Book Review
Title: The Prince and the Witch by L. A. Thompson
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4 Stars
The synopsis and opening of The Prince and the Witch made it seem like a genderbent retelling of Sleeping Beauty as we are introduced to Prince Edward, the only child of the King and Queen of Arthura who was cursed by her grandmother when he was a child resulting in a slow decline of his health and it will kill him by his 17th birthday. Due to this his father banished the witches and their magic from the Kingdom despite the fact that only a witch can make the medicine which is keeping Edward alive. As his 17th birthday is in less than a month and his father shows no signs of finding a witch to help Edward, he ends up leaving the place and heading to the Venatys Mountains to find a witch for himself. We are also introduced to Abbey who from the age of six has known she was a witch, she uses her magic growing up to provide for her family when the harvests are poor but keeps her magic hidden knowing she will be taken before the King is anyone finds out. This does happen one day and Abbey is forced to flee into the Venatys Mountains the same place that Edward is heading and I know they are going to cross paths are some point.
After leaving the palace, Edward feels better than he has in weeks apart from one bad episode that causes him to cross paths with a hunter named Jude. At Jude’s cabin he rests and regains his strength and also learns. Jude explains that he knows who Edward is despite him trying to hide his identity and Edward explains why he is trying to find the witches. Jude rather than turning Edward over to his father for the bounty money teaches Edward how to survive on the journey he is going to take before sending him on his way. Meanwhile, Abbey learns of Edward’s disappearance and the coven leader, Umbra believes that he is coming to find them to break the curse. Umbra explains to Abbey that the Rabble, a group of criminals will also be searching for the missing Prince and they need to find him before the Rabble does so Abbey volunteers since Umbra needs time to figure out how to break the curse. Umbra also believes that Edward needs to take the throne since he will be the one to lift his father’s ban on magic and allow them to return to living normal lives which most want more than anything since they were forced to flee or face death for something they can’t control. Abbey and Edward don’t get off to the best start since she overhears him blaming witches for the poor harvests but he quickly explains he was lying to the Rabble so they wouldn’t kill him because he understood that they weren’t criminals just young men who were hungry and angry at their situations.
As Abbey and Edward make their way back to the coven they get to know each other and Abbey begins to see there is more going on than the curse at work as she can sense another witch has been around them recently. When they reach the coven they learn of a strange witch that was there recently and has a discussion with Umbra, causing Abbey to go into a panic since Umbra can’t be found. Scared and angry at the realisation of who the mysterious witch is Edward flees back to Jude’s cabin and learns that Jude made a blood contract with his father for magic just like his mother’s, Edward’s grandmother but there is a clause in the contract that says if Edward’s father or any of his bloodline use their magic they forfeit the crown to him. Jude goes onto explain that the curse that his grandmother placed on him was actually to suppress his magic so this didn’t happen and it is also the reason his father banished magic from the Kingdom to ensure they head control of the crown and Edward vows to do the same but Jude wants Umbra to break the curse. We learn from Abbey’s perspective that Umbra might very well be Edward’s grandmother although this isn’t confirmed yet and I am excited to see how the novel ends.
The ending of the novel was great and really tied everything together, I honestly felt that this would have been an amazing full length novel where the magic system and its rules especially those involving blood contracts could have been more in-depth. There were some romantic elements brought in during the epilogue but I wasn’t keen on those parts since the female characters mainly Ruby and Abbey only had friendships with Edward until the end of the book. If there had to be a romantic element then I would have preferred it between Jon and Edward since I’m a sucker for a good friends to lovers story almost as much as I love enemies to lovers. Overall, I was a great short read that I read in a single sitting and I will be checking out more of Thompson’s work in the future.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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