Princess of Dorsa (The Chronicles of Dorsa #1) by Eliza Andrews
- Publisher: Eliza Andrews, 2018
- Language: English
- Genre: Fantasy, LGBTQ+, Romance
- Format: Ebook
- Page Count: 589 pages
- My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
A book that leaves me a puddle from my own sheer emotion is always a good book.
I haven’t read fantasy in a couple of months and Princess of Dorsa has made me want to find all the fantasy books with strong, queer, female leads and read them. While I would not say it is perfectly written (an example, and sole example to date, of a perfectly written fantasy is Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn), the overall story is amazing and I love it for igniting all kinds of emotions within me.
The main characters – Tasia and Joslyn – are both very real and relatable. There is strong chemistry between them, making the whole story even more heartwarming and heart-wrenching. I cannot help but love Joslyn. She reminds me a lot of my favourite character in the Mistborn trilogy – TenSoon. Both are misunderstood by most people but fiercely loyal to those that are worthy, powerful in their own way and incredibly strong-willed. Tasia started out as a slightly spoiled nobility, but quickly learned to grow up and take responsibility. She is insensitive to malice – a stark difference between the two leads and an explanation to pretty much all the hardship she comes to endure. The story is rather depressing as Tasia eventually learned to keep her guard up and unlearned many of her beliefs, but there is hope shining through this book and hopefully into the next one.
Princess of Dorsa has the right amount of character complexity, schemes, and personality growth for me. It pointed out problems of racism, mainly towards Terinto people, and slavery. As the story progressed, we can see that the ‘superstitious’ Terinto people understand the world better than others. I believe that is Andrews’s way of flipping the narrative and giving justice to the oppressed. The book also reminded me of Frozen II, which came out a year later, and I hear ‘Show Yourself’ and ‘The Next Right Thing’ in my head while reading. They suit the story eerily.
The few blemishes in this book did not overshadow its enjoyability. But be prepared that the ending is somewhat random and there is a lack of great quotes. Also, Andrews hints at future events as chapters close. It lessens some of the emotional blow but takes away the excitement of surprises.
I hope that one day we won’t need a special tag for ‘LGBTQ+’. But I am still classifying this book under so for its awesome characters and being the queer fantasy I wish I saw often. [1 Feb 2020]
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