[Book Review] Misrule by Heather Walter & Fire And Flow Coffee Aurora

Title: Misrule
Series: Malice Duology #2
Author: Heather Walter
Publication date: May 10th 2022
Page Count: 459 pages
Age Rating: New Adult (blood, gore, violence, death)
How I got my hot little hands on it: Received a review copy
Publisher’s page: Misrule

Does true love break curses or begin them? The dark sorceress of “Sleeping Beauty” reclaims her story in this sequel to Malice.

“Fans of reimagined fairy tales and LGBTQ+ themes will be delighted with the conclusion of this fantasy duology.”—Booklist (starred review)

The Dark Grace is dead.

Feared and despised for the sinister power in her veins, Alyce wreaks her revenge on the kingdom that made her an outcast. Once a realm of decadence and beauty, Briar is now wholly Alyce’s wicked domain. And no one will escape the consequences of her wrath. Not even the one person who holds her heart.

Princess Aurora saw through Alyce’s thorny facade, earning a love that promised the dawn of a new age. But it is a love that came with a heavy price: Aurora now sleeps under a curse that even Alyce’s vast power cannot seem to break. And the dream of the world they would have built together is nothing but ash.

Alyce vows to do anything to wake the woman she loves, even if it means turning into the monster Briar believes her to be. But could Aurora love the villain Alyce has become?

Or is true love only for fairy tales?

My Review

Misrule is the second book in the Malice Duology, a morally grey Sleeping Beauty retelling, and takes place a hundred years after Princess Aurora was cursed into a deep sleep. Alyce, once the Dark Grace, is now Mistress of the Dark Court, a haven for dark magic kind, and a new Fae war is in full swing. 

The Dark Court, built on the broken smoldering bones of what used to be Briar, is a thing of macabre beauty: rust-coated opulent chandeliers, the heads of enemies mounted on walls, and gowns made of black and red feathers, cobweb lace, and silver branch collars. The members of the court themselves are just as fascinating: demons, vila, goblins, shifters, and imps (I was especially fond of the imps, they were like deadly mischievous toddlers that can make the most extraordinary gowns and delicate pastries out of almost nothing… and also kill you).

Someone who I wasn’t especially fond of was Aurora.

I tried to be sympathetic to her, I promise I did. After all, she did wake up after a hundred years to discover that almost everyone she knew was dead and her lover had pretty much reduced her kingdom to rubble. But it was like the things that mildly annoyed me about her in the first book – her stubbornness, inability to compromise, and firm belief that she knows best – were dialed up to a 10. She also comes across as just a little too perfect. Beyond her perfect beauty (which isn’t her fault, she was force-fed magic beauty elixirs her whole life), she is loved by almost all, with minimal effort on her part, and she always comes out on top. And honestly, Regan (Alyce’s most loyal companion and the first vila to stand by her side) has a point when she says that Alyce is blinded by Aurora to the detriment of all else.

I’m kind of team Regan tbh.

Alyce grew on me in this. She really does have good intentions and she’s hit with pangs of remorse for what she has done to the humans in Briar in search of her own vengeance, no better than how the Fae have treated the Vila. Who defines what makes an intention “good” anyway? Ultimately, for Alyce, it’s Aurora. Alyce does not trust her own moral compass, and so she looks to Aurora. The problem is, while Alyce may always make the choices that do right by Aurora, Aurora does not feel the same compulsion towards Alyce.

It makes for a complicated dynamic, to say the least. But it’s a dynamic that keeps you turning pages to see where this relationship is going. Friends to lovers to frenemies to allies to enemies to friends to lovers? Is Aurora ever going to forgive Alyce, or just string her along when convenient? Is Alyce ever going to set boundaries, or just go full doormat?

Throw in Derek, who is set up as a somewhat rival of Alyce’s, and  “🎶I can’t believe that it’s finally me and you, and you and me, just us, and your friend Derek… do-do-do do do-do do, Derek 🎶” ( – Alyce, probably).

Even though some of the characters might have irked me (*cough*Aurora*cough*), I highly recommend both Misrule and Malice. Overall, the Malice Duology is an original take on Sleeping Beauty, unpredictable at every turn, populated with interesting characters and dynamics, and set in a richly detailed world. It’s an amazing debut series and makes me excited to see what the author puts out in the future – Heather Walter is certainly an author to keep an eye out for.

Although Alyce is the main character of the series, and the books are told from her perspective, it becomes very clear by the end of the story that Alyce is kind of a support character in her own story, being the conduit through which the heroine, Aurora, achieves her goals (and honestly, Alyce wouldn’t want it any other way). To that end, I’m recommending Fire & Flow Coffee Aurora, a sweet coffee with subtle flavors of hazelnut, caramel, and a chocolatey finish.