The Seventh Blessing by Melissa Buell

From Goodreads:

When Samantha, Princess of Mittra, discovers the fairy gifts she was blessed with are a lie, she must seek out her true gifts. 

On the continent of Gymandrol reside both humans and fairies but in separate kingdoms. A young fairy named Dagan discovers his magical ability and the force of that discovery rocks both the human and fairy worlds. 

Years later, Samantha, Princess of Mittra, discovers on her eighteenth birthday that the fairy gifts she was blessed with at birth are actually a cover up for a blunder made by two feuding fairies, she seeks out the meaning of her true gifts. THE SEVENTH BLESSING follows Sam’s discovery as to who she really is while learning to use her “boyish” blessings wisely. Sam uses her true blessings to help a friend in need which leads to her secretly entering the competition circuit of a knight, disguising her princess identity using fairy magic. 

Her feisty spirit and sharp tongue create problems when she becomes reintroduced to Nolan, Prince of Lagola, her archenemy from childhood, who is also on the tournament circuit. Samantha and Nolan discover the evil fairy, Dagan, still lives and must battle him in an ultimate test of bravery and skill.

This is a fun tale of Princess Samantha who is anything but dainty. Her gifts that were bestowed on her by the fae were really meant for a boy becoming a king. So, a false ceremony bestowing her fake gifts was given and she was trained in secret to become a knight. I really enjoyed this story as Sam was no wilting flower. She was still a princess and stayed to her duties as a princess despite her dislike of those duties. Nolan, a man who finds her incredibly attractive and interesting, was her nemesis as a child and she never forgave him until they both met as young adults. As their friendship grew so did their attraction to each other. I found this attraction frustrating as it too FOREVER for them to both settle down and admit they had this attraction to each other. The back and forth was a bit too much, but was nice when it was finally settled.


There was also a prologue which prefaced a war that set things up for the final battle. I actually found this to be unnecessary and actually confusing to the whole story. Also, when the bad guy had a bit of his past shown to Sam in the climax, I thought it was a bit too much there as well. I think the back story of Dagan (the bad fae) would be best totally taken out of this story and made into his own book. It just seemed like it was a story that wanted to be told, but didn't quite fit into the tale that was being told in this book.

I think this is a fun book that might need a bit more editing, and I give it 3 stars. It is a delightful tale of a princess who stood on her own to learn to become a leader rather than arm candy.

I was given this book by the author for an honest review. No compensation was given.