****BookPlate****

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: War themes
Score: Eight points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

8/10, this was a fantasy book I had high expectations for after reading and enjoying The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska and wow did it deliver and there are so many great aspects about this but I especially liked the worldbuilding of this since it was quite creative and immersive. The plot was kind of disconnected and incohesive and it only got together towards the last 100 pages however I enjoyed both stories of Wren Greenrock and Rose Valhart and somehow they swapped for whatever reason in the beginning but I enjoyed the former more since Wren was likeable and Rose wasn't at first but she developed her character which I liked and this was a slow burn which might be a dealbreaker for me but in this case it wasn't. The Wren plot starts off in the Anadawn Palace where she impersonates Rose and all goes well until she didn't want to get married to the prince of the neighbouring country and tries to stop it by planning a murder but that didn't go so well and her cover was revealed when Rose came back to the palace. Rose was in the desert with Shen and she didn't like it at first and once she discovered that she's a witch she denies it at first but then she accepts it and goes to meet the leader Banba at a town called Ortha and I found that the Great Protector was evil since he messed up Eana and killed some witches but not all of them which I found strange. The two twins meet each other and they disliked each other at first but soon they banded together to try and take back control from the antagonist called Willem Rathborne and they succeed and they became queens and that's it. If you like high fantasy stories with strong protagonists do give this one a try since I enjoyed it and you might also. ( )

Wow! As a huge fan of The Princess Bride, I was skeptical of a book toting similar vibes, but Twin Crowns delivers. From the sass and wit to the magic, I was hooked from the first chapter to the last. I highly recommend this book to fans of fantasy, romance, humor, or anyone looking for a fun read. ( )

Wren Greenrock has always known that one day she would steal her sister's place in the palace. Trained from birth to return to the place of her parents' murder and usurp the only survivor, she will do anything to rise to power and protect the community of witches she loves. Or she would, if only a certain palace guard wasn't quite so distractingly attractive, and if her reckless magic didn't have a habit of causing trouble...

Princess Rose Valhart knows that with power comes responsibility. Marriage into a brutal kingdom awaits, and she will not let a small matter like waking up in the middle of the desert in the company of an extremely impertinent (and handsome) kidnapper get in the way of her royal duty. But life outside the palace walls is wilder and more beautiful than she ever imagined, and the witches she has long feared might turn out to be the family she never knew she was missing.

Two sisters separated at birth and raised into entirely different worlds are about to get to know each other's lives a whole lot better. But as coronation day looms closer and they each strive to claim their birthright, the sinister Kingsbreath, Willem Rathborne, becomes increasingly determined that neither will succeed. Who will ultimately rise to power and wear the crown?

I think this is my favorite YA book after Caraval. The wit, storyline, characters, relationships, were all engaging. This included some tired tropes from all modern YA novels, but not in a tiresome, cringey way as most do. : -) I enjoyed having the twin perspectives, and could easily follow the switches since it was predictable every single chapter. There were a few cliffhangers that made me want to skip the switched perspective to continue the scene with the cliff-hanging twin, but I managed to control the urge to do so and went from chapter to chapter.
The romances that brew here are delicious and tantalizing, despite their predictability. There are also strong friendships and family relationships that were a pleasure to read.
I had both the audiobook and an ebook, and found that listening was my preferred method of enjoying this story, because the narration really brought the characters to life. They actually felt kind of flat and uninteresting when I would try reading the pages after listening to the book for some time, and I kept going back to the audio. I fell in love with the love interests through the narration of their characters, and grew to adore Prince Ansel in part thanks to the excellent narration of him.
This is a book that I will read again, at least once if not more, and I very much look forward to its sequel. ( )