Review: Danielle Paige – Wish of the Wicked

Wish of the Wicked
Danielle Paige

“For centuries, Farrow’s family—the Entente—have been magical advisors to the Queen. Until a new queen, Magrit, takes power, outlaws magic, and executes the entire Entente race. Only Farrow survives. Since that day, Farrow has dreamed of revenge. The best way to reach the evil queen is through her son, Prince Mather, who is nearing the age when he must select a bride. When a special ball in his honour is announced, Farrow sees her opportunity. All it will take is a young woman named Cinderella who dreams of true love. But the closer Farrow gets to the prince, the more she finds herself drawn to him.”

I thougth because this had a fairy godmother aspect it would just be like the Twisted Tales I kept seeing in the newest releases brochure – and therefore that it would be a standalone and I’d be free to read it and then move on. But nooo, it has to be the first in a series. I wondered why the first half of the book took so longer to get started – it was just setting the stage to painfully draw things out to a non-conclusion.

I’ve read Stealing Snow by this author a long time ago and I found it to be just ok. Wish of the Wicked isn’t even ok because it’s written clearly to be the start of a series. I polished this off in an evening of fevered reading because as I got towards the end and saw the 480th page coming I thought that the ending would be swift and deadly. Nope.

I love the idea of being a wishing fairy rather than any of you standard transformation, lightning and food fairies. I also appreciated the ideas of the Fates – I thought their embodiment was pretty cool. But ugh! The ending just killed the rest of the boom for me. So disappointing.

I read this as a proof copy, and there were definitely some awkward turns of phrase and subpar dialogue that I assume will be solved in the final copy. Could I have loved this book? Yes, if it had been condensed and a standalone. I could tolerate Farrow, I thought the idea of body double companion was neat and I was ok with the queen just dying. Not neat enough for me to recommend that you read it. Sorry.