About the Book:
✦ Title: The Lady of Lanaria
✦ Author: Michaela Bush
✦ Genre: Christian fairytale retelling {Rapunzel}
✦ Series: Book #1 in the Legends of Lanaria series
✦ Recommend for: 14/15+
My Personal Rating
4 ½ ⭐
📖 Synopsis
A kidnapped princess, a promise, and a kingdom cursed with mysterious plagues.
"Mark my words, Evangeline; if you set foot outside this tower, you will surely die."
Evangeline has spent her entire life hidden in an ancient watchtower, gazing through a window as the world passes her by. She heeds her mother's warning closely, the truth hidden from her always. When a young guard stumbles upon the tower, Evangeline's life is changed forever. As she strikes up a secret friendship with the guard, she learns about the Kingdom of Lanaria and the mysterious plagues that haunt all who live there. But as she delves into the world she barely knows, not everything her mother says adds up. Will they find the truth before it's too late?
💠My thoughts
I am not typically one for fairytale retellings, but recently I've been trying a couple out here and there, and I have to say that this has been my favorite so far!
It was sweet and precious and overall, I just thoroughly enjoyed it. Rapunzel is one of the very few Disney princess movies I've actually watched all the way through, so it was fun to spot the similarities in this book along with some unique twists. There were a few errors, a bit of head jumping, and a repeated paragraph throughout the book, but it was not enough to pull me out of the story, and I have to say I liked the author's writing style elsewise quite a bit.
Aside from some minor "violence", the whole dark magic thing (see content notes), and the super light, sweet romance, it was also very clean which I so appreciated. There was good Christian faith content as well, and I truly loved how Evangeline was devoted to following what the Bible said. Gabriel was a sweet, honorable guy and I liked how the romance progressed a lot.
I had a great time reading this delightful story and I can see why many would love it. I'm super excited to continue the series!!! 💖
⚠️ Some broad content notes
Dark magic/witchcraft mentioned and practiced by an evil character, but it is shown clearly that it is completely wrong; verbal and physical abuse from Mother towards Evangeline; death, violence, blood, being stabbed, poisoning, fighting (nothing too gruesome, but somewhat frequent); a "curse" is plaguing the kingdom and has killed many people, including children; baby birds are ruthlessly killed (semi-detailed); light romance, attraction, noticing, and a couple lightly detailed kisses; someone asks if Gabriel "forced himself" on Evangeline (he did not).
Bookishly yours,
Lottie M
