Posts Tagged: Fantasy

I received this book for free from Margaret K. McElderry Books in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

As a child, she fought the invaders who murdered her parents and snatched her as a raid prize. She fought for her place next to Thyra, the daughter of the Krigere Chieftain. She fought for her status as a warrior in her tribe: blood and victory are her way of life. But the day the Krigere cross the great lake and threaten the witch queen of the Kupari, everything changes.

Cursed by the queen with fire and ice, Ansa is forced to fight against an invisible enemy—the dark magic that has embedded itself deep in her bones. The more she tries to hide it, the more dangerous it becomes. And with the Krigere numbers decimated and the tribe under threat from the traitorous brother of the dead Chieftain, Ansa is torn between her loyalty to the Krigere, her love for Thyra, and her own survival instincts.

With her world in chaos and each side wanting to claim her for their own, only one thing is certain: unless Ansa can control the terrible magic inside her, everything she’s fought for will be destroyed.

OKAY SO JUST READ THE IMPOSTER QUEEN and THE CURSED QUEEN and EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY. I dove in expecting to love The Cursed Queen and while I did struggle some with it, it packs just as much of a punch as The Imposter Queen. Both books have their strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses of TIQ are the strengths of TCQ and vise versa in my opinion.

While both Elli and Ansa are strong heroines, they are also very different from each other and I enjoyed that. Ansa is not as easily likable as Elli was and that was one of the reasons why it took me longer to get into the novel but her journey and her character development is worth it. Even though Ansa is not as likeable, she is still a well-written character. She is complex and even though I AM SCREAMING AT HER NOT TO MAKE THE CHOICES she does, I still understand them.

The romance in this one is so painful too because I just wanted Thyra and Ansa to KISS but GODDAMNIT EVERYTHING IS PAINFUL and the OTP is painful and so much pain. They are perfect for each other though. They are foils and as cheesy as it sounds, they make each other better people because in their own ways, they push each other to strive to be better. Thyra is also more than just a love interest. She is a complex character and one you aren’t always sure of but….. I am going to leave that sentence hanging because I love being vague.

I am not entirely sure if it was the pacing or my getting distracted by my phone a lot but I didn’t ~really~ get into the book until the second half. The first half was GOOD and engaging but I didn’t get really sucked in until some shit went down and made me more than a little excited to flip the pages. I was about to put the book down for the night and just continue reading the next day BUT THEN THINGS HAPPENED and I was up until 5:30 AM reading the book :’)

Ansa’s world is very different than Elli’s. They’ve grown up amongst very different kind of people who value very different things. I dont like writing in books but I had to mark a couple passages in this one because Fine makes A+ commentary about social issues through the differences in these worlds and her words are so powerful. That’s one of the amazing strengths of this book and one that made me cherish it even more.

Politics, betrayals, magic, first love, this series has it all. At the end of The Imposter Queen I was sure I was #teamElli for queen but after finishing The Cursed Queen, I am not so sure anymore about where my loyalities lie. Either way, the both of them will give each other a good run for their money and I am going to want the next book right now so I can DEVOUR it and also have cute OTP moments. PLEASE READ THESE BOOKS. They are so so underappreciated but so amazing and should be read and loved by a whole lot more people.

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