I received a complimentary advance copy of this book to give a voluntary honest review. This review contains only my own thoughts and opinions of this book.
I am sad to say that this was my least favorite book in the series. It was still very much enjoyable of course, but for me it didn’t completely measure up to the previous installments as much I wanted. As a matter of fact, my hope was that it would measure up and far beyond considering that very dramatic and thrilling cliffhanger My Fair Invader ended on. Expectations really do suck sometimes.
My biggest issue with My Fair Princess was probably the ever-going action and adventure. In itself that is very much exciting and needed in a fantasy book like this. However, it became almost overkill with the characters constantly on the move, fighting, planing or discussing important matter. This hyperactive story telling really needed to be toned and balanced down with some calm moments where not too much is happening. I do understand the fear authors have of that since the book can go too much the other way and become boring and dragged out. However if the character jump around as much as they did in this book, always doing or needing to do something, they lose some of their humanity. Simply because they aren’t given room for their emotions those calm moments help develop and showcase. Emotions of duress and fear that should be obvious with an amazing plot like this, but there just weren’t given any room for when something constantly happened or things always needed to be solved and done.
Since Crysta, Jareth and Kheelan was so focused on solving the whole diadem problem all that addictive drama, anger and twists between them and the four way bond from previous books was kind of forgotten about. Out of nowhere no one held any hate or anger towards Kheelan despite all what he had done. Suddenly he was part of the family and did not want Crysta anymore. When did that major change happen? And why didn’t we readers get to be apart of that? And that amazing and beautiful connection and romance between Jareth and Crysta was left a bit on the back burner. Sure, Jareth and Crysta were together the majority of the time, yet their loving interaction with one another was too brief for my taste. Same problem there really. With so much action they weren’t given room for their relationship. In short, this story was more of an adventure book than romance book.
One thing I am really impressed with though, is the “everything is not black or white, good or evil” message in the book. That was written absolutely beautifully and it is sadly so rare in a book like this that there are gray areas and gray characters. It made it so much more realistic and relatable. Characters aren’t just evil because they’re evil, but like Titania, Moridan and Elsley have a good reason for what they do. Although, if I could change one thing I would remove the cliche villain monologues where they reveal their whole plan/life story for no reason whatsoever. That just doesn’t fly with me for two reasons. One, because it made the villain obviously and unrealistically dumb revealing their intent while they had no magic to defend themself with and had not succeeded yet, giving the heroes the upper ground with the freely given knowledge. Two, it is just too obvious that the villain only give away his plan for the sake of us readers, so we would understand why or how it came to be. There are better and more realistic ways of doing so, like the main characters finding it out on their own without being told by the villain.
Overall, I enjoyed the adventure, the characters (especially Zelros) and the twisting turns and new world. While there were disappointments on my part and Crysta at times felt a bit too much like a Mary Sue (but still very much lovable), the writing style with the trademark C.J Anaya humor is what really makes her books stick so close to my heart. I am already impatiently waiting for My Fair Queen.