The premise of this was amazing but fell really flat. Didn’t enjoy the characters or the writing style.

Well written and a good story line but just wasn't for me. Stuck with it and it turned out pretty good.

This comes under the heading of 'I was seduced by a beautiful cover'. That's not a bad thing. It was solid fantasy and entertaining. It was just as someone who has read a lot of fantasy over the lsst 4 decades, something was missing for me personally. Great world building, wasn't really connected to the chatacter.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book. A gorgeous 4 star read book from me. What an exciting plot, vivid storytelling and relatable, rich characters. I could put this book down – absolutely loved it.

Unfortunately this book was just not for me.
The premise sounded amazing and had a lot of potential but it fell flat. I really struggled to not be bored by the characters. This could have been because it felt a bit repetitive when describing the characters traits.
For people who don’t mind the repetitiveness I think it could be an enjoyable read.
Thank you netgalley for this arc

This was a great read! I’m so glad I was offered the chance to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley for a copy.

Ashoka and Shakti are excellent. Ashoka reminds me so much of other misunderstood princes in literature and especially the fantasy genre and that theme encompasses his whole story. He is gentle and kind and determined to do good. It’s not until he finds his own feet that he really came into his own. I despised his siblings, particularly his sister, and that hatred just grew and grew as I continued turning each page. Awful people. I

Shakti… is slightly less well formed in my mind, and I can’t say for sure how well she shone on the page for me. However! She was the initial hook for me reading (which is surprising as I generally prefer male characters).

I will say that the magic was lost on me.. which is a shame because there is lots of magic! The creatures, the dreams, the spirits… all a bit confusing. I followed the general gist but I didn’t find it clear how the magic worked. All the same, it did not detract from my overall enjoyment of what I was reading.

Pacing was excellent. I often find myself at the 40-60% trying to crawl through some sort of sludge. This was not the case at all. The plot is tight, and Maithree uses this to pull along the character development expertly. It just.. worked. I didn’t have to push myself to finish this book, enjoying every page.

This was a new culture for me. I’ve never read anything inspired by Ancient Indian lore. I’m so glad this book was my first look. And I am very keen to watch Ashoka’s tale and journey to power unfolds in the next instalment, as well as discovering just how Shakti will get out of the pickle she is in. That’s the biggest problem with being an ARC reviewer. Shame I now have to wait!

The politics were what took me out of the story but I rather enjoyed the fantasy side of this. I love the increase in these types of stories.

On Goodreads this is categorised as Romantasy but it isn't... where was the romance?

It starts off intriguing with the witches hiding and being burned because the Emperor has spread lies and made them into villains, even though they are pacifists. Shakti goes against the witch rules and uses her magic to harm in an act of revenge but then we find out other witches are using their magic to fight back even though this is against everything they stand for.

The Royal family are all over the place and have no real depth as characters and the storyline with The Collective is brushed over so seems a bit insignificant. Overall the story didn't suck me in and I only finished it because I read an Arc.

Overall the story was just boring with no real stakes, so I won't be continuing.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The premise sounded super interesting and promised much deadly tension in a world inspired by the Mauryan Empire of Ancient India.

And the start of this story was interesting enough, with two POVs that seemed explosive once the protagonists meet.

However I had the feeling that the setup didn't pay out, and I kept waiting for the story to really start.

I'm sad to say this was a 3/5 for me because I couldn't get hooked.

Thank you @netgalley and @harpercollins for the eARC!

Thankyou net galley & harper Collins for this arc copy I was drawed into this book from the description, the first few chapters of the book pack with action and immediately engross you wanting more however after the first few chapters I felt the world building was a little mismatched, I would xlsss this book as a ya book and do think it has very high potential to make it 5 stars 🌟 in the future if they carry on into a series

A wonderful story involving Royals, Witches and Curses, loosely based on the Mauryan Empire of Ancient India. In a conflict of the Emporers family against a sect of Witches, we see the ruthlessness of both sides and one man who wants the conflict to end. Unfortunately, despite being a Prince, he has limited power to do anything. Fighting against his family, Prince Ashoka wants to live a life of peace and wishes for that peace to extend to those in his father's kingdom. Shakti is a Witch who has lost everything to the Emperor and his war on her kind. She wants revenge, and she casts a curse that puts the Empire into chaos, which is both what she does and doesn't want.

