Review of The Stolen Heir

[Caitlyn Hudson]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Stolen Heir" by Tayma Tameem.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Stolen Heir by Tayma Tameem takes us on an adventure through the realm of Krasoria where we get to witness love, war, families torn apart, betrayal, magic and much more. We see through the perspectives of many of the characters over the span of 18 years. We see these characters growing and evolving through the course of a wartime period spurred between the two most powerful kingdoms in the realm over the loss of the stolen heir. The boy is prophesized to be the most powerful ruler the land has ever known and each kingdom blames the other for the missing royal. We watch Erik, the stolen heir, grow into a strong, humble, kind man and see how his story unfolds.

I thoroughly enjoyed Erik’s character and watching him grow from a young boy into a man and seeing all of the despair he suffers through, from living as a poor boy with two loving parents then turned street rat when his parents are killed abruptly, caught in the middle of a battle between the two kingdoms. Some of the relationships throughout the story captured my attention and gave me a deeper appreciation for individual characters. The strength in the unconditional love between Princess Auralia and Prince Jumen, the friendships between mages Jeofrn and Mal, and the brotherly bond formed between Erik and Myre are just some examples. I found the story itself thoroughly captivating, especially as we watch the antagonist go from bad to worse.

I did not like a substantial amount of the dialogue at the beginning of the novel. Nearly every male character was yelling in every sentence and the men were constantly smashing furniture out of rage, portraying them as violent and aggressive. However, as the characters really start to develop we see that many of the men may be quick tempered, but still kind and good natured. Nevertheless, the characters were portrayed as very two-dimensional for about the first third of the book making it difficult to get in to.

I rate The Stolen Heir by Tayma Tameem 2 out of 4 stars. Though I truly enjoyed the story, there are many grammatical errors that distract the reader from the overall plot. There are also many times where the dialogue is unclearly labeled as to whom is speaking making it incredibly difficult to follow and leaves the reader having to decipher who is saying what at which points. The way she ends sentences when people are being cut off is incorrect and so you are left under the impression that the character is trailing off, lost in thought, when in reality they are in the middle of an argument with someone else who is speaking over top of them. I believe that the story had all of the potential to be 4 out of 4 stars but unfortunately bad editing and the length of time it took to develop the characters and the story takes away far too much from the overall experience of reading this book.

I believe The Stolen Heir by Tayma Tameem would be an ideal read for those who love magic and fantasy and would be greatly enjoyed by those who like stories from J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Paolini. Reader discretion should be advised as there is some mild profanity, suggestions of sexual conduct and a few mentions of suicidal thoughts throughout. However, I feel that The Stolen Heir could be easily adored by young adult readers and potentially those who enjoy reading plays as each chapter is broken up into several scenes to give the reader the view points of as many different characters as possible.

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The Stolen Heir
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