The Unseelie Prince Book Review

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In this The Unseelie Prince book review I am sharing my thoughts on the first book in the Maze of Shadows series by Kathryn Ann Kingsley. As usual I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum but there may still be a few small spoilers in this book review.

“Arguing with ignorance is like putting out the flames of Hell with a single bucket.”

Kathryn Ann Kingsley, The Unseelie Prince

The Unseelie Prince is an adult fantasy slow burn romance series available on Kindle Unlimited. As usual, I saw the recommendation on BookTok and decided I’d give it a try. I recently added it to my TBR and decided to pick it up pretty quickly thinking it would be a good series to pace for a week or so. I was wrong, I read through this entire series in just a few days.

Trigger Warnings

Since we don’t always get trigger warnings on books I like to give trigger warnings in my reviews. This can help people avoid certain triggers that could hurt their mental well being.

Possible Triggers in this book are:

• Alcohol
• Animal Death
• Assault
• Beastiality Mention, no described act
• Blood
• Bones
• Child Death
• Death
• Divorce
• Fire
• Infertility
• Kidnapping
• Occult
• Profanity
• Sexual Harrassment
• Sexually Explicit Scenes
• Spiders
• Stalking
• Suicide
• Torture
• Violence

For a list of the triggers I look for you can check out this link here. This may or may not be a complete list of triggers for this book, I do my best to make sure I mark anything that could be a potential trigger but I may accidentally miss triggers.

Synopsis and Author

Abigail is a low powered witch based sometime in the 17th-18th centuries. She lives in a small house, on a small farm, with her chickens and her goat. Too bad her husband left for the Americas and sold the house out from under her. 

Regardless that she is broke and about to be homeless, she still helps out a hungry stranger who happens upon her home to stew. Too bad he’s not all he seems to be. Abigail has found herself the object of Valroy, the Unseelie Prince’s affections.

Kathryn Ann Kingsley gives us a beautiful and heartbreaking story about the fae and a woman who may be the key to saving Seelie and Humans by stopping the Unseelie Prince from starting a war he believes is his destiny.  

The Unseelie Prince Reading Experience

The Unseelie Prince starts off on Earth in the 17th or 18th century but we end up in Tir n’Aill which is a land where brethren Fae the Seelie and Unseelie live. We spend a large quantity of time inside the Maze of Valroy.

Our main characters share their point of view in the third person. Abigail, Valroy, and Anfar are the stories we get in this first book in the series.

The plot is pretty simple and there are plenty of twists that keep the story moving at a steady pace. I didn’t have too many times when I was losing interest in the story because the world building and character development kept the story interesting.

Writing Style

The ebook version of this book is 329 pages and 32 chapters. I read the entire book in one evening. While I intended to read this book and series over the course of a week or two I couldn’t put the series down and read the entire series in  2 days.

While the book was easy to read we were not at a loss for the visuals that were created in the world building and with the descriptions of characters. The book was not overly wordy; however, it was easy to get swept into this world.

Kathryn Ann Kingsley does a fantastic job with telling a story that is interesting and avoids predictability. She gives us quite a few twists that throw us for a loop while bringing to life amazing and flawed characters.

The Unseelie Prince Book Review

I personally loved Abigail. She is a complete sweetheart who no matter what life throws at her still manages to find kindness in herself to share with others. 

Anfar is a grump, who tries to be helpful but really isn’t. I personally love his grumpy disposition and that’s why he ends up as a favorite.

Perin seems like a genuinely sweet enough character. He’s helpful, safe, and affectionate without being creepy.

I didn’t really hate any characters in this book. We had characters who we’re meant to hate but somehow end up growing on us a bit. Like Valroy, he was not a character that you anticipate growing on you, but he does. There is a softness to him even behind the trickery, games, and violence.

I typically don’t like third person narratives but it didn’t bother me as bad here. Outside of that the writing style was right up my alley with creative, beautiful, and terrifying world building as well as imaginative characters. 

I enjoyed the way the plot intertwined with the world building and character development, it was effective in sucking you into the story and visually seeing the details being described in your head.

If you are a fan of Zodiac Academy or CN Crawford this is probably a series you would like as well. 

Star Rating

Before I rate this book I want to give you a bit of background about what my rankings mean. I typically read books that I check out through the Libby app with my local library or through Kindle Unlimited. 

I rarely buy ebooks unless they are cheaply priced or on sale. I also very rarely buy physical copies of books. I’m a bit of a minimalist so I have to absolutely adore a book to buy a physical copy that will be proudly displayed in my home.

So my ranking system is as follows:

• 5 Stars equals I am buying a physical copy of this book. I will read this book at least 10 more times, it is the best ever.
• 4 stars equals a great book. I might buy an ebook version when it’s on sale so that I can re-read it at least one more time.
• 3 stars equals a good book. I likely won’t read again but I appreciate the story.
• 2 stars equals “Meh.” I will not read this book again, it had a lot of problems and I did not care for it.
• 1 star equals a bad book. I barely finished this book and I will never recommend anyone waste valuable book reading time on this book.
• 0 stars is a did not finish book. I will never finish that book and it is banished.

The Unseelie Prince gets 5 stars from me. BookTok is absolutely giving me winners for good series reads. Too bad I keep reading the entire series within a few days. Especially when the world building and character development is as great as this. 

Likes:

• A unique storyline that wasn’t predictable with fantastic world building.
• Villain love story
• Tension building

Dislikes:

• Story is written in third person, and I don’t typically like books written from that perspective.

Final Thoughts on The Unseelie Prince

I’m really glad I decided to read this book and the series along with it. It is a beautiful story in an almost horrifying way. The characters are interesting, scary, and beautiful in their unique looks. Kathryn Ann Kingsley does a fantastic job about bringing this story to life, sucking you in, grabbing you, and not letting go till the end.

Maze of Shadows Book Reviews:

• The Unseelie Crown
• The Unseelie Throne
• The Unseelie King

Have you read The Unseelie Prince? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your favorite book boards.

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