Crown of Coral and Pearl by Mara Rutherford

 4 out of 5 stars

For generations the most beautiful woman of the sea village Varenia had been married off to the heir of Ilara- a deal made after the death of an Ilaran princess that resulted in the end of a Queendom. Although it is the price the people of Varenia have had to pay for decades, the people see it as a blessing for their families if chosen. 

As it is considered a great blessing to be chosen as the next Varenian bride, identical twins Nor and Zadie trained most of their lives to become the next queen of Ilara. That is until Nor was badly injured at the young age of 10, leaving her scarred. It became clear pretty quickly that it would be her sister Zadie that would likely be the chosen girl. 

Though once chosen, Zadie decides that life as the Varenian bride and future Queen of Ilara is not the life that she actually wants. Instead, she forces her sister’s hand to help her get out of being chosen. The result though is Nor’s banishment from Varenia. In order to deceive the Prince, Nor is sent in her sister’s stead. 

As hard as it is to be separated from her family, Nor leaves Varenia to go to Ilara. But things aren’t all as they seem in the great kingdom. It becomes known to Nor that the royal bloodline is failing and Prince Ceren will do whatever he can to remedy that. Even if that means sacrificing Nor’s people. 

***

Four out of five stars because Ceren is a psychopath and minor plot holes. Those two points aside, I enjoyed the book. I listened to Crown of Coral and Pearl in audiobook format and thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, it is likely the way that I will be listening to the next book in the duology. 

Listening to the book, I can’t help but think that Nor being sent in Zadie’s place was poorly planned. Yes, I understand that they had to think quickly but god dammit there could’ve been a meeting or something about it where they actually planned out what to do if Nor was indeed caught. Also, Zadie probably should’ve been forced to go by Nor’s name (It’s found out later in the book that she indeed goes by her own name…) But y'know, who actually cares about the banished girl. 

I feel like if I wasn’t reading The Invasion of The Tearling at the same time that I was listening to this, I would’ve found myself thinking about it more often. But alas, my thoughts were occupied with another fantasy novel.

I really liked the idea of Blood Coral being lethal but also having some sort of healing properties. That was pretty cool and I enjoyed that. I was also fond of Talin’s character though I feel like he could’ve been an even more present force in the story? I mean he was there but I feel like he could’ve been there more?

I am super looking forward to the second book though!

As always, my review can also be found on Goodreads.