The Stolen Kingdom

Maralyth wants to be more then stuck in a kitchen cooking for the vine workers; she wants to work the vineyards, where the plants call to her and the grapes grow and ripen at her touch. Alic is an extra prince, unneeded unless his brother dies before having a son. He doesn’t want anything to do with the crown and the dark magic that comes with it. But when Maralyth is kidnapped and forced into a plot to overthrow the king, what either of them wants is no longer important.

As intriguing as The Stolen Kingdom sounded, I had a hard getting into it until around halfway through. The prose doesn’t flow well and the characters are flat; I found I didn’t really care what happens to them. The end was a bit of a disappointment; Maralyth wants to work the family wine business, until she has a complete flip around in her attitude that felt wrong. The same happens to Alic, except it felt right until he changed his mind again. Overall, it was a quick read with a decent story once I got into it.