Thief Liar Lady is the first adult book by author D.L. Soria, who has published at least three YA novels under the name Destiny Soria. I've rather liked Soria's YA work, especially the very underrated Beneath the Citadel, which took what seemed like a classic premise (group of teens fight against fascist government which beat their parents) and took it in very wild directions, complete with a shocking to me ending choice by one of othe characters. Thief Liar Lady, despite being adult fic, is similar in that it is also taking a familiar premise - it's a Cinderella adaptation- and trying to take in very different directions. Here, Cinderella is a con artist using magic to attract her prince as part of a scheme by her greedy stepmother and also attempting to use her position to help her actual grandmother, who is a leader in a resistance movement of a people/country subjugated by the royal family. And so the classic dynamics of the Cinderella story change greatly.
The result is a story that is often compelling and got to the point where I found myself 60% through unable to continue for a while, for fear of what would happen to the protagonist and major secondary character I really liked. The conflicts in the setting, and the themes of power, of oppression, of what one should do for a people so oppressed that one only has a tenuous connection to, of heritage and sacrifice, and of how much use of power and control is too much...are well done and interesting, but the book kind of cops out in its last few acts as its protagonist Ash has to respond to events going seriously out of control, and the book's happy ending almost feels like a cop out. Worth a read, if one can handle the trigger warning (see below).
Note: Prior Soria books have featured a mix of straight and queer romances; this book however deals solely with a straight romance and I don't think any queer characters exist, so fans who enjoyed the queer parts of Soria's early works should know they aren't present here.
Trigger Warning: NON-CONSENSUAL Romantic/Sexual relationships. There isn't any traditional rape or sexual abuse on page, but the protagonist begins the book using magical power to entrance the royal prince....and as things get worse, there comes a moment she uses a stronger enchantment resulting in what can only be considered non-consensual sex or rape (with neither party really giving consent). It's very morally dark and while the book never pretends it's okay at all, it may be too much for many readers and the book isn't compelling enough in its themes for me to advise people to push past that anyway.
Plot Summary:
The story of Lady Aislinn is the talk of the Kingdom of Solis. She's the serving girl, of noble blood but stuck working for her evil stepmother, who caught Prince Everett's eyes at the ball and who he searched for after she disappeared, with only a glass slipper as a clue to her identity. And now she's betrothed to the Prince with the whole kingdom looking forward to the magical royal wedding.
Too bad the story isn't real. Ash used the magic of lustre to attract the Prince's attention, and the slipper was left behind deliberately to create that magical story. Now that she's in the Palace, her greedy stepmother Seraphina intends for her to keep using lustre to keep the Prince entranced while Ash arranges profitable marriages for her stepsisters. But what Seraphina doesn't know is that Ash has another secret agenda, given to her by her maternal grandmother: to help the people of Eloria, the country taken over and oppressed by Solis for their supplies of lustre, by providing support to the Elorian resistance. Ash is playing a dangerous multi-faced game, trying to maintain her good standing and hold on the Prince while also serving a pair of agendas no one can know she is acting towards.
But Ash's plans didn't count on one major thing: the hostage prince - the Elorian Prince Rance, known for being a lazy lout who hangs around the palace as a friend of Everett since he was taken hostage as a mere child. Rance's lazy and sarcastic demeanor is infuriating, but Ash soon realizes there's more of a depth to him, as he keeps popping up more and more in her way, potentially jeopardizing everything she has planned....
Cinderella adaptations or takes are hardly uncommon in fantasy (it's a super popular Disney fairy tale, so of course) and more cynical or dark Cinderella takes are also not uncommon. That said, the Cinderella is a con artist using magic to entrance the Prince take is a new one to me, and Soria's layering of that by adding Ash's connection to an oppressed people through her forgotten grandmother makes this tale very different from what you'd expect. The result is obviously going to be very dark - after all, we know from the start that the Prince's actions in falling for her are not fully consensual, which tells you a bit about this world, where we're going and the protagonist herself.
Despite the dark implications of how Ash uses Lustre, and she at least at first tries to limit its usage to less fully mind controlly applications, Ash is in fact a good person trying to do the best she can to do what she thinks is right....even if that involves using some rather dark means. Ash doesn't really care for Seraphina - the wicked stepmother here is still abusive and obviously greedy and evil, so Ash's dealings with her are more to try and avoid exposure and to get her off her back. But Ash does care about the cause of her grandmother, the cause of Eloria, and the people she knows to be suffering. She even cares for her stepsisters to a smaller extent and is kind of jealous of the camraderie they share, even as they follow their mother's orders and mess with her plans. The result is a character who is very compelling: who is well versed in the suffering that exists in the world and yet hopes to use the lessons of that suffering to do better...even as she remains naive in some of the ways of the royal court.
For the Royal Court is filled with important characters whose views and actions don't quite match how Ash expects. Everett, the prince she enchanted, is actually already, even before Ash gets to him, trying to renegotiate the treaty between Solis and Eloria which currently results in Eloria's full oppression....even in ways that are detrimental to the economy of Solis itself (a lever that Everett does try to use for that good). At the same time, he's not a purely good hearted Prince - he can easily be swayed to believe that the Elorians are going too far in resistance and is extremely dismissive of Ash's attempts to help him or get in a word policy wise. The royal king is a cruel suspicious bastard who has skeptical eyes on Ash immediately, and who may have inherited his father's cruelty in a way that really scares the hell out of Ash. And yet his wife, is kind and caring and tries her best to help all the women in the castle. And of course, there are the servants throughout, who Ash notices even as the nobles don't, like her own maidservant, an Elorian girl who is more astute than others might realize.
And then there's Rance. Really Rance is himself kind of a pastiche - the lazy prince who acts as a hostage who doesn't really care about anything, who is good friends with Everett but would prefer to lounge about with his dog "Puppy".....but who secretly is far more astute and caring and active than people would imagine. You've seen this type of character before many a times, but well Soria makes him work really well, both as a love interest and as a person to himself who finds himself in the impossible situation of being among those who subjugated his people and took him from home and left himself someone who is thought useless and lost by the patriots of his own country.
These characters come together in a plot that works generally pretty well for the first 2/3 and will have you gripped on the edge of your seat as to how the various agendas and conflicts will trigger upon each other. But the final act, beginning with one heinous act (see the Trigger Warning) by Ash and then a clear villainous act by Seraphina, the evil stepmother, kind of oversimplifies to a great extent and sort of throws away a lot of the intrigue that was setup: like the ideas of how to resist and help the oppressed nation (rise up and fight? terrorism? peaceful politics?), what's worth sacrificing for people you don't even know, and what means really justify the ends. Instead, the book kind of settles on finishing with a surprisingly happy romantic ending. But, it's worth noting, that romance is done pretty well and the sex scene we do eventually get between Ash and Rance is excellently done.
In short, I liked Thief Liar Lady and am excited to see what Soria will do next, but I hope her next work will nail the landing a bit better - she's done so in the past, but here it seems like she might've bit off more than she could chew.
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