Book Synopsis:
Published April 1st 2014 by Strange Chemistry
469 pages | 
For five centuries, a witch’s curse has bound the trolls to their city beneath the ruins of Forsaken Mountain. Time enough for their dark and nefarious magic to fade from human memory and into myth. But a prophesy has been spoken of a union with the power to set the trolls free, and when Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and taken beneath the mountain, she learns there is far more to the myth of the trolls than she could have imagined.
Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus: escape. Only the trolls are clever, fast, and inhumanly strong. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.
But something unexpected happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall for the enigmatic troll prince to whom she has been bonded and married. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll, part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.
As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch with magic powerful enough to change Trollus forever.
Book Review: 
Wonderful. This one was purely wonderful.
I can’t, however, take any credit for finding this gem. Stolen Songbird was recommended to me by the wonderful lady Bekah over at Bekah Awesome Book Nut.
Stolen Songbird follows Cécile, a seventeen year old girl, who is kidnapped in order to marry the prince of the trolls. The trolls believe that Cécile is the one who will break the curse placed over Trollus that prevents the trolls from ever leaving their caved in mountain. There is intrigue and magic, romance and politics. This one fellow readers was an incredible delight to read.
This world just leaps off the page. Jensen describes Trollus with such rich detail that you become immersed in its stone and glass facade. I loved the descriptions of the trolls and her justification for why some were as ugly as the trolls that live under those bridges and why others were so completely on the other end of the spectrum that you just end up swooning. The interactions between the human world and that of Trollus was just really well thought out as to the reasons why, leaving a bit up to fairytales and others up to fact. Every page was filled with more mystery and political drama as you engage with the aristocracy of the trolls. I just couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
Jensen has created characters that pull you into their lives. She artfully has crafted characters that you root for and others that you detest. Cécile was a fantastic main character, to begin with. She was witty and cutthroat, she wasn’t taking anyones BS as she attempted to escape from those who had stolen her. And she was funny, maybe not as funny as Tristan but still the girl could hold her own.
I guess the reason for the lack of five stars is the same reasons that reduces my rating for most young adult novels. That is, once they fall in love they lose their personality. In this case I felt as though both Tristan and Cécile lost what I adored about them in the beginning. Their wit and depth of character. As soon as they both revealed they had feelings for each other all their individuality just got thrown out the very top window of that palace to smash into tiny pieces of glass. I don’t like it when the L word is used too soon in novels. When a character decides she absolutely loves someone so much, even though they didn’t really spend that much time with him, and then is willing to give up everything for him. Even her life. There is protection of your loved ones and then there is just being dramatic. Cécile was being a bit dramatic.
Again I truly love this world. I think the bonding was really interesting, and how if one person died then the other did too. Although not really, because it was more that the other person couldn’t bare to live without their loved one so just ended their own life. Well at least that is what it sounded like.
I knew from the beginning that there had to be more to this curse thing. In some regard their names was sort of a give away to the Fae world, where they originated from, but I think it just makes for such an interesting twist. I’m interested to find out who caused the cave in of the mountain, and whether it wasn’t just a blasted earthquake. Why did the witch cast the spell to trap them all there? She must have been one pretty pissed off lady…I reckon Cécile is a decedent of her (given their appearance). I hope Cécile gets some of her personality back with her new witchy powers, and isn’t just a love sick puppy crying over Tristan why they are separated.
Can’t wait to read the next one! Pick this one up, it is so purely wonderful.
