If there is a book I have been seeing a lot when browsing through lists on platforms as Goodreads and Amazon, it definitely is A Court this Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark. The title immediately intrigued me but sounded so similar to A Court of Thorns and Roses which is one of my favourite series of all time. And yes, I’ve read it way before Booktok became a thing and this series got tremendously hyped, I read all the books in 2017 to be exact. However, this book by Stacia Stark kept appearing on my radar, so it was time to check out the synopsis and whether this would be something I would like. I left it on the digital shelf for several months, until I randomly opened it recently. To be honest, I went into this reading experiences with the lowest expectations possible, it could only get better, right?
About the book
A Court this Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark Series: Kingdom of Lies #1
Published by Bingeable Books on March 15, 2023
Pages: 556
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romantasy
For fantasy romance readers who love Raven Kennedy, Amanda Bouchet, and Carissa Broadbent. This slow burn, enemies-to-lovers series will enchant you…
For years, when I fell asleep, I dreamed of a man with blazing green eyes and a cruel smile.
The day I meet him, the ruthless mercenary leaves me for dead.
Just hours after humans are born, the gods take what little power we have. In return, they protect our borders from the vicious, merciless fae.
The humans who manage to keep their power are known as the corrupt.
And they are burned.
When my forbidden power is discovered, I’m forced to flee my tiny village and the life I adore.
To survive, I make a desperate bargain with the mercenary who abandoned me at my weakest.
Our deal is simple: I’ll help him and his mysterious friends sneak into the city. And he’ll help me learn to wield the strange, dark power I’ve always kept hidden. The power that may just be the key to my survival.
But the ruthless mercenary is hiding secrets of his own. Secrets that threaten the safety of everyone I love. Secrets that could tear this kingdom—and perhaps even this world—apart.
Please note: A Court This Cruel and Lovely is an NA/adult romantasy book with steam. While this series is slow burn, the chili pepper rating will increase for each book.
My review
In this book, we alternately follow Prisca and Lorian. Prisca is the character whose POV we follow for the most part, Lorian is less present. However, he plays a key role in the story, which we won’t find out until much later into the book. Prisca however is quite similar to many other characters within the romantasy genre, she has powers she has to keep hidden in order to keep herself and her loved ones save. Power is taken away at birth, forbidden in the kingdom in until the citizens’ 25th winter, then it gets returned to them. This is an entire event of its own, with a ceremony and everything. Showing your powers before your 25th winter means a one-way trip to the king’s dungeons and eventually to a death sentence. Prisca – of course – is kind of a special snowflake, because she’s different from her fellow villagers. It takes a good portion of the book to find out why and what her backstory is. Despite her being the special one, she’s fierce and refuses to give up. She fights for what’s right, even though she’s really insecure and scared. I think she’s not just scared, but very protected and therefore hasn’t seen much of the world. It takes her a while till she feels secure enough to step out of the shadows. There is a lot of feminine rage in this novel which has been portrayed really well. I like Prisca as a main character, apart from the special snowflake trope.
Lorian however is a different story. It was clear to me from the start that he is not the one he pretends to be, but I just couldn’t put a finger on what made him so different. He was really distant at first and finding out why was quite an interesting journey. It was obvious that he wanted to keep his guard up with Prisca, but spending so much time together left him with no choice than to open up a bit more for her. I liked his soft side, I was scared that he would be such a brute. Okay, he definitely upholds that image later on, which definitely leads to an interesting development. There was lots of attractiveness and chemistry between these characters, they are intrigued by each other even though they try to deny this for the longest time. Stark wrote all characters well and I have the feeling we still don’t really know them. For instance, I’m really curious for several side characters.
It takes a while for the plot to pick up. The first half of the book moves quite slow, but therefore there’s more room for Prisca and Lorian to get to know one another and learn how to work together. This part of the story wasn’t intriguing to me, and I was hoping to move forward at some point. And we eventually did! The second half had much higher stakes than the first one, because so much was happening at once. Prisca and Lorian had to act even more secretive than before and literally all their lives depended on their actions. Many discoveries and revelations were done and this effected the characters and story a lot. Both plot and characters developed massively in the second half of the book, all against a dark and tense atmosphere. There’s not much room for light banter which made this book much more appealing to me. I had trouble putting the book down once the story progresses. The author uses very familiar themes and tropes, such as the special snowflake, trauma, self discovery and the tyrannical king. I have to admit that this made me a bit reluctant to read this book, but the ending left me hungry for more. The writing however was okay, not that outstanding. But that’s fine, since I enjoyed this book in the end.
A Court this Cruel and Lovely by Stacia Stark is a book like many others, but was still enjoyable to me. The characters are written well and made me very curious for their development throughout this series. I have the feeling we have seen just a little bit of them and there’s much more to discover. The plot picks up at the second half of the book, but then it’s hard to put it down. It was really intriguing as the stakes are getting higher and higher. The writing is okay, not that peculiar. Despite all the familiar tropes and themes, the ending left me hungry for more and I will definitely be reading the rest of the series whenever I can.
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