After being extremely entertained by Elisabeth Wheatley’s “Book Goblin” videos, and her commentary on various romantic tropes and historical fantasy, I finally decided to read her books. The book I decided to read first was Daindreth’s Assassin, and I was not disappointed. Wheatley has a solid writing style, interesting characters and excellent worldbuilding.
Our Protagonist is Amira, the de-legitimised daughter of a king. She is a sorceress, and has been bound by a spell where if she disobeys her father, she gets strangled. Also, he’s using her as an assassin, and her current mission is to assassinate the Archduke of the Empire that had conquered her father’s kingdom. She has been going through a lot of crap, and is instantly a sympathetic character!
Amira’s assignment does not go well! It turns out the Archduke is under some kind of curse. He also decides he wants to marry Amira instead of Amira’s half-sister Fonra. (Much to Amira’s confusion and the ire of Amira’s stepmother.) Since he’s the Archduke, he gets his way, and Amira is feeling super conflicted about everything.
This execution of the “surprise it’s an arranged marriage you don’t want!” trope was fun and several notches above other examples I’ve seen. The characters are intelligent, emotionally messed up, and completely distinct from each other. The interactions are entertaining, the pacing is fast, but you never get confused about what’s going on in regard to the plot.
With that said, I do have some spoilery grumbles. First, there is a scene where Amira steals a horse that turns out to belong to Daindreth’s cousin. So the cousin confronts her, wanting to know where his horse is. This could have been a running joke, but was not. (Which okay, fair, this books has a more serious tone than you’re average romance-fantasy.) Then there is a scene where Amira beats the crap out of her abusive stepmother. This was fine! However, I was disappointed that she didn’t then beat the crap out of her father. You know, the one who put a torture-spell on her and is using her as a weapon. (Then again, her father is the king, she still calls him “papa” and also she doesn’t realize he’s just as abusive as her stepmother.)
Overall, Daindreth’s Assassin is an entertaining read with excellent pacing and a great plot. The worldbuilding details are well integrated with the setting. The cultural details were also really interesting. This was an excellent book, and I now have the sequel on hold. I’m really looking forward to the next book. (And there may or may not be some meta about it. I have a lot of thoughts of some of the incidents in the book, and Amira’s background.)
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