Thief Liar Lady had me at con-woman Cinderella. Actually, it had me at D.L. Soria, whose Iron Cast (written as Destiny Soria) remains one of my favorite YA debuts of the last decade. This new book is Soria’s adult fantasy debut, a glittering and slightly gritty retelling of the story of the girl who went to a ball, snared a prince, and left only a glass slipper behind.
But this would-be princess did it all on purpose, after months of planning, and in league with her wicked stepmother and not-quite-so-wicked stepsisters. And she’s got another game going, too.
Fairy tale retellings are everywhere, and “Cinderella” in particular has been worked and reworked into more than one tale that’s well-known on its own, including Marissa Meyer’s Cinder, Malinda Lo’s Ash, and Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted. None of those, however, were written with an adult audience in mind, and leveling this story up allows Soria to put her own spin on things. This story has grown up—all the way to a spicy moment with the good old “only one bed” trope—but Soria keeps it light on its feet, for the most part, after a slightly drawn-out first half.
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Thief Liar Lady
“Lady Aislinn” is no lady. She is generally known as Ash, and much of her backstory is familiar: Dead (noble) father, conniving stepmother, fraught relationship with her stepsisters. (Never just “sisters.” Always “step.”) But she didn’t just dream her way into a ball gown and a happily ever after—no, that was the result of a lot of work. Her stepmother, Seraphina, seeks power and financial comfort; in a misogynist fantasy world, those are best achieved for women via powerful marriages. With vicious, abusive training and a healthy dose of lustre, an expensive magical powder with all kinds of possible uses, she sends Ash to the palace to snare a lord.
Ash, instead, snares a prince. Everett, the younger brother of the current king, seems earnest and sweet, and is intensely smitten with Ash thanks to the lustre she uses on him. When Soria’s story begins, the pair are already engaged, and Ash is working very, very hard to keep up her Lady Aislinn facade. Her fictional story is close to the real one, with key details omitted: Poor troubled semi-orphan wins the heart of a prince. It’s romantic and dramatic and wins the heart of the country, too.
But Ash has more plans tucked away in her elegant skirts than those to which her stepmother is privy. Soria slowly pulls the curtain back, revealing a country in the kind of turmoil that the rich can easily ignore. Years ago, the kingdom of Solis went to war with the neighboring land of Eloria and won, taking full advantage of Eloria’s people and natural resources. Injustice keeps the kingdom running, and a symbol of this lives in the palace.
Lord Verance, Rance to his friends and captors, is the “hostage prince,” an Elorian who’s been in the Solisti palace since he was a child. From his first appearance lazing on the throne, he’s the more intriguing prince: troubled, lazy, inclined to practicing sad songs on the piano in the middle of the night, and keeper of a delightful dog named Puppy. Next to bland princely Everett, Rance is intriguing and hard to read, attractive and a pain in the ass, and character catnip for anyone who likes their love interests brooding and kind at once. (Side note to those who worry: Puppy is okay at the end.)
Thief Liar Lady is not a book that’s trying to pull one over on you or suddenly reveal a twist: It’s a summer jam of a book, a straightforward pop song with a catchy hook, a romantic action movie that has a heart of gold and an eye out for injustice. Soria has such fun with the inevitable connection between Rance and Ash that if sometimes the various bits of politicking get away from her a little, it’s hard to mind too much. (What I did mind was that it takes almost half of the book for supposedly clever Ash to realize that maybe, just maybe, someone else might be putting on an act.)
There are almost no simple heroes and villains, excepting Seraphina, who has essentially no redeeming qualities. If you expand a fairy-tale world into something that actually works and ticks along and has trade negotiations and agrarian reform issues, it gets complicated, and that complication is where Soria roots her story. How does a magical kingdom get rich? Who pays for that? Who mines the magical dust and suffers its ill effects? What kind of compromise does even a “good” member of royalty make to maintain their power? Can one woman do anything about any of this? What does it cost to do horrible things in the pursuit of something bigger than yourself?
All of these questions simmer in the background, never quite making it to the front of Soria’s tale—which helps to keep the story from feeling too dark when, in the last quarter, some very ugly things happen. (There’s an unaddressed question about consent, sex, and the use of lustre that does take a little bit of the shine off.) As things get darker, though, Ash gets closer to the women around her, including her maid, another royal, and her own wicked stepsisters, and these relationships balance the not-quite-a-love-triangle beautifully. Soria made her interest in strong friendships among women known in her very first novel, and it’s a delight to see it continue here.
Thief Liar Lady is an adult-fantasy cousin to novels like The Cruel Prince and A Court of Thorns and Roses, and like those books, it leaves the door open for a sequel. If you like your princesses troubled, your romances complicated, and your kingdoms morally compromised, it might be your next summer read.
Thief Liar Lady is published by Del Rey.
Molly Templeton lives and writes in Oregon, and spends as much time as possible in the woods. Sometimes she talks about books on Twitter.
