The Wish Granter

January 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Redwine's second installment of the series, which began with The Shadow Queen, will delight fairy-tale fans with its page-turning suspense and rich character development. In this retelling of "Rumpelstiltskin," Thad has inherited the Sundraille throne after the members of the royal family die under suspicious circumstances. His twin sister, Ari, learns that Thad's real route to the throne came after selling his soul to a Wish Granter named Alistair Teague to ensure Ari's safety. In addition to stealing souls in exchange for wishes, Teague also collects debts from the kingdom's citizens to keep them under his control. Shrewd Ari plots to stop Teague's violent reign of terror by enlisting her friend Cleo and the palace's new weapons master, Sebastian, to help her find a weakness in Teague's fae magic. Along the way, Ari and Sebastian's friendship blooms into romance. Ari defies the mold of a "proper princess," favoring the company of servants over nobles, and she uses her wits to discover solutions to her problems. Sebastian grapples with his father's severe abuse and his mother's drug addiction. Raised on the rough side of town, he's always prepared for danger. Both Ari and Sebastian have lost beloved family members because of Teague's evildoing, and they are determined to stop him. Although the action overshadows the world-building, readers will enjoy the plot twists and Ari and Sebastian's progressive relationship. They save the kingdom together as equals, in a welcome feminist revision of the classic fairy tale. VERDICT Recommended for all libraries where fairy-tale retellings are popular.-Amy Duffy, Chicago Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2016
In a companion book to The Shadow Queen (2016), Ari becomes a reluctant princess when her brother makes a disastrous deal with the notorious Wish Granter.The ruthless fae Wish Granter, who goes by Teague in his human guise, doesn't make deals that he does not win. He always takes someone's soul, which he uses as an ingredient for the addictive apodrasi. Brown-scanned Ari, illegitimate daughter of the king and a former pastry cook, realizes that her twin brother, Thad, made a deal to become king and determines to defeat Teague somehow. Teague has included in Thad's contract the right to operate his criminal enterprises without interference from the crown, and he terrorizes the capital city daily. Ari meets Sebastian when he signs on as the castle's new weapons master, and the two join forces against Teague and (of course) fall in love. Can Ari's shrewd intelligence and Sebastian's superior fighting skills prevail over the monstrous criminal? Ari is a bit of a navel-gazer, but the story proceeds briskly enough. As the romance develops, Redwine brings attention to class rather than race, with the racially indeterminate Sebastian ever conscious of the social gulf between them while Ari accepts him as an equal. In a highly welcome development, Ari is a plus-sized princess who loves not only to cook, but to eat. Satisfying fare for fantasy fans. (Fantasy. 12-18)

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November 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 A royal family rife with dysfunction leads newly turned Princess Arianna Glavan to desperate lengths to protect both her brotherthe newly crowned king and distraught wish-makerand their kingdom from the sinister Alastair Teague, also known as the Wish Granter. Ari seeks help in Sebastian Vaughn, a young man with a revulsion for most people, who knows Teague and his followers intimately. Sebastian will remind readers of Kaz Brekker from Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows (2015): mysterious and somewhat criminal, yet able to wind his way into readers' hearts. Ari finds herself another one of Teague's victims, much to her brother's dismay, and Teague's ruthlessness becomes more evident as each day passes. However, Ari's strength and conviction might be just the thing to beat the abhorred Wish Granter and close the book on his fairy tale forever. A cast of interesting and complex characters, an unconventional attraction, several fascinating plot threads, and an effective conclusion should endear this to Redwine's fans and beyond.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)