Review: The Princess of Thornwood Drive

The Princess of Thornwood Drive by Khalia Moreau
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Since Alyssa roused from a two-month coma a year ago, the only discernible thing she’s said is “King. Queen. In the forest.” 

The Princess of Thornwood Drive was a debut fantasy novel about two sisters, one who survived a car accident that killed their parents and the other who now takes care of her. Laine is the older sister and feels immense guilt, blaming herself for the accident, and now along with all the medical bills and stress of trying to take care of Alyssa, who was left paralyzed and nonverbal, she's battling panic attacks. Dropping out of college, she works as a barista and part-time gives horse riding lessons, trying to keep afloat with enough money to keep her house. A house that her uncle wants and is just waiting for her to sell to him before foreclosure. Getting a small break, Alyssa qualifies to be sent to an adult care center for free during the day, called Lake Forest. There they seem to take care of Alyssa and Laine is delighted when it seems to be helping her and Alyssa has a break-through, saying “Go” when Laine is trying to decide if she should go on a date with a doctor there. 

“Evil runs rampant here. Most of us who come never leave,” Veranda says matter-of-factly. 

Told in alternating point-of-views, Laine's is set in the real world and when it's Alyssa's chapters, we get the fantasy. In Alyssa's mind, she's a princess in a land called Mirendal and their parents were kidnapped while Alyssa was cursed on their way to visit Laine. Alyssa is now a changel and can't physically or verbally communicate with others, unless they are also changels. When Alyssa is at the healing tower for changels (Lake Forest) she can telepathically talk with the other patients. Here is where the ominous tone creeps in and the other patients warn her of the “Dark Prince” and a chamber where you go to be punished. The chamber comes into play pretty quickly and it sends Alyssa to another plane of reality where she can be physical and verbal. She meets another patient there named Wren and he helps her navigate the world as they meet goblins, fairies, mermaids, and other beings on their journey to find a way to help Alyssa communicate with Laine. 

“There are two mortals of interest who have walked into your life. One set your heart bitter, unhinged you. The other is a scholar with much power.” Judging by the way Laine’s eyes widen, Marcella is onto something. “What else?” she asks. “What else did you learn? “You will love both in time, but you must be very careful. One of them is a wolf. He will try to destroy you.” 

I thought the switching of realities was done well, it's pretty much a straight timeline, the driver just changes from Laine's reality pov to Alyssa's fantasy pov but the car never stops, there were some cool additives I liked, Laine talking about Alyssa before the accident and how she liked Harry Potter and studied some Latin (gives depth to the creation of fantasy world), and the “Oz-ness” of the characters, same characters in both the sister's realities but dressed up different. There was also some added Trinidadian folklore with Laine “communicating” with a jumbie always sitting on her shoulder and I liked how it brought a little bit of fantasy to her pov to meld the story together even more. There were hints that I started to catch and as I read this as an arc, I don't want to give too much away but readers should also be warned that I thought this read thematically pretty closely to The Lovely Bones. Alyssa is eighteen in this story but sexual assault (readers don't “see” it) is definitely a content warning. 

If I hadn't already read the aforementioned Lovely Bones, I'd probably be a little more fascinated with how the author incorporated details and melded the plot, with how Alyssa lost in her mind could look like and the journey to communicate with Laine. I thought at times some of the dialogue didn't feel quite natural, the middle slowed in pace some, and the light romance with Alyssa and the character of Wren ended up feeling not needed to me. The ending did pack a few punches with some thriller and emotion that will bring a lot of tears. If you're looking for speculative fiction that incorporates some interesting new elements and takes you on an emotional ride, this debut would be one to pick up.

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