By: Cait Marie
The Traitor Prince is the third book in the Ravenspire series by C.J. Redwine. Each book in this series is a different fairy tale retelling. The Shadow Queen is Snow White, The Wish Granter is Rumpelstiltskin, and The Traitor Prince is The False Prince (or The Prince and the Pauper). Each one is its own story about different characters, but they all take place in the same world and overlap just a bit.
The Traitor Prince is about Prince Javan of Akram. Javan has been away at school for 10 years without seeing anyone from his kingdom other than the noble classmates at his school and his uncle, who visited a couple times. Just after he graduates, there is an assassination attempt before he can return home. An imposter, who looks enough like the prince to fool the king, takes his place. When Javan claims he is the true prince, he is thrown into the underground, gruesome prison of Maqbara.
In Maqbara, there is a competition. The young and able-bodied prisoners enter an arena to face terrible beasts and monsters. The winner is rewarded with a meeting with the king and one request. Javan enters the competition, where he faces the horrifying beasts as well as the cruel prisoners who dislike him.
I loved this book! I love this whole series, but this one was just fantastic. It’s more action-packed and exciting, I couldn’t hardly put it down. C.J. does such an incredible job at world-building in this series, and the descriptions of the prison and beasts truly puts you right in the story. I also love the bickering friendship Javan starts with Sajda, a slave in the prison with a dark secret.
This book is beautifully written and fun. I highly recommend it (and the others in the series), especially if you like fairy tale retellings and/or YA fantasy. It’s very good and I cannot wait until the next book, which I believe is going to be a Cinderella retelling (but I could be very wrong about that!).
Also, this book is gorgeous!! It’s purple and it has THE prettiest map I have ever seen in a book. Plus, my copy is signed, which makes me super happy inside…
You can read more about the book on Goodreads, and get your copy on Amazon!
