The Ice Princess’s Fair Illusion | Book Review

TW: acephobia/arophobia, sexual assault, PTSD, brief allusion to self-harm, unsupportive parents, parent/spouse death, illness

The Ice Princess’s Fair Illusion by Lynn E. O’Connacht is a verse novel retelling of King Thrushbeard (with a hint of Snow White at the beginning). Edel and Marian are in a queerplatonic relationship and are telling their story to the audience.

Disclaimer: I won this book in a giveaway. This does not affect my view of the book. Also, I am very much allosexual, so I cannot speak for any poor aro/ace rep.

I rated this book 3.5/5 stars. It was enjoyable and made me realize how little I read about characters who are on the aro/ace spectrum, the tipping point was the writing style.

This is one of the most unapologetic aromantic/asexual books I’ve ever read. Edel and Marian are very clear from the beginning about their identities.
Marian was homoromantic, asexual, and sex-repulsed while Edel was aromantic and asexual. They both use those terms and make it clear in other ways their identities. There were also side characters who were on the ace spectrum and they were aware of people who exist outside the gender binary. It was honestly all very lovely.

Even though they both know what happens, they’re also taking time to reveal stuff that only they would’ve know (like say, what their life was like before the other came into their life).

It’s a very sweet book. The characters go through a lot, but you can tell they care for each other very much, even when they have disagreements. The characters felt pretty real.

I liked the format of it, even if the writing style wasn’t for me. It’s a dialogue between the two princesses, recounting their story. It made sense and I was able to keep trace of who was speaking when.

The main drawback was I often found the dialogue sounding weird. This isn’t to say, I didn’t like the use of the words “aromantic” and “asexual” in a fantasy story because I did. Other conversations they had were just phrased weirdly.

It’s a “slow” book. It takes a while for the characters to finally meet. The climax is far more like a fairy tale not a Disney fairy tale. Obviously this isn’t for everyone, but I didn’t find myself growing bored with it.

And just a heads up, it is fairly short. It’s under 300 pages and as a poetry book, that means it goes by even quicker, which is why this review is so short. I don’t want to give too much away.

All that being said, I do recommend this book, especially to those in the ace-aro community wishing for more representation. Again, I can’t say for certain if it’s good or bad rep, as I’m allosexual, but I haven’t seen OV reviews who hate this book.

What are your thoughts on The Ice Princess’ Fair Illusion?