The Thief and the Traitor Bride tore my heart out. I had the highest hope for this book ever since my utter devotion to The Second Death of Locke. And this smashed through them. Keep reading this book review of The Thief and the Traitor Bride for my full thoughts.
Summary
Nore Gordon is a woman of many talents: she can speak a variety of languages, disguise herself in plain sight, and has made a name for herself as a successful wine merchant. But unbeknownst to those closest to her, it is all a front for Nore’s true role as the favoured spy of the Lindle crown.
Tasked with infiltrating enemy lands in search of a powerful relic, Nore is forced to engage the services of a great thief. Unfortunately, the only person for the job is her estranged husband Caspian. Both Nore and Caspian bear the scars of the disastrous end of their marriage, but if they are to survive their deadly new assignment, they must pose as a happily married couple to avoid detection.
As danger closes in, Nore finds herself tangled in a web of lies and deceit-and though Caspian is at the centre of it all, she may not hate him as much as she once did. But Caspian has betrayed her before, and trust can be far more deadly than deception.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Estranged spouses will always get me and The Thief and the Traitor Bride is heartbreaking in the best way. Nore and Caspian have betrayed each other, hurt each other so deeply, in the way that only someone we truly love can. There’s so much love between them, this devotion, and this love that once was our world. But it’s been overwritten by these deep wounds and the scar tissue that formed. With flashbacks, The Thief and Traitor Bride weaves a story which unravels the ways they betrayed each other, lured each other into illusions and love, and dispelled the bubbles of delusion. And we’ve seen how this film ends. This is the ultimate example of hate to love you. And we love to see it.
It begins at the existence of grief when a relationship ends and a betrayal that we still feel the sting of. It’s one those relationships where we can’t bear to acknowledge it, the person they were, because it feels too much like acknowledging that feeling and love which hurts too much to stare directly into the sun. To acknowledge the ways we let ourselves become so vulnerable and hopeful and the easy way one person could crush it all beneath their boots. So we hold onto our hate, this raging fire of a shield, and it’s pain, but it’s also self-defense.
Overall,
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The Thief and the Traitor Bride is deeply emotional and character driven, but the action is entrancing. We are just waiting for the shoe to drop, for us to see our favorites again, and for us to realize the truth hidden beneath. There’s layers of truth between lies. And ultimately it asks us if our loyalty to a person, a country, a nation, eclipses everything. Does our loyalty to our nation demand a singled minded obedience? It’s a love affair that trains with pain and punishments, caresses and twisted logic that leaves it our fault. Is our job going to become our world? Wholly, without questions, and with nothing to lose because it is our everything?
The Thief and the Traitor Bride is a masterpiece of a sequel to this expansive world. Find The Thief and the Traitor Bride on Goodreads, Storygraph, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.