The Song of Legends
by E.H. Jahr
Genre: Fantasy / Romance
ISBN: 9798987523704
Print Length: 270 pages
Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph
A rebellious faerie princess conspires against her conniving father in this swoonworthy adventure.
Princess Margaret is in a difficult place when we first meet her. Literally. She’s angrily sitting in makeup chairs, getting ready to ignore her years of training to be a leader and to lean into the docile role of princess at the ball. She’s also grieving the loss of her husband, who died five years ago in a shipwreck from which she was rescued.
“Years ago, Margaret spent her days in the throne room, or her father’s study, learning alongside him for when the day came that she would rule. Now, she was relegated to ballrooms and parlors.”
Margaret is immediately relatable in the way that she’s unable to hide her contempt for the act of lacing up corseted gowns to entertain fellow royals at tea parties. “She hated the mental effort it took to maintain the public façade of a happy, docile princess.”
Author E. H. Jahr writes the clarity that Margaret finds in her grief and in confronting her own death in an accessible and profound way. She’s living in the most tortuous timeline, having lost her friend and struggling with survivor’s guilt, while being sidelined at a job where she felt she had purpose and potential.
Everything changes when Margaret begins to overhear palace staff talking about her father’s plans. First, to marry her off as part of his increasingly elaborate succession plan (“Her father hadn’t just betrothed her to Xavier; he had sold the entire kingdom with her, leaving not only herself but her people subject to Vandorian rule.”). Later, that her father has been raising taxes for the townspeople who can barely afford to survive as it is. And that her late husband Lukas knew that the taxes her father collected were not arriving at the local schools to which they were due.
Lukas’s best friend, Christopher, who pulled Margaret from the ocean when she was drowning on the sinking ship, is now commander of the royal guard. Christopher plays an important role in enlightening her to the truth of her father’s cunning ways. He’s patient with Margaret and unaffected when she acts out in grief or frustration. He checks in on her and guides her toward the realization that her father is deep into a plan to not only betray her trust, but ignore his people’s needs by colluding with a demon to increase his power.
Christopher is the spark that reminds Margaret why she must fight to push through her grief and disappointment for her people. He inspires her to flee the palace and escape the surprise strategic marriage that her father has planned. This begins an adventure that opens her eyes to the truth of the nations’ needs, and to the truth behind the warped history she’d been taught and believed all her life.
Author E. H. Jahr handles this topic—of colonial powers rewriting history to suit their needs and to placate any dissent in their people, erasing entire nations and whitewashing their violent intentions—with brilliant clarity, and Margaret handles the knowledge with grace. She’s a fierce, independent person who exhibits really admirable courage and integrity in the face of turmoil and trauma. She’s brave in the actions she’s willing to take, but she’s also brave in the way she’s willing to accept that the truths she’s known her whole life aren’t the reality. She discovers many hard truths throughout this story, meeting many different people (faeries, druids, and demons—who each explain to Margaret in their own way that they’re all humans who trained in different magical skills) who show her what the world is really like. Margaret faces those truths with a determination to do them justice, and acts accordingly.
Christopher is patient and protective. He’s an excellent romantic hero and a brilliant royal guard. He’s trustworthy, honest, and demands better of Margaret than her lackadaisical attitude in grief. The more time we spend with him, the more we learn about how perfect a match he is for Margaret. We also learn that he’s highly skilled in espionage, battle strategy, and pleasuring a lover.
Readers with any concerns about Christopher ‘taking over’ the position of Margaret’s lover from his dead best friend should know that their friendship turning to anything romantic happens gradually and is very believable and respectful. They got on well, developing a close friendship, but it was nothing more, and so there is no real sense of betrayal or manipulation, and there’s no weight behind the idea that Christopher was pining for Margaret while she was married to his friend. (“His loyalty to Lukas had been extended to her the moment the engagement was announced,” Margaret tells us.)
Christopher was simply a good friend to them both, and as he and Margaret lean on each other and spend more time together, their relationship develops into something deeper. Their love story includes classic romance reader favorites like the ‘only one bed’ trope and even an ‘only one bath’ scene! I appreciated that Christopher trusts Margaret to make her own decisions. He simply stands beside her (sometimes hidden in corners to catch their enemies off-guard) to catch her if she falls, or defend her honor if something goes wrong.
There are a few points worth noting for content warnings: Firstly, Margaret occasionally recalls the moment of her almost-drowning, and then of course that she and Christopher both discuss the emotional pain of coping with the sudden death of a friend. There’s also a scene where a known villain forcefully kisses and drugs someone.
Still, The Song of Legends is a joy to read—empowering and entertaining. It’s a pleasure to spend time with a brilliant heroine like Margaret (and the women she meets along the way!) and to fall in love with the man who helps reignite her passion to save the kingdom.
Thisis a perfect blend of royal drama and rebellious faerie princess learning the truth about her father. This is the story of a woman saving her kingdom, powered by an extraordinary love story and a sense of responsibility to her people. Margaret goes from princess in training to rule some day, to grieving widow, to royal dress-up doll and “figurehead, at best,” eventually evolving into a woman on the run, collaborator with nations she believed were extinct, and finally, savior to multiple nations. There’s a staggering reveal near the end that is going to take both me and Margaret months to truly grasp the impact of, and a plot twist near the very end that had me cheering out loud.
I’d highly recommend this wonderful book which could easily be read in one sitting. E. H. Jahr’s rich worldbuilding is layered in royal strategy and beautiful magic systems, offering a story that sparkles with delicious romance.
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