Of Cages and Crowns by Brianna Joy Crump Published by Wattpad Books Publication Date: November 22, 2022
Pages: 432
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For goddess-touched girls, there is only one destiny: the Culling
From the moment Monroe Benson is born with a mark on her hand and the ability to summon fire from her fingertips, her life will never be her own. She’s goddess-touched, which means she’s destined to participate in the Culling, an age-old competition to determine the next queen of Erydia. For most of her seventeen years, her family has managed to keep Monroe--and her powers--hidden. But now, as Queen Viera calls for the Culling to start, and war looms on the horizon, Monroe can no longer hide. She must face her destiny whether she wants to or not.
For the ten goddess-touched girls, all with different powers, the inevitably of this fight to the death has always ruled their lives. The tradition is both barbaric and cruel, but to make matters worse--Monroe isn’t prepared. She hasn’t trained her whole life for this day. She doesn’t want to be in the spotlight. She doesn’t want the crown.
While Monroe struggles with her fate, a rebellion is brewing in the castle and in the country. A group called the Culled are banding together; their goal--to topple the monarchy. And the more they rise, the more merciless Viera is with her kingdom, recruiting younger and younger people from poorer and poorer places to fight in a war no one wants to be waging.
When Monroe finds herself on the front lines of the rebellion’s inner circle, only one thing stands in her way: Cohen. The queen’s son and the man who will be king. The pair grows close, yet Cohen’s dedication to duty, to family, to tradition stands in stark contrast to the boy Monroe sees at night in the kitchens, secretly making the two of them a snack.
As the fight crescendos around them, and the death of innocents is a force to bear, the choices Monroe makes will reverberate through the kingdom . . . and her heart forever.
12 hours removed from finishing this book and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I like the premise of the story and the characters were interesting, but there was something with the execution of the story that didn’t work for me. Or maybe it was the relationship between Cohen and Monroe that was the real issue. Monroe was just a girl who wanted to be herself; not goddess-touched or the next queen. She didn’t want to participate in the Culling, knowing that it mean the demise of 9 girls. She just wanted to be Monroe. So it was interesting, the relationship that began to grown between her and Cohen. He’s been treated horribly by his family (talk about a Mommy Dearest) and really can’t do much until he inherits the throne. But from the outside, you could tell that he was never going to get what he wanted: crown or queen. I would have thought he and Monroe a bit of kindred spirits and really wanted the relationship to grow. But where Monroe did think of those around her and would often put herself in a horrible position for the good of someone else, Cohen didn’t really do that. He might got 90% of the way, but it was always that last 10% that made you think he was really looking out for number 1. Which meant he really isn’t the person Monroe should be with.
When the book ended, I wasn’t really sure if there was more to the story. It felt like there was, but there wasn’t a mention. I ended up on the author’s Wattpad page to find out there are indeed 3 books to the series. I’m not sure if I’d want to continue on with the story, it I do end up doing so it would be to see if Monroe does find someone worthy of her…because I’m not sure it’s Cohen.
Shannon
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