Stolen Songbird

Kind of a spoilery review (Nothing specific is mentioned, I mostly gloss over certain things.)

Really flew through this one but I have to say that with all the hype I expected a bit more.

However, that is not to say that the world-building wasn't rich and the characters undynamic but overall the ending was a let down. It didn't resolve anything and didn't answer any of the million of the burning questions created throughout the book.

I didn't expect for the book to be so heavy on the politics and the royal family but it was a nice surprise. What I didn't enjoy was the time the protagonist wasted on miscellaneous activities. I understand that they served their purpose of introducing her to the troll city but it seemed wasteful because of the fact that it didn't serve any purpose for advancing the plot line or being useful to the reason why she was there.

While having said that, I really did like Cecile's character, far more than I liked Tristan's. I wished the author had utilized her singing more in this book because why else introduce us to her amazing talent in the beginning and then use it as infrequently as possible? I didn't like Tristan as much because even though he could acknowledge his flaws in the brief snippets from his perspective, he did nothing to rectify them. Prime example being his secret-keeping. I despise nothing more than misunderstandings between the main character(s) and their circle. This seems a tad ironic since I really do enjoy politics in my fantasy books. I just don't like easy misunderstandings that lead to stupid, well-intentions-gone-awry actions when they can just as easily be avoided by telling the truth. (Another irony, seeing as the trolls can't lie.) That is one of my biggest pet peeves in books: when STUPID STUPID actions can be avoided just by telling the truth, just by showing a little faith that the person you are telling it to won't stab you in the back.

Although, I went off on a tangent there it still applies to Stolen Songbird. For goodness' sake, Tristan and Cecile are bonded, they can feel what the other is feeling and while it many not be wholly reliable, wouldn't Tristan be able to feel if Cecile had any malicious intent towards him? And he even follows her and can know where she is, and yet he still thinks she would rat him out at the drop of a hat?

Again I digress. I have to give Stolen Songbird its proper props. (If you've read the book, do you think Vincent and Victoria would like that little bit of alliteration?? :) I fundamentally believe that if the book didn't have the solid foundation of world-building that it does I wouldn't be able to go on and on about its flaws. There can only be this amount of passion if I really thought the book deserved better. Otherwise, why would I bother?

I do recommend this book to fantasy lovers, and those that enjoy poli-fan will get an additional kick out of it. I've only put off reading this for so long because I didn't think that there was a sequel due to the cancellation of titles from Strange Chemistry. But I believe that Angry Robot published the rest of the trilogy due to high demand. (If anyone knows the specifics, I'd love to know.)

I honestly don't know if I'm going to pick up the rest of the trilogy, anyway, because the ending did not satisfy me at all. And I didn't get enough of the side characters to really fall in love with any of them. I really wish there had been more about them because I loved the snippets of Vincent and Victoria's antics, and I loved learning about the miners. Sigh, more potential lost.