Rating: 4.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC. My opinions are my own.
Demelza is the seventh and youngest daughter of Araminta, a legendary veritas swan (extremely beautiful women who have the power to turn into swans, and whose voices compel anyone who hears it to tell the truth) and Prava, a centuries-old, very ambitious, and some would say, evil wizard. However, when veritas swans fall in love, the person they love gains control over them through a magical necklace with a winged key, which gives that person total control over them. The veritas swan can no longer choose when to transform and has to obey the wishes of their beloved. Only death can sever the bond, but if their beloved dies, so does the veritas swan.
While Prava is quite monstrous, he does love his wife, and he clearly loves his seven daughters a lot. In fact, he raises them to be as cunning and ambitious as himself. As soon as they are old enough, he sends them off to advantageous marriage matches, so they can extend his sphere of influence and help him with his ultimate goal, to find the spell for eternal life. Demelza is different from her sisters. Unlike them, she doesn't have wings or the ability to fly, and while their songs are lovely, her singing voice is terrible. Because of this, Prava keeps her close to him in his castle. She grows up wanting to be as invaluable to him as her sisters, and reads and studies and tries to help him decipher all the clues as to how to complete the spell for immortality.
Once she uncovers the final part, however, it turns out that what the wizard needs is a willing sacrifice, and the heart of a creature born of a beauty and a beast - namely, Demelza herself. He wants to carve out her heart, and the only safe place she can flee to is Rathe Castle, where the royal family of Malys live, and Prava is forbidden to enter. As it happens, this is just as the big competition to find Prince Arris' bride, so yet another young woman showing up on the castle grounds isn't exactly a problem. Araminta has told her daughter the truth: if she ever falls in love with someone, and surrenders her heart, she will be as trapped as her mother has been all these years. Demelza is therefore not intending to actually compete with the other young ladies to win the hand of the prince. She does propose an alliance with him, though, promising to use her truth-telling powers to help him discover which of the women competing may have genuine feelings for him, and which ones are there simply to murder him.
King Enzo the Fool, ancestor to all the rulers of the Isle of Malys, managed to make the witch queen who once ruled there fall in love with him. He got her to grant him a magical boon. First of all, if one of his line died without an heir, the Isle would be ruined. Unfortunately, he worded the next bit badly. Only the male descendants of King Enzo, or whoever possessed their hand and heart in marriage, would be able to sit on the throne. Once the witch queen discovered King Enzo had manipulated her, she cut out his heart and, as a result, was the one with all the power. This continued down the centuries. The heir to the throne would marry and usually be murdered by their spouse within a day of the vows being spoken. Interestingly, Prince Arris' parents were an exception to this rule. His mother fully intended to murder his father, but fell so deeply in love before she had time to kill him, and hence Arris' father is the first king of the Isle of Malys in centuries who has been able to live to see his children reach adulthood.
In this world, everyone has two lives. When their first one ends, they are reborn as a tree or other plant, or occasionally a rock. Hence, all the previous rulers of Malys can be found as sentient trees in the grove of ancestors near the palace. They are happy to dispense advice to the current rulers, as needed. Prince Arris has chosen the spot he wants to grow and what tree he wants to turn into, but can't help but be romantic and hope he might find a semblance of the love his parents share (even if the queen keeps trying to murder her husband at least once a month, just to keep things interesting).
When Demelza arrives at Rathe Castle, her mother has enchanted her so she looks covered in mud and grass and is dressed in an outfit made of reeds. Hence, the prince doesn't really consider her a potential bride, and most of the contestants are deeply dismissive of her. That works in her favour when she has to try to ferret out the truth from the various contestants, though they all underestimate her and her abilities. She meets in secret with the prince in the evenings, sharing her findings with him, while he normally brings her something he cooked or baked in the palace kitchens. But obviously, all these secret chats, involving food created specifically to cater to her likes and preferences (up to including pond weed, crunchy beetles or tadpoles), aren't going to lead to feels between the swan and the prince. Their friendship is totally platonic, yes indeed.
In the first few rounds and basically the first half or so of the book, there are way too many contestants, and I couldn't really keep them apart. The two young women who share a room with Demelza are certainly no threat to Arris and seem to genuinely want to befriend Demelza. One turns into a giant bear and seems more interested in cooking the perfect recipes than marrying the prince, while the other seems to have more of an affinity with Arris' very fiercely protective twin sister. Then there's Edmea, the mean-girl beauty everyone expects to win the competition, who can magically create her own outfits, and who was described in such a way that it was impossible for me not to picture her as Ariana Grande's Glinda the Good from the Wicked movies. Couldn't tell you anything about any of the others.
Demelza, born different from all her other sisters, and mostly undervalued and treated with disdain by her mother (to make her seem insignificant and plain, so Prava wouldn't figure out that she was the missing link in his quest for immortality, has always felt like she needs to prove her worth and has a very low opinion of herself. Arris has pretty much known forever that since he is the crown prince, he is unlikely to survive his wedding day, and has therefore never dared make any hopes or dreams about the future, making every effort to live in the present and enjoy every aspect of life. Demelza fears falling in love because her mother has told her that it means giving her beloved total control of her life. Arris hopes to fall in love, even though he knows it's likely his future spouse will murder him to gain power and the right to rule the Isle of Malys. So they are slow to realise their feelings for one another, and both have very conflicted feelings about true love.
Arris has always been lucky enough to be loved by his parents and his very protective twin sister, while Demelza has always felt like the odd one out. Since her sisters all had beautiful singing voices and happily fit into Prava's plans for world domination (at least his little corner of the world), Demelza has lived a sheltered life, living the life of a scholar. She has a vast knowledge of all sorts of things acquired in books, but struggles in social settings. The two princesses she shares a room with are the first women she's known actual friendship with. So while this is a story with a romance in it, it's also about Demelza learning to appreciate herself as a person, and learning that she is worthy of friendship and affection, she doesn't just need to be useful to those around her. As the number of contestants is winnowed down with each new challenge, the remaining women, despite their many differences, all grow closer, as well.
This is the first Roshani Chokshi book I have read (despite owning many of them). Based on this, it will not be the last one that I read. I am a sucker for good fairy tale retellings, or fantasy stories that feel like they could be fairy tales. As far as I can tell, this story isn't actually based on a previously existing fairy tale, but it has a lot of familiar elements for those who have read a lot of them.
Judging a book by its cover: While I think it's a lovely cover, I still think it may be too ethereal and dreamy for the story this book tells. I think the story is darker than this image implies.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read.
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