Georgia Kostopoulou

 

A kingdom with people gifted with magic resides next to a kingdom of Fae. How well can this go? Can the two kingdoms leave peacefully next to each other, or is war to be expected? Let’s find out!

Alkoria is ruled by a gifted Queen. Like some of her subjects, she has magic in her veins, she is a Thief Queen. She has a power not many people share. But along her side she has her very own Assassin Thief. A trained assassin and a gifted Thief, a girl that was raised in the palace, Telium. They were meant to have a bond like the one shared between mother and daughter but, when the book begins, we find Telium at the dungeon, imprisoned by her Queen. She is treated like a traitor. Thankfully, Telium escapes and resorts to the forest were she lives quietly among the trees and the creatures that have been living there for ages now. She doesn’t meet people often. Nobody comes to her forest. For them, the place is haunted and they better stay away. But all this changes one day, when Telium finds a Fae warrior in the forest. Fae people are not usually seen in Alkoria after the war, so this is unexpected.

The Fae has come to request her help. He has started a rebellion against his King and he has heard of how gifted Telium is. He wants her on his side. He needs her to assassinate the King and Telium is not opposed to the idea. Fae live for hundreds of years, so she knows this is the Mad Fae King, the one that has caused so much pain on her Queen. She is determined to revenge for all the pain, all the misery and all the damage done. As the times passes by, Telium learns how the Mad Fae King kidnaps human children, Thief children and he experiments on them. This feeds her anger and makes her more determined. She follows this rebel Fae to Meannthe, where she will have to fulfill her mission. But until she reaches her destination, she will be confronted with the darkness that is hidden inside her, a raw power that threatens to consume her on any given chance.

I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook of “The Assassin Thief”. The narrator did a wonderful job of portraying all of Telium’s feelings as well as the inner dialog with the power inside her. It was easy to understand the different characters in the dialogs and there was never a question as to who was speaking at the time.

I also enjoyed the story very much. It gave me ACOTAR vibes, like with that bonding between the Fae, and that plot twist at the end for example. The magic system is a very interesting one. The Thieves are people with magical abilities, but they don’t all have the same abilities. There are stones involved and magic being transferred to other thieves, even though I didn’t really understand how this transfer happened. The Fae have different abilities as well. All of which, Fae and Thief abilities are very interesting. I would like to read more on this universe and see how Telium reacts to what comes next.

Thank you to NetGalley & Bolinda Audio for an advance copy of this book. The views expressed are my personal and honest opinion.