A Stolen Kiss by Kelsey Keating

A Stolen Kiss by Kelsey Keating is a YA take on the fairy tale genre. It starts with a princess being cursed by a sorceress and the ripples from that action are felt throughout the kingdom of Opea. The story picks up nine years after the curse was cast and Maria, the princess, is locked alone every night so no one is privy to what happens because of the curse. Derric is a stable boy with a secret, one that would disrupt his life and the life of his sister Sarah, a lady's maid to the princess. Things of course can't stay secret for very long and Derric, Maria, Sarah, and Maria's betrothed, Prince Humphrey, set off on a quest to find the sorceress and reverse the curse.

From Goodreads:

"A stolen kiss. An unstable curse. One big mess in the making.

Derric Harver never expected to amount to anything more than the palace stableboy, but when Princess Maria's curse keeps her from accepting a prince's proposal, she turns to him for help, and he doesn't dare refuse.

With the help of a lady's maid and a prince, Derric and Maria embark on a dangerous adventure to find the sorceress who cast the curse. Along the way they battle deadly creatures and make new friends--all the while struggling with the undeniable chemistry between them. Reaching their destination won't be easy, but the true danger peril in the truths they've fought for years to keep hidden.

A Stolen Kiss is the first in the Stolen Royals Series--an adventure with magical creatures, dangerous lies, and being true to the power within."
What I Liked: The characters, their relationships! They were so well done. I loved how close Sarah and Maria are in the story. I loved how Derric and Humphrey became close friends, despite their 'rivalry' for Maria (which isn't really a rivalry, but spoilers!). Derric and Sarah have a close brother-sister relationship, despite the fact that they have different mothers and Derric was sent to the stables to apprentice when he was eight and Sarah was five.

I also loved how Keating took the tropes of fairy tales and turned them on their head. Yes, there's a dark forest that nobody enters willingly, but there's some surprises in that forest. The princess is cursed, but it doesn't follow the conventions of normal curses and there's some other things at play. The prince from another land who comes to marry the princess has a story of his own, one that is gradually revealed as the story plays out.

What I Didn't Like: I feel like Keating relies on the reader's knowledge of fairy tale tropes to inform much of the places and things. The dark forest, named Fangralee Forest, isn't completely described. The kingdom of Opea is only talked about in how it relates to other places. She doesn't really describe what the land looks like or the buildings. The reader has to fill in the blanks in regards to those things, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because I'm sure most readers know what a dark forest or a fairy tale castle looks like.

Overall, if I was doing a rating system (which I will eventually set up), I would give A Stolen Kiss 4 out of 5 stars!

A Stolen Kiss is available now!

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Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I received this book for free. All opinions expressed are my own.