Book Review | A Stolen Kiss

*I was given a free ARC of A Stolen Kiss provided by Netgalley and Swanifide Publishing in exchange for my honest review.*

This book is a retelling of the classic fairy-tale, the Swan Princess. We follow the quest of four teenagers, a stable boy, a ladies maid and two royals, as they travel through kingdoms, forest and swamp in search for an evil sorceress. One of them has been cursed and only the one who cast it can lift it. 

First of all I love the cover of this book. I requested this title mainly based on the cover to be honest. I did really liked the premise of this book and I did enjoy it, but it’s definitely not without it’s faults. 

A Stolen Kiss is told through the dual narrative of Derric, the stable boy and Maria, the princess. This narrative was shared chapter by chapter, but Derric’s account seemed to be the one telling most of the story and Maria spoke mainly of her own individual feelings which felt secondary to the main plot. 

The characters we are told are in their late teens except for Sarah who is a few years younger. These people are all so innocent which is typical of a traditional fairytale and works well in short stories and Disney films, but as a novel, this didn’t quite work for me. Both girls are really immature and the boys are too nice. Prince Humphrey says ‘mate’ a lot which is confusing as it’s a word often associated with the working class and clearly he is not. The dialogue between them is very simple and even in the more intimate scenes between the characters, none of them seem to actually talk like real people. There could have been a bit more development of the characters, especially the girls. 

I really liked the world building in this book though. The variety of creatures from myth and I believe some from Keating’s own head, such as the Melgorn and Beonarch, as well as the fairy-tale books being a part of the world's history were what made this original for me. Other than location there wasn’t much difference shown between the two Kingdoms visited during the story and I feel this could have been explored just a little.  

The ending of the book was set only 6 months later, but suddenly all the characters seemed to have grown up. This is a shame as there was an entire 300+ pages in which this could have been spread out. The interaction between two characters in the last scene would fit into the YA category, but seems out of place in a novel that reads as though for a much younger audience. 

I recommend a bath with the Unicorn Horn bubble bar from Lush while reading this book.

The book is the first in the ‘Stolen Royals’ series, but works just as well as a stand alone as we’re left with most of the ends tied up in the last few pages and readers could leave it at that if they wanted. There's also some bonus material at the end of the book which contains some explanations and definitions of the different clauses found in curse contracts. I thought this was nice although it would’ve been handy if referenced earlier in the book. 

Overall, I give this 3 stars even though there are problems. It would have been 2 stars, but the story is a nice twist on a traditional tale and since the curse has now been lifted, I am intrigued to see where Keating can take this next so will probably pick up the next book. 

I read this over a couple of days and I would say it's good for a rainy day when you just want to read something charming and nice. I recommend A Stolen Kiss to children between ages 11 and 16 or anyone else looking for a quick read with a lighthearted story. 

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