This was a really enjoyable read. I liked the two points of view, one of Prince Ashoka who is desperate to be different from his father and siblings and stop the senseless killing of mayakari (witch like women who are mainly pacifists and can communicate with nature spirits). But he is the youngest child, seen as weak and silly by his Brutish older brother and ruthless older sister. The other POV is of Shakti, a mayakari herself, who wants revenge for the killing of her people, especially her Aunt.

The story itself has a lot of politics in it, which usually puts me off, especially in fantasy books. But in this case, it works. The author hasn't got too bogged down in the nitty gritty that can turn chapters into tedious discussions around a table. Instead, it's presented differently and requires no long talks. Which i loved. You get the story and the politics but none of the boredom.

The characters are great. Each with a different, strong personality and clear character development.

After finishing this, I'm excited to read the next in the series!

Firstly thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advanced copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

I was really excited to read this book as the blurb sounded really interesting . However for some reason I could not connect with the story and so I DNF’d at 35%

Apologies

I started off loving the book but it started getting messy around 35% in.
The beginning sets up the plot and the characters and I really enjoyed it. The middle started getting slower in plot, but I also started getting confused by some of the plot details or characters decisions. It was very YA so wasn't for me.
I really liked the two main characters and the way they developed throughout the story, especially the prince by the end. I give this book 4 stars because even though it wasn't for me, I can see why someone else would really enjoy it.

I found this book to be very interesting, albeit a bit disappointing. Perhaps because of all the hype it's been getting lately, but I felt it didn't live up to it.

While the story does have potential, is action packed (which I love) and it's easy to follow and entertaining, it feels like the book errs too much on the YA side - the characters feel a bit immature and at times they're a bit unlikeable and there should be more world-building, as there are some political issues that kind of happen out of nowhere.

Overall it is an entertaining book, but nothing mindblowing.

I really wanted to love this. The concept sounded incredible and as others have mentioned, the idea of the nature spirits very much gave Princess Mononoke vibes - which is my favourite Ghibli film so I was so excited going into it. Unfortunately that’s where my excitement ended. It wasn’t bad, but it was by no means good either. It was fine - slow, unexciting, unfortunately fairly boring, and the characters were difficult to connect to. I really had to push through with this one, and probably won’t be carrying on with the series, which is a shame.

I loved the concept of a Prince Without Sorrow and was really excited to read it but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I found it so hard to connect with the characters, the pacing was very slow and I feel this made it difficult to keep me engaged and found that in the end I really had to push through to finish.

I did love the writing and the way it flowed and the storyline I just wish I could have enjoyed it a little more than I did.

I enjoyed this! It’s a great adventure and I was sorry when my kindle copy glitched a few pages from the ending. I thought it was an interesting take on Indian fantasy with some cool ideas- especially the way the titular prince deals with his lack of aggression, balancing it with his desire to rule (also love that that isn’t presented as a bad thing). A fun read!

WELCOME TO THE RAN EMPIRE.

Where winged serpents fly through the skies.

Giant leopards prowl the earth.

And witches burn blue as they die.

A prince born into violence

A great read, interesting characters, slow burn possible romance, wonderfully realised world I cannot wait for the next one.

Quite a slow book, found I had to really push myself to carry on reading. Didn’t particularly enjoy the story unfortunately, I liked the concept of the nature spirits, felt quite princess mononoke but just felt like the whole book lacked any excitement and was quite easy to figure out what was going to happen. Great concept just not executed very well unfortunately