel and Lovely was lovely alright....lovely and so bloody CRUEL indeed. I wasn't expecting mercenaries in this book, but when I saw them, my little fantasy heart skipped a few beats. The FMC of our story, Prisca, is a girl who can stop time, but she had to hide it from her village and her kingdom for some reason, and she lives in fear of the guards and them taking her power and then finding out that she still has it, and they kill her and her whole family for it. One night, her mother has a vision about her and she tells her to run, and Prisca does, but not after her mama pushes her off a cliff right before the guards get her.

After surviving a couple of nights alone, she meets some mercenaries and she thinks she could escape from them by using time. Turns out one of them notices it and decides to train her on her magic and in return she helps them get inside the city so they can meet a contact or something like that. Prisca agrees, and she travels with the mercs and trains with them on how to use her magic and how to defend herself.

Enemies to Lovers was huge here throughout the book, and I was eating it up. Lorcan or Thorcan or Lorien whatever his name is? Had me on my knees until THE ENDING. THAT ENDING. Why? Why though? I wasn't prepared for it AT ALL, and when it was revealed WHAT he was....my boy. But why? Why did you choose right then and there to hurt me? But Prisca's secret was the one that shocked me the most--one, because I wasn't even prepared for it, and two, because it felt like a really huge secret that needed to be in the dark but when it came out to the light I was shocked AF about it.

As for the romance part of this book...sadly, for me, it was on the ground. I'm learning that in most romantasies, the romance is a second plot and I really don't give a damn about it, and if it's good then it's off the ground. For the first twenty or so chapters, as we read mostly from Prisca's POV and then sometimes Lorien, Thorien, whatever his name is, and seeing them work together and then try to work together when they're in the King's castle was fun, even seeing them falling in love.

BUT SIR. THORIEN. LORIEN. WHATEVER.

WHEN WERE YOU GONNA TELL ME AND PRISCA THAT YOU ARE:
-Fae
-Nicknamed "The Bloodthirsty Prince"
-You be tall. Because I like tall men.

I cannot wait to read book two because I need to know more, I want the 'why' questions answered, and also because in the beginning, seeing Lorien, Thorien (I'm gonna get his name right one of these days) making a deal with stone hags made my fantasy heart happy AF.

View all my reviews