ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Have you seen the movie 'Hook'? Okay, so imagine that it took place in the desert and Captain Hook had a daughter that he was going to force to marry an even worse version of Desert Captain Hook, so his daughter runs away to the Desert Lost Boys and falls in love with Off-Brand Desert Peter Pan before returning to take her rightful place as Desert Pirate Princess. If that made any sense at all, that's basically the entire book.

So... yeah... there's that.

I didn't *hate* this, but I didn't enjoy it either. Part of that - which I don't blame the book for - is because it wasn't what I was expecting (I had more of an arena, bachelor+Hunger Games, adventure, coming-of-age story in mind), and the other part is due to problems with the story. It started off strong with Princess Kateri about to face her second to last suitor in the arena, setting the tone of the story quite quickly. However, things went downhill fast.

My main qualm was with our main character. On the surface, Kateri is everything a YA heroine should be. A strong, fierce girl willing to learn from her mistakes and the mistakes of those that came before her. However, that's simply on the surface. We are told constantly that Kateri has been trained since childhood to be a warrior, with emphasis on the amount of self control she's meant to have. And then, the second she finds out information that is unpleasant, she throws a tantrum complete with yelling at her undeserving servant and tearing apart her closet.

Don't get me started on the fact the main antagonist, that's supposed to be extremely threatening, discusses his evil plans under the pRINCESS' WINDOW. Like... what. the. heck.

This book was also pitched as feminist, which is hilarious. Other than a midwife aunt that is on page for five seconds, there are only two female characters and guess what? They both hate each other! Who coulda guessed? *sigh* There's also the problem with Kateri hating the idea of marriage, seeing engagement bracelets as 'shackles', and then! Once she falls in love, she thinks 'huh, love is a chain! a chain that connects us to the ones we love'. Please tell me I'm not the only one that sees a problem here? The author meant well, that much is clear, but she definitely missed the mark on this aspect.

Tie all of that up with a plot that is filled with conveniences and so. many. tropes., it let me down. I know I sound like I hated this book, and that isn't the case. I won't lie and say I enjoyed it, because I didn't, but I can see why people would. Especially if someone was just getting into YA and wasn't used to all of the over-used plot devices and tropes the story used.

I still want to try some of the author's other works, this one just missed the mark for me, unfortunately.