I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Prisoner of the Crown is the first novel in Jeffe Kennedy’s high fantasy series, The Chronicles of Dasnaria which follows Princess Jenna as she fights against the patriarchal society of Dasnaria for both her freedom and her life.
The Chronicles of Dasnaria is a spin-off of the Uncharted Realms series and the Twelve Kingdoms series. Unlike the books in those series, Prisoner of the Crown is not a romance and deals with some themes that some readers may find confronting such as sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.
I was expecting for Prisoner of the Crown to cover a wider time frame, but it is very much Jenna's origin story, and deals exclusively with her upbringing and then the escape from her arranged marriage.
Jenna is the eldest child of Emperor Einarr Konyngrr and his first wife Hulda and has had an incredibly sheltered life sequestered in the seraglio, not even knowing what the sun looks like. Women have no rights in Dasnaria, a society where women are either a wife or ‘bed-slave’, and it’s common for men to take multiple wives.
When Jenna is married to an older man – Rodolf, King of Arynherk – whose previous four wives all met with an untimely demise, Jenna is hesitant yet prepared to do her duty. Until it becomes clear just how vile and abusive he is, and exactly how he earnt the nickname ‘Bloody Rodolf’.
Jenna’s only hope is her younger brother, Harlan (who you will recognise if you have read the Twelve Kingdoms or Uncharted Realms series) who is determined to help Jenna escape.
“I wanted to laugh and weep, both. Hestar had to know about Rodolf. My mother and father both knew, too. I had my family and that same family would wed me to this man whose wives had all perished. The ladies of the seraglio might be insulated from much of the outside world, but we were not deaf and dumb, not fools. The wives and higher ranked concubines lived better lives than most, but even they suffered occasionally from an outburst of lust.”
Jeffe Kennedy has done an amazing job creating the world of Dasnaria and I cannot wait to see more of Jenna’s journey, which will continue in Exile of the Seas (expected release date; 4th September 2018).
Prisoner of the Crown releases 12th June 2018.
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