“Grim and Oro: Dueling Crowns Edition” by Alex Aster is a companion book to the “Lightlark series,” also by Aster.
“Lightlark” follows Isla Crown as she fights with other rules to break the deadly curses on the realm. The book also navigates through her own feelings and the aftermath of breaking the curses.
This new companionship book provides new perspectives on the first three books since, prior to this book, the only perspective that was available was Isla’s. This made the story feel like it was missing pieces. The companion book managed to fill those gaps. This book is told partially from Grim’s perspective and then from Oro’s perspective, who are the two sides of a love triangle in this series.
In Oro’s story, Aster did a fantastic job of showing why Grim and Oro hate each other throughout the first three books.
This is something that always felt like it was missing from the story because the two of them hated each other so much that it was hard to imagine their heritage was the main reason for their hatred.
It is also a nice touch to include how similar the two really are, which isn’t something that really shows up in the original series. “Grim and Oro” shows they are just two sides of the same coin.
Oro’s side of the story also really highlights his family dynamic, and it highlighted the events that led up to him being on the throne. This may seem easy to overlook especially for those who only read the previous books, but it truly adds a much-needed perspective on Oro and his past that brings light into his thought process and decisions.
On the flip side of this book, Grim’s perspective also showed what led him to take the throne, which is equally cruel if not crueler than Oro’s story. Having this added element to Grim’s story does a great job of showing how hard it is for him to let people in, yet with Isla, he did it anyway.
This doesn’t excuse his actions in the earlier books, but it is nice to finally have some sort of explanation as to why he is so cold and detached throughout the first part of the book series.
Additionally, similar to Oro’s book, Grim’s side does give an added perspective to Grim and Oro’s relationship, which truly helped piece together where it all went wrong between those two. It also sets up their relationship to be somewhat mendable in future books in the series.
However, that is basically where the similarities end between the two sides. The rest of Oro’s side of the story focuses mainly on the events that happen during the Centennial when he is working, mainly with Isla, to break the curses plaguing them. Meanwhile, Grim’s side of the story mainly focuses on the history between Grim and Isla prior to the Centennial.
Both perspectives on the story make it clear why both men fell for Isla as much as she has already fallen for them.
However, Aster should have included more of Grim’s perspective during the Centennial because it would have been interesting to know what Grim’s thoughts were when he had to watch Isla with Oro.
Otherwise, this companion book did a nice job of filling in the gaps before the fourth book in the series was released.
The first three books in this series are now available in the University Center.
