I attempted to read this, but unfortunately just had to DNF it. It just didn't grab my attention throughout the 1/4 of it I read and I just got bored. No offense to the author, it just wasn't my cup or tea.

I really enjoyed this book! Once you think you know what is happening, the true villain has changed again. Book was written well, and if you enjoy fairytale I highly recommend.

3/5 stars

** I received this as an E-ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, Thank you!**

I have some mixed feelings about this book. I did like it but I didn't love it. It felt very much like an average fantasy ( this is not a bad thing), however there wasn't anything that felt super new to me. This of course could just be a me issue. The writing was enjoyable and the overall story line and characters kept me going. I would recommend for of course it's YA audience, but also if you're looking for something fantastical but also easy to read.

I love when I'm pleasantly surprised by novels. The Stolen Kingdom was a richly told story of two opposing magics, a sweet new romance, and political intrigue that takes several notes from certain Game of Thrones plot lines.

With this being Boehme's sophomore novel, I found myself enjoying this story right through to the end. The tale is told in alternating POV's, following Maralyth and Alac, two people coming from opposite ends of the spectrum in this fantasy world. One from a struggling vineyard with magic she must hide, the other as the spare heir to a kingdom of stolen magic. Magic that was stolen from Mara's bloodline years ago. When she learns she is the rightful heir to the throne, Mara is pulled into a bloodthirsty plot that aims to make her queen over the bones of the Alac and his family. But, as you would expect, things don't quite go to plan, and it's hard to let someone die when you start having feelings for them.

When political intrigue is promised in YA, you're never quite sure if it will pan out until you get to the end. I'm delighted to say this kept me on my toes. There were several plot twists that made the story interesting and prevented it from being predictable. I also really like how the first half of the book centres around a Red Wedding-esque assassination plot. Led by a character who is very much inspired by Petyr Baelish, Mara is to infiltrate the events leading up to the wedding of Alac's older brother as a ward. Then, at the breakfast before the main event, the king and both princes are to die, and Mara to be crowned. And while the result isn't as shocking as George R R Martin's rendition, this was still superbly done.

What kept this from five stars was shortcomings in the wordlbuilding, namely the magic. There are a lot of rules that surround the stolen magic Alac's family has inherited. When the king dies, a ritual must be completed to contain this dark magic within the next king before it destroys and ages everything it touches. It's a dangerous magic because when it was stolen from Mara's ancestor years ago, it turned on its new owner and become a thing of death rather than life. It took me most of the book to understand all the nuances around the magic, and I don't feel I necessarily appreciated the stakes until it was too late. Which sucks because it was quite interesting and executed well.

I received both an e-ARC and an audiobook from Tor Teen and chose to listen to this book. I have zero qualms with the female narrator. Her voice was great and nice on the ears. The male narrator, on the other hand, was not. The dialogue portions were good, but the narration itself was rough as his voice is not only more monotonous and dry, but slower. I had to sacrifice enjoying some of Mara's chapters because I needed to adjust the speed for Alac's. Men, ruining everything, I tell ya.

I really enjoyed this book and am so glad I was able to check it out! Jillian Boehme did a fantastic job of building out the characters and the world they inhabit. I loved the idea of these two characters, Mara and Alac being drawn to each other but also the conflict of being on different sides of the fight...technically.

Mara is strong and smart and loyal. She's also willing to do whatever she needs to in order to protect not only those she loves, but also those she is responsible for. As someone who has magic, she knows she can do so much for the people of the kingdom and she's willing to do everything she can to help.

All of that said, I liked Alac too. As the second son of the King, he feels he doesn't really have a place in the kingdom and at this point in his life, he's fine with that as he'd prefer to have a vinyard. He also doesn't trust the magic his father wields so if he can get away from it and the possibility that he may have to let it inside himself someday, he's all for it.

Long story short, Mara is tapped to help a noble and his followers to overthrow the current King and eliminate him along with his sons. With a bit of blackmail/threatening, Mara joins the insurrection but as she gets to know Alac, she realizes she can't hurt him. Unfortunately, things go slightly awry and the dark magic the king held is released and starts to hurt and destroy the kingdom and it's people.

I won't say much more here as I don't want to ruin the story for anyone. If you're looking for a page turning YA Fantasy, check this one out. I'll definitely be reading more from Boehme when I can!

