I first have to say…that knight on the cover doesn’t look so lucky so much as he’s just someone ready to slice up some justice. When I read “lucky knight”, I think of someone like Domino from Deadpool. Can look or just be relaxed since everything is going to A-OK.
Fortunately, Chrisford (Chris) isn’t as battle-ready or cold as the cover would suggest, but he is as old as you might think. Obviously, mid-30s isn’t old, but it is a shock when you’re 18, have been living at an abbey, and expecting to marry your crush who is 21. And for Sonia, it’s even worse: her fiance has a beard! Plenty of guys rock facial hair, but that’s something that physically repulses Sonia.
If that seems a bit odd, that’s nothing compared to all the whispering and rumors directed at her. Eventually, the truth is revealed: her family is cursed, and as the last surviving member of the richest family in the kingdom, it’s coming after her. Chris has been chosen as her fiancé because he’s the strongest knight in the kingdom, and the king believes Chris can save Sonia.
As you have gathered, The Cursed Princess and the Lucky Knight has two, intertwined main storylines. The first is Sonia’s engagement to a much older man. Although Sonia is disappointed to not marry Severin, the second prince and her first love, she is also not naïve to think that a lady of her status would only marry for love.
But it’s a rather wide age gap (especially when they’ve met before, when she was just a little girl), and she just can’t help but be bothered by Chris’ beard. Fortunately, Chris is a good-natured fellow, and although Sonia jumps to some conclusions, it was nice seeing a relationship that didn’t start off as love or hate at first sight. It just starts off as awkward, which is understandable.
The second part is, of course, the curse. For me, the weakest part of the novel was that it didn’t explain magic very well. Chris, for instance, keeps saying he has God’s divine protection, but I didn’t know what that meant — in fact, at first, I was expecting an explanation of this world’s deity who created magic.
Nope. When The Cursed Princess is starting out, we as readers know there is some type of supernatural phenomena, so I assumed spells would be rather common. This doesn’t seem to be the case, which would make Sonia’s curse even more frightening than it is. Yet objects flying around is seen as bizarre but not the freakiest thing ever. I just always had this level of discombobulation in the back of my head, wondering just how fantastical this medieval-like world was.
Otherwise, I think The Cursed Princess works really well because it keeps the light part of “light novel”. The cast is rather small (to the point I had to wonder why a couple weren’t given names), there aren’t a lot of close calls or long investigations, and the story never goes really dark or comedic. (It’s definitely not as serious though as the art style might suggest — pretty, but takes away from the lightness.) The novel has only seven chapters, an epilogue, and two very short side stories, so it doesn’t feel dull because readers know they’re making good progress after every chapter or mid-chapter break. The English-inspired world fits the fairy tale-like setting, though I didn’t recognize a couple of the terms. (Am I the only one who didn’t know the word “demesne”?)
So while The Cursed Princess and the Lucky Knight wasn’t what I expected when I first saw the title and then the cover, I was hardly disappointed. It’s a supernatural tale with a rather down-to-earth relationship where two people grow to trust and care for each other — and I liked it.