Candice Pedraza Yamnitz

If you go through my reading log(s) - be they fanfiction or original fiction - you'll see I have a certain...trend towards stories that are less 'the world is sunshine and cheerful', that I prefer stories with a darker edge because I view things that way. Often these stories have smut and/or violence.

Which isn't to say everything I read is adult-themed, but there's a balancing act that I think some writers find hard to navigate without being...judgemental. Which has for a long time turned me off from books that are labeled "clean" "sweet" "closed door". However as part of an ongoing venture to branch out and find new authors, I am doing the "Bright Fantasy for a Dark World" challenge (hosted by Sarah K.L. Wilson - https://www.sarahklwilson.com/bright-fantasy-reader-challenge). All of the authors involved write "closed door fantasy", either their whole catalog or as part of their catalog, and I've enjoyed some of them in the past.

That all being said brings us to our book today...Unbetrothed by Candice Pedraza Yamnitz

On the surface this definitely sounds like a book up my alley - a FMC who wants to fit in and is willing to go to lengths to do so, an antagonistic love interest, and a quest (unlike Eleanor West, I believe in Quests for self improvement thank you) and a Prince Hans-type character just mucking around and in general being a prat. I love this sort of thing. I live for this sort of thing. Please give me more of this sort of thing authors of the world.

How it turns out...is debatable. Beatriz is young, something I had to remind myself of because I think its easy to forget that 17 years old is still a kid. And in the real world it means a whole lot is happening to her internally that won't present itself externally and which she is trying to grapple with. I constantly tell my niece, who is 13 years old this year, that until her brain is no longer squishy anything declarative that she says I will take with a grain of salt. Beatriz makes declarative statements, that sound more like whining, and that can get grating. She is spoiled, but she is a Princess and that makes sense. She can be selfish, but she's a kid and that again makes sense.

By the end I think she makes progress towards handling everything better, but its a long process.

As far as the other characters go, Lux is our Prince Hans-type character and like Hans (I'm referring to Hans from Frozen here) he's just a shiny bit too good to be true. So no, wasn't terribly surprised by the revelation for him. Zichri was...I felt bad for him? But then again I also wanted to shake him because Beatriz is many things, but making up cover stories is not her thing. He doesn't seem particularly bothered by things and does his darnedest to help.

Meanwhile Beatriz is singularly concerned with her problems and what everyone can do to help her with them.

I will say that despite this technically not being a Christian title, I was uncomfortable with the narrative tone of Christian values and themes (if even I can spot them, things are a little heavy-handed).… (más)

I picked up this book after meeting the author at an online event. It was beautiful and entirely unexpected. I've been on a fairy tale retelling kick, and while this wasn't a retelling, it had the same vibe - the same fantasy world feel.

Princess Beatriz ought to be ready for a betrothal, but she hasn't received her magical gifting, something she believes is necessary to rule her kingdom well. She's also in love with her best friend, a prince from a neighboring kingdom who has already been betrothed to someone else. The problem is, while the author tries to paint Beatriz sympathetically, she's a bit of a brat. There are reasons for the betrothal. There are reasons she hasn't been given magic. But the seventeen-year-old princess knows best and sets off on a dangerous quest to get everything she wants.

I didn't love her at the beginning, but that is the feat - when an author can make me love their characters by the end of the story and I absolutely did. It's a coming of age story where a girl becomes an adult, not just finds true love as the answer to all her problems. It's also a story of someone who realizes the world is much larger and more complicated than she knows and she can not only find her place in it but make it better.

Beatriz's parents are amazingly cool, maybe some of the coolest parents I've seen in a fantasy world. They are, of course, dealing with their own problems and their kingdom's problems, but that doesn't mean they are too busy for her or too uncaring. I love that we get a glimpse of their backstory as well. (And maybe a prequel with their entire story in the future? One can hope.)

As Beatriz comes face to face with her faults and misconceptions (and there are many), she becomes an amazing heroine, willing to risk a great deal for her friends, and learning that her enemies aren't who she thought them to be. It's a wonderful coming of age story, and I can't wait to read more of Candice's books.… (más)