Review 2.5 stars

This book sounded so great to me, but ultimately it fell flat overall.
I loved how Maralyth's magic was linked so much to plants, and I really enjoyed the instances where she used it. It was the perfect opposition to the King's dark and dangerous magic.
But... I just couldn't relate enough to the characters in the book, and it felt far too rushed for most points; it was as though it was planned to be more than just a standalone.
Anddd then there's the problematic parts.
At one point Alac describes a woman struggling to breath going up stairs and basically blames it on her being lazy? It really didn't sit right with me and felt a little too rude. I think if you know anyone who has issues with their lungs it's something that will just upset you.
So yeah, I wanted to love this but unfortunately I just couldn't.

I’m not usually a big fan of YA but I enjoyed this book. Mara is a vintners daughter who has been blessed with magic. Her mother told her to always keep it hidden but she couldn’t help herself from protecting and enhancing the grapes so that their vineyard was well known for great wine. The evil king subsidized their vineyard so takes a lions share of the wine so they live hand to mouth. Alec is the second son of the evil king and since he isn’t the heir, he is mostly ignored. He has no interest in magic or power but a great interest in making wine. Alec’s family came to power by treacherously stealing magic from the rightful ruler and killing all their heirs. Their stolen magic is black blood magic and has brought misery to the kingdom. Maya dreams of a way to help the people rise from their poverty and build a better life. Suddenly she’s kidnapped and reluctantly thrown into a plot to take over the kingdom. Alec desperately wants to avoid the taint of the black cursed magic. Alec and Maya must work together or the dark magic will destroy all. I liked the characters and the world building. Overall, this was an interesting story of good vs. evil with a little romance thrown in. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Stolen Kingdom was a good YA fantasy. The story was somehow both original and overdone.
There is definitely a lost royalty trope here. A trope I don’t mind and I think that the author does a good job of trying to make it original. However, a lot of this book was just YA fantasy trope after trope. I think the characters were probably the most original part of this book, especially Alac. I think my absolute favorite moments in this book took place between Alac and Tucker. It was great comic relief and I just loved those two together. I also enjoyed Mara, though she was a little more stereotypical of a YA heroine. I also didn’t really get the whole Mara Alac thing. Where did the attraction even come from?
The story was overall interesting. Again, it felt familiar like I had read something similar, but not quite the same. The pacing was good and I certainly never felt bored while I was reading. Without giving any spoilers I think the ending was one of my favorite things about this book. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting and I liked that.
Overall this was a good read, but there wasn’t anything particularly special about this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an arc copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

The Stolen Kingdom follows Mara and Alac. Mara, a vintners daughter has magic that she doesn't really understand and only knows that she must keep it hidden. Alac is the second in line to the throne after his brother and is given a locket that is filled with magic which is supposed to protect him. When Mara is kidnapped and her magic discovered, a careful plan is put in place which is where the two of them meet.

I read this book in one sitting. I liked the magic, politics and characters and generally was curious to find out what was going to happen. It was fast-paced and whilst there were some elements which I would have liked to have been explored further, it was overall a very solid book. I'm not sure if this is a stand alone or if this will be made into a series, however I would definitely read a sequel if one was brought out!

This story felt so average to me, I wanted to love the book, but i just couldn't. The characters seemed bland, I wanted more out of the book, and I really wanted to love it, but there wasn't anything that made me love it. Even when a story is different from what I read am able to engage with it an be into it, but again, with this book it felt too short.. I rate this one 3.5

This was an average read for me. The story was engaging and I liked the characters. However, it didn’t draw me in and make me super excited though either. It wasn’t a bad book, it just felt average. I also didn’t understand the wine angle ans why it was included. It talked a lot about it the vineyard industry, but I just couldn’t make the connection as to why it was so important or how it moved the story forward.

Story was okay, characters where okay, the plot was predicable so this book is just an okay book. I did like that it was a stand alone, all to often books are stretched into a series when one book would suffice so thank you for being only one book.

We follow two characters: Alac, the prince of a stolen kingdom, and Mara, the long lost rightful heir. When a lords finds out about Mara, he forces her into a coup to take the throne. On the other, Alac was never interested in being prince and having anything to do with the corrupted magic.
Every time I sat down to read, I read a lot. It was so fast paced that many times I would read just one more chapter. Also, I really liked the magic system. It was not extremely original but it was interesting to read about. As for the characters, Maralyth was a fun character, slowly discovering her true identity, her mothers' past and her magic. Alac, apart from the love of wine, I liked that he didn't want to follow the path of his family. Their relationship was somewhat cute, but not the most amazing romance of all time. But the one who I liked the most, and wanted more of, was Tucker. His sarcasm made the book 10x better.
However, this was a very cliché book, especially with the fave "not like the other girls" trope. I predicted most of the book, which I personally hate in books. The world wasn’t developed well enough and there were unnecessary parts of the world mentioned, like the religion and the war but only mentioned briefly, where they could have developed on more important things. Also, I didn't like the romance. It was so bland and not what I expected. They had no chemistry, knew each other for a week, and the long awaited kiss at the end was meh. Speaking of the ending, I had a different vision for it, so what actually happened disappointed me.
Overall, an enjoyable read, but slightly disappointing.

