The Princess of Thornwood Drive

• Author: Khalia Moreau
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: November 7, 2023
• Publisher: Forever

Thank you to Forever and Angela Man for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Two sisters. Two worlds. One grave danger to them both.

Laine Highland would give anything to be in another reality. Any reality. Ever since the accident that killed her parents and left her younger sister paralyzed and nonverbal, Laine’s been overwhelmed by grief and mind-numbing responsibility. But she clings to a single, bright strand of hope that one day the sister she knew will come back to her.

Alyssa lives in a world woven with light and Caribbean magic, a fairytale-like existence where her parents have disappeared into the Dark Forest and she’s been cursed as a changel. As evil starts to spread through the kingdom, she’s desperate to pierce the veil between her realm and her sister’s and give warning.

For a dark prince is intent on winning Laine’s heart, and now the sisters must find a way back to each other … or risk being separated forever.

This was such an intriguing blurb, paired with a gorgeous book cover that I couldn’t resist. I was especially interested in how the author was going to make two stories work when they were so different—one a contemporary timeline, while the other was a fantasy.

To start with, it’s almost like reading two separate but adjacent stories that intersect. Laine’s story is the contemporary one. She is 22 and buried under the weight of grief, the responsibility of caring for her younger sister who is paralyzed and nonverbal, and survivor’s guilt as well. Alyssa, on the other hand, is aware of what’s going on around her, but escapes the limitations of her body by spending time in a fairytale-type world that is infused with light, magic, and curses. Both women have aspects of their Caribbean heritage play a role in their storylines. 

Both women were interesting in different ways, and I have to admit that the world-building in Alyssa’s chapters was outstanding. I found it extra interesting how there was overlap between the fantasy world that Alyssa retreats into and the real world that both of them live in. At first, the story is a little confusing, but once it really gets going, it wasn’t difficult to follow. And while the voices between the characters were significantly different, the backgrounds for their chapters were also extraordinarily different, so that it was never hard to differentiate between the narrators. 

Overall, this was a well-done story that touches on some very difficult topics. In addition to losing their parents and facing grief, Laine is facing survivor’s guilt, while Alyssa is facing the harm that can occur in institutions, such as overuse of medications and sexual assault of a disabled person. However, there was a strange part of the story involving colorism that I wasn’t quite sure how to interpret. But for the most part, the story was the kind that held my attention, and it was done well, featuring two strong, biracial female main characters, who were strong in different ways.

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