Princess Cursed

by Stephanie Seed

“If you have the Power you can create any known object in the universe. But first you will need to find your Partner, your true soul twin...”
Kora Stone had heard of the Institute before; it was where Battle Mages trained. They, who were the foundations of legends. It is said, that within the walls of that school resides a secret princess taking refuge from the war that has raged on for centuries. When a handsome stranger comes to her village, he offers her a chance to run away with him and join the Institute. But there’s only one problem, she doesn’t have the Power.
Lost in her own need for lies, Kora will need to find someone willing to be her Partner. A tale of love and secrets is about to unfold.

139 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 10, 2018

About the author

Stephanie is an artist and illustrator, who makes youtube videos about books and art. She's also been known to try her hand at writing YA novels and comics.

Reviews

[Jadey (the Bookish) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Princesses, swords, powers, and intrigue. That's how I would sum this book up.

Okay, so first the good bits. I really liked the concepts of the powers, I feel like it's something that hasn't been done before (to my knowledge). I liked the partners concept too, and I absolutely LOVED that it didn't revolve around romance because that's such a pet peeve for me with YA books. I thought the MC Kora, whilst a little frustrating at times, was a good depiction of a 15 year old. And I really liked the dynamic between the group of girls! Lastly, I absolutely ADORE that book cover!!

Now, the not so good bits. Unfortunately there were quite a few spelling mistakes throughout the book, whilst not something major, just took me out of my immersion a little bit. The same with an overuse of commas. It could just have done with a bit of editing is all! Additionally, although I previously mentioned a lack of romance, there was a hint at a romance between the MC (15) and Orcame (19) which made me feel quite uncomfortable. If that was the intended effect then fair enough, otherwise it just doesn't sit right with me. Now the plot. I found the plot fairly intriguing at the start and towards the end, however in the middle of the book I became quite bored as nothing of major consequence happened.

Overall I thought this was a good first book with a few flaws, and am intrigued as to where the series intends to go. I would definitely read another book by this author, as I think she shows a lot of potential!

[Shawna Z · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pretty good premise completely ruined by lack of editing. The manuscript suffers from a lot of stilted sentences; cutting things off and starting a new sentence when its not warranted and disrupts the flow. Nor does she seem to understand the rules of punctuation; often skipping needed commas, improper apostraphe use and there are numerous spelling errors. Odd words are capitalized in one sentence and then not in the following one. The main character's inner monologue quickly becomes tedious as the author contradicts herself within the same chapter or paragraph, and the storyline often makes no sense, as the audience often does not get information that the main character is suddenly reacting to.

The author had a YouTube video showing the details she went into creating the lovely cover, but I wish she would have paid more attention to the manuscript by either editing and revising her story more, or asked someone to proofread it for her prior to publishing. As it was I couldn't bother finishing the story as the errors were pretty much on every page, which felt like laziness in writing to me. If the author didn't care enough about her work to handle it properly and with respect, then why should I care enough to fully invest myself in her world and with the plight of the characters?