Rating: ★★★
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 464 pages
Author: Nadien Brandes
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: September 13th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

She didn’t ask to be the Wishtress.

Myrthe was born with the ability to turn her tears into wishes. It’s a big secret to keep. When a granted wish goes wrong, a curse is placed on her: the next tear she sheds will kill her. She needs to journey to the Well and break the curse before it claims her life–and before the king’s militairen track her down. But in order to survive the journey, she must harden her heart to keep herself from crying even a single tear.

He can stop time with a snap of his fingers.

Bastiaan’s powerful–and rare–Talent came in handy when he kidnapped the old king. Now the new king has a job for him: find and capture the Wishtress and deliver her to the schloss. But Bastiaan needs a wish of his own. When he locates Myrthe, he agrees to take her to the Well in exchange for a wish. Once she’s fulfilled her end of the deal, he’ll turn her in. As long as his growing feelings for the girl with a stone heart don’t compromise his job.

They are on a journey that can only end one way: with her death.

Everyone seems to need a wish–the king, Myrthe’s cousin, the boy she thinks she loves. And they’re ready to bully, beg, and even betray her for it. No one knows that to grant even one of them, Myrthe would have to die. And if she tells them about her curse . . . they’ll just kill her anyway.

MISSING.

This book was missing quite a bit for me. I even realized in the first half that things weren’t going well and hoped for a better second, but alas. I’m left with more questions than answers.

Plot wise I felt like there were many holes. There were quite a few things that I kept wondering, why did that happen? What did it serve? And moments where sub plots just didn’t track. Even the ending was suuper open and didn’t satisfy anything I needed.

One good sub plot I did like was about mothers. The things mother’s are willing to do and stretch for to save their children, help them, or just be in the same space as them. A lot of these sentiments were great and maybe this as an adult book with more of that would have hit better.

The romance was super underdeveloped. I wasn’t even marginally invested and confessions of love were being thrown about. The villain’s were too obvious and one dimensional. And I’m not even sure the FMC did anything?! A bunch of stuff was happening to her, but she barely made any moves until the last few chapters.

The base of the writing was fine and the audiobook was great. This was not for me though.

Overall audience notes:

• YA Fantasy
• Language: none
• Romance: kisses
• Violence: medium
• Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of children (side character, off page but recounted), loss of parents, mentions of child prostitution

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