I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Rise of the Vicious Princess by C.J. Redwine
Published by Balzer + Bray on 6/14/22
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Young Adult
Pages: 432
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Princess Charis Willowthorn is the dutiful sword of Calera. Raised to be ruthless and cunning, her only goal is to hold her war-torn kingdom together long enough to find a path toward peace with their ancient foe Montevallo, even if the cost is her own heart.

When violence erupts in the castle itself, nearly killing the queen, Charis must assume her mother’s duties and manage both the war and her kingdom. But as an unseen enemy begins sinking Calera’s ships, Charis realizes a threat much greater than Montevallo is coming for her people. So she forms a plan.

By day, she is Calera’s formidable princess intent on forging an alliance with Montevallo. By night, she disguises herself as a smuggler and roams the sea with a trusted group of loyalists, hunting for their new enemies. And through it all, she accidentally falls in love with the wrong boy.

But her enemies are much closer than Charis realizes, and her heart isn’t the only thing she has left to lose.

Sweet and Short Review

Charis is the Princess of Calera, she was raised to be ruthless by her mother so that people will know she isn’t one to try to walk all over. Charis will do anything for her kingdom even if it means giving up her own happiness. That’s just what she decides to do in order to end the war between Calera and Montevallo. But when Charis realizes that Montevallo is the only enemy Calera has to worry about she decides to put her life in danger by becoming a smuggler by night to try to find out who is sinking Calera’s ships.

This was a really good book, it took a while to be captivated by it but once I was I couldn’t put it down. Calera has been at war with Montevallo for some time and when Montevallo attacks Calera, Charis knows something has to be done. After the attack Charis gets a new personal guard, Tal. There is chemistry between the two but they both know that a relationship would never be allowed. Tal does a great job at taking care of Charis and giving her advice. After listening to Tal give his input on a situation Charis knows that the only way to have peace between Calera and Montevallo is to offer herself and get married to one of Montevallo’s princes. Even after this there are still attacks and this is when we learn that Montevallo isn’t the only one attacking Calera. When Charis sees that Calera’s ships are sinking she decides to disguise herself as a smuggler and find out who is attacking them from the sea.

Going into this book I wasn’t so sure that I would be able to connect Charis because she’s a strong female character and her mother has raised her not to take any nonsense from anyone and she’s very quick to let people know her place. I’m glad that Redwine added scenes with Charis and her father because when she’s with her father she lets her walls come down and you can see that she is a softy. I liked seeing Charis, Tal, Holland, and Nailani together, it made me happy to see that Charis had a good support system she didn’t have to be the calculating princess around them and she was able to run ideas with them. The plot is well written and the pacing is good. I will say after reading the synopsis that I thought the whole smuggling thing would happen sooner but that didn’t take place until a little past the halfway point. The ending was a twist I wasn’t expecting and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next because there was a lot of action packed into those last few chapters and I can’t wait to see how Charis will deal with everything. This was an action packed book that will have you on the edge of your seat and will leave you wanting more!