Princess Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mortal.

GENRE: 

Young Adult, Fantasy

PAGES: 

384 pages

PART OF A SERIES?:

Part of the DC Icons Series

RELEASE DATE: 

August 29th, 2o17

YOU CAN FIND THE BOOK AT:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble (SIGNED COPY)

Book Depository

iBooks

Author Website

GOODREADS SUMMARY: 

Daughter of immortals.

Princess Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mortal. Diana will soon learn that she has rescued no ordinary girl, and that with this single brave act, she may have doomed the world.

Daughter of death.

Alia Keralis just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted by people who think her very existence could spark a world war. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

Together.

Two girls will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. Tested beyond the bounds of their abilities, Diana and Alia must find a way to unleash hidden strengths and forge an unlikely alliance. Because if they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

MY REVIEW:

This is the first time that I’ve read something by Leigh that isn’t part of the Grisha world and I gotta say…this lady can write anything. I shouldn’t be surprised about that at this point but damn, she took one of the most iconic badass female characters to ever exist and made her badass at just sixteen years old.

I’ve never been a huge Wonder Woman fan, not because I didn’t like her, I just hadn’t really read or watch anything but as soon as that Wonder Woman movie came out, I had to see it. I had to! Female main character, female director. I want more movies like this made and I want more respect out there for women creators so I practically ran to the movie theater to see it. I spent the whole movie in tears, not because the movie was sad, but god it was so refreshing to see this kind of movie and to see it do so well. It made me feel so good to see a dynamic, badass, vulnerable, emotional, strong (I could go on with adjectives forever) woman on screen.

I’ve been used to these amazing characters in books; its sort of one of the best parts of young adult literature. Seeing it on screen was sort of magical and while reading this book, I felt like I experienced that magic once again.

Diana is an amazing character. She’s smart, witty, funny and strong as hell but she’s not perfect. She makes mistakes and she always believes the best in people, always believes in the truth, has a hard time believing that people can lie and it gets her into rough moments but I think that’s why I like her so much. She’s so perfect but also not. She’s smart but she can be kind of clueless and it cracks me up.

I loved that the movie put Diana in the past, but that this book put her in the present. It was fun to watch her navigate the modern world. She knew some things about it, but watching her struggle with technology and lingo and all of that was just fun.

I also just loved the story. It was so so good. It starts so fast, right away, which might be jolting for some people but I was so ready. Diana meets Alia almost immediately, saving her within the first pages of the novel, and the story jumps right in. Its immediately action and they’re on the move from the beginning all the way to the end and I loved every moment of it. There were twists and turns and surprises that I did NOT expect at all. I loved how Leigh intertwined modern day science with the fantasy and mythology of Greek goddesses and legends. She did it so well. I honestly could not have predicted the way the story went and that’s what made me love it so much. And even though the movie and book were done by two different people who never even spoke to each other, I could feel the magic that is Diana Prince in both of them.

Lastly, I loved, as always in a Leigh book, all the side characters! So many authors create these side characters that just feel like filler, not standing on their own, but not Leigh. Nim and Theo become two of my favorite characters. They’re so human, more human than any of the other main players in the novel, and they’re AMAZING. They are funny and stand out and strong and I love them as much if not more than Diana herself. I always appreciate some seriously great secondary character and having just finished the book a couple hours ago, I am still so attached and in love with Nim and Theo. Fantastic characters.

While this book was written with a purpose of extending the DC universe and to generate more buzz for the DC movies coming, like Justice League, and all that, it reads as its own fantastic, independent story. I don’t think for a moment that you need to be a DC or Wonder Woman fan to enjoy the novel but I do think you’ll enjoy it even more if you are. Another fantastic novel from Leigh and another shining win for Diana Prince.

RATING:

5 out of 5 Stars