I have to say I enjoy reading fantasy stand-alones. I loved the fact that this story takes place in a world of magic. The element of magic always seems to intrigue me and I enjoyed that aspect of the book. The characters were like able with the exception of the main character Mara. I extremely disliked her. I thought she was a brat and an opportunist. She grew up poor and when she discovered some sort of power she felt entitled to everything. Besides that I enjoy reading about wine. And while reading this book I enjoyed a big glass of red wine. Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to receive an ARC of The Stole Kingdom.

This book has a lot of stuff going on! I have to admit I was sucked in by the cover but I also really enjoyed the story itself! I loved the characters and both were very well done. The book is well paced and flows nicely. For all the stuff that is going on in the story the author did a great job of fitting it all in without it feeling crammed. I loved the world building and magic system. Overall this is a great standalone fantasy! Definitely recommend.

The Stolen Kingdom is a YA standalone fantasy novel with an intriguing magic system rooting in the land and kingdom and passed down. This book is rather fast-paced with a plot surrounding the overthrow of a ruler. The romance is between a prince and a commoner with hidden magic. Both characters are cute and I enjoyed the wisps of romance between them. There is plenty of banter and intrigue, however, the book was maybe a bit short to get everything brought together and all aspects fully realized. Ultimately, this is a fun book that can be read by all YA ages.

The Stolen Kingdom is a standalone (as in not part of a series) young adult / teens fantasy book that is filled with magic, mystery and of course royalty.

Overall the book was a straightforward read with a few good surprises, but I didn’t fall in love with the characters and plot, so it was a 3-star read for me. The Stolen Kingdom geared towards teens or a younger YA audience and I’d recommend it to teens looking for a YA fantasy.

Thanks #NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest review.

On the surface, this seems like an interesting YA fantasy. A kingdom under the oppressive rule of a magical tyrant? A seemingly normal girl with secret magic? A spare with dreams beyond the throne? Sign me up. But The Stolen Kingdom fell quite short for me. I mainly just felt "eh" about every emotional moment and action sequence.

The world-building was incredibly underdeveloped, and most of the supporting characters lacked the depth that was needed of them. This book might have benefitted from being a duology. We would be able to sit with Mara and Alac for longer and explore Perin Faye to get that attachment to it. As it's written, I didn't care about their romance and I didn't particularly care who ended up on the throne. I was mainly focused on the lack of explanation for certain aspects of the story - the most irking to me being Mara's magic. Can she do literally anything with it? Is it all forms of healing? She went from someone who could ripen a grape to someone who could heal an entire country with little to no explanation of how that magic developed.

It's hard to write a fantasy standalone novel. This one gets the job done, but not with the most success.

Maralyth has a secret from her family. When someone finds out about it her life is changed. The other MC is a prince Alac, who wants to have nothing to do with politics and magic. This book was enjoyable, but predictale. The characters lacked depth, but the book was fun enough to keep my interest.

The Stolen Kingdom
Author: Jillian Boehme
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating: ⭐️ / 5
Reviewed: Maya

[Trigger Warning: death of a parent, kidnapping. Further triggers should be found through other reviews as I did not read far enough to have a full list]

- PLEASE BE AWARE THAT I DID NOT FINISH THIS BOOK -
I was interested to read this book because of the pretty cover and intriguing synopsis, but I read about 25% of the book before I decided to put it down. The writing was sophisticated, however there was nothing which hooked me and made me want to keep reading to learn more about the storyline. The world-building just wasn’t there, which made it hard for me to follow along with the storyline and the characters. Additionally, I was overwhelmed by the amount of information dumps, particularly with the names of all the family and kingdom history. The storyline always felt very generic - kingdom is stolen, the protagonist is the secret heir to the throne, falls in love with the enemy, saves the day, everybody lives happily ever after. I have read other reviews that have talked about how “women are constantly objectified and put down, by the female MC, male MC and multiple other people in the book” and this quote was attached “She accepted my offered arm, and I escorted her up the steps, marveling at the way she started breathing hard when we were about halfway up. True, she was a bit on the plump side, but I guessed the real reason was that she sat and did nothing all day.” I’m sorry I had to pass this novel as it had potential, however (and most importantly) the objectification and ‘putting-down’ of certain characters needs to be addressed and changed.

Huge thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge and of course Jillian Boehme for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is set for the 2nd of March, 2021.