Early details are picked back up, and many elements come satisfyingly full circle. Taking place over the course of a week, the narrative is tight with well-paced reveals that disrupt predictability and keep the plot moving. To win and honor Claire, who was a master of the game, Meredith must keep her eye on the prize. Only one person can win, though, and any alliance has an expiration date. What starts off as a pact of sharing strategic information with Wit grows into something more as the flirting and feelings develop. Nor did she expect a wedding-week game of Assassin, a water-gun–fueled family tradition. She didn’t plan on a meet-cute/embarrassing encounter with the groom’s stepbrother, Wit. Meredith, though, resolves to take this time to celebrate family and bridge the rifts resulting from ghosting friends. It’s been a year and a half since the sudden loss of Meredith’s sister, Claire, and the grief remains strong. Her cousin’s wedding means a return to Martha’s Vineyard, a well-loved destination but one filled with bittersweet memories. Eva and many secondary characters are brown-skinned while Isa is light brown and some others are lighter skinned.Ī summer trip helps break 18-year-old Meredith Fox out of a haze of mourning.
Joy’s writing is exemplary a strong plot, even pacing, and character growth (not only Eva’s) all lead up to an ending that should satisfy even the pickiest readers. Themes of parental disappointment and abuse, sibling bonds, and speciesism are strongly developed and well explored. Chapters alternate between Eva’s first-person perspective and those of Isa and a few other secondary characters (told in the third person). Though she grapples with multiple problems-and further surprises about herself-Eva chooses to focus on the grave injustices her human ancestors have visited on her khimaer people, and she creates a plan of action.
New revelations, realizations, and relationships have tempered Eva’s privileged upbringing, shaking her foundations, and her growth is apparent. As Eva continues to struggle with the knowledge that to become queen she must kill Isa-or be killed herself-she also contemplates what it means that both of her parents have lied to her (in very different ways). Picking up where the last book left off, Eva’s on the run from her ruthless queen mother, with her friends, guards, and kidnapped sister and rival heir, Isa, in tow. Princess Eva returns in this follow-up to the duology that started with A River of Royal Blood (2019).
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