The Kingdom of Ruses (Ruses of Lenore #1) by Kate Stradling

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: A male character keeps pushing his affections on a female character.

 

Viola Moreland’s life is a well-orchestrated lie. For generations her family has fabricated the existence of the Eternal Prince, a mysterious and powerful protector who watches over the small kingdom of Lenore.

This practiced deception cracks, however, when a nameless stranger stumbles across the truth and promptly assumes the Prince’s identity. Unable to produce the genuine figurehead, the Moreland family—and Viola in particular—must cater to the impostor’s whims or risk having the web of carefully constructed ruses crumble to pieces.

Of course, as with any good lie, nothing really is as it seems. Contrary to Viola’s desires, this false Prince with his cryptic agenda may well be the only thing that stands between the true magic of Lenore and certain destruction. 

 

After reading The Legendary Inge, I wanted to try something else by this author. This one ended up being my pick it for me book for this month and I enjoyed it. I didn't like it as much as The Legendary Inge. I thought it was good but not great. This story required some suspension of disbelief where the eternal prince is involved. Another review I came across compared it to a fairy tale and I agree, it does read like one in some ways and you just have to go with the improbabilities. 

I didn't particularly like the way the imposter character was portrayed at times. He kissed Viola when he first met her right out of the blue, then kept trying to kiss her throughout the book when she clearly didn't want him to. I think the first kiss was supposed to be magically induced because of what he is, and I don't think the author intended for it to come off as inappropriate, but it still bothered me. I mean, if a stranger grabbed me and kissed me, no matter what the reason behind it, I would be upset. I'm not sure if I want to continue with this series or not, but I do want to try some of the other standalone novels by this author.