Elinor, the girl who portrayed Cinderella, was wildly underdeveloped and very one dimensional.

She seemed like a powerful villain that would have been more frightening if the book were made into a trilogy. The villain, Tamarice, has a wonderful personality at the beginning of the book, showing flaws to her character that continue to be explained throughout the book, which made her an enjoyable character. The relationship between him and Bristal suggested romantic tension but failed to do anything more than making the reader slightly angry as the more interesting potentially male love interest slips away. The most underdeveloped character and largest disappointment was Brack, as he was set up as a major character in the beginning only to be gone for most of the book, leaving the reader to wonder why he is even there because he doesn’t do much. Anthony ended up being a rather bland character without much personality or giving the reader much reason to believe that the two characters actually liked each other beyond their looks enough to get married. The part where the story reflected the happenings in Mulan was the most fun and the most in need of more detail and moments to push character relationships further, particularly the one between Prince Anthony and Bristal. Despite this, I wish that the book was longer and took more time or more books to flesh out the characters and events in a way that connects the reader to the book in an emotional aspect.

It follows Bristal, a newly found elicromancer, as she builds up her magic skills with the help of her mentor, Brack, to someday defeat the powerful Tamarice.Īlong the way, the story uses plot points similar to those found in Cinderella, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, and Jane Austin’s Emma. The Cinderella aspect of the book was fun and added a new twist to the cliché norms of high fantasy novels, which was refreshing. Kingdom of Ash and Briars, the first in the Nissera Chronicles written by Hannah West, is a fun fairy tale mashup and retelling that keeps the reader interested through to its final page.

The kingdom of ash and briars