Release Day: May 22, 2018
When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.
A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.
As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world--and of each other.
I had heard so much about this book and was so happy to have my wish granted on Netgalley! This type of fantasy is right up my alley and I was excited to see if it lived up to the hype. I'm going to be honest in this review - this book was great in many ways and fell flat for me in others. The synopsis does a good job of explaining the basis of the book but my biggest question was how was it going to differ from other fantasies like it, and hopefully this review will help those of you with the same question!
The story is told following two different women worlds apart. Rielle grew up in the royal court and is best friends (and has a secret crush) on the Crown Prince. She also has the secret of having a multitude of powers when the rest of the world is gifted with one, if any, and learns that she has a greater part to play. Eliana is living a different life years later as a killer for the tyrannical Emperor, before having to go rogue to protect her family.
I personally found Eliana's story much more interesting than Rielle's. I think this is because of the prologue, which lays out the characters and relationships from the very first pages. The magic is really interesting - the lore takes a really interesting twists on angels, especially in a fantasy/medieval sense, and is done pretty well. I think the prologue does a good job of throwing the reader into the action and conflict right away, and showing that this will be a no holds barred type of adventure. That being said, knowing Rielle's fate made me disinterested in her parts of the story, whereas Eliana's was much more of a mystery. She seemed more complex to me, and her destiny was so up in the air that I wanted to know what was going to happen next, not only to her but to those she loves.
The story isn't incredibly unique, in my opinion, but the writing makes up for a fairly predictable plot. I wanted to see how it was all going to unfold and how all the pieces that we are shown throughout will fit together (if at all) by the end. Fans of Throne of Glass and Red Queen will like Rielle and Eliana for being strong female characters that often give in to their flaws. While I skimmed through a lot of Rielle's parts, I was still engaged with the story as a whole, and can't wait for the next installment (like, REALLY can't wait).
The story has a great balance of mystery, action, and romance, and the movement between the past and the present, or Rielle's narrative and Eliana's, work nicely with one another without being too dependent. Overall, I recommend this book for anyone that reads the synopsis and thinks it may interest them and enjoys fantasies like Throne of Glass and Red Queen.
** I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **
Read more about Claire and her books here: http://www.claire-legrand.com
Claire Legrand used to be a musician until she realized she couldn’t stop thinking about the stories in her head. Now she is a writer and librarian living in central New Jersey (although her heart will always live in her home state of Texas).
Happy Reading!
Jasmine
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