Harp of Kings

Eighteen-year-old Liobhan is a powerful singer and an expert whistle player. Her brother has a voice to melt the hardest heart, and a rare talent on the harp. But Liobhan's burning ambition is to join the elite warrior band on Swan Island. She and her brother train there to compete for places, and find themselves joining a mission while still candidates. Their unusual blend of skills makes them ideal for this particular job, which requires going undercover as traveling minstrels. For Swan Island trains both warriors and spies.

Their mission: to find and retrieve a precious harp, an ancient symbol of kingship, which has gone mysteriously missing. If the instrument is not played at the upcoming coronation, the candidate will not be accepted and the people could revolt. Faced with plotting courtiers and tight-lipped druids, an insightful storyteller, and a boorish Crown Prince, Liobhan soon realizes an Otherworld power may be meddling in the affairs of the kingdom. When ambition clashes with conscience, Liobhan must make a bold decision and is faced with a heartbreaking choice.

The Harp of Kings is a story about 3 warriors-in-training. Liobhan, her brother Brocc, and Dau sent on a mission to retrieve a missing harp from another kingdom, before its king-in-waiting is crowned. The book switches between the characters’ POV and I love that I got a glimpse of their thoughts and feelings throughout the mission.

For the mission, our characters are assigned new identities as they disguise themselves as travelling minstrels. Liobhan struggled with this quite often since her disguise dictated a lot of what she can say/do in a place brimming with misogyny. I would make a terrible spy if I were in her shoes, I can never keep a straight face when I disagree with anything. I love Liobhan’s character and how she grew from the beginning to the end of their journey.

I was also invested in Dau’s story. In the beginning he seemed arrogant and unlikable, but reading his POV as he slowly shared more about his past gave me a better understanding of how he turned out to be and the ways he is trying to be better. There is a hint of potential romance between Dau and Liobhan and I’m all for slow burn romances.

I love Juliet Marillier and her Daughter of the Forest books. I didn’t enjoy the Harp of Kings as much but I think it’s mainly because it’s a great introduction to a series, whereas each book in the Daughter of the Forest series could stand on their own. This is a promising first book! I’m curious to see where the story goes from here.