3.5 stars

I really liked the first 300 or so pages of this, but then I started to feel like the book is just being dragged out. I guessed the traitor long before he was revealed, and for an assassin, the main character didn't receive orders to kill anyone until very late in the book.

Also, it might be historically accurate (although I have my doubts even about that), but my mind just couldn't accept the princess literally being 12. I know YA is all about teens, but I guess 15 is my "dividing line".

I'm still interested in this trilogy, so I will most likely pick up the other two books eventually.

tws: mentions of a failed abortion, and several attempts at sexual assault, one of them against a 12-year-old