My Rating: 5 ❀'s
Genre: Fantasy
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I listened to this book on audio and it was absolutely gripping. I'd love to read it again so it's going on my to be read again list. It was really that good. Gripping from the very beginning, this is a novel full of action and political manoeuvrings featuring one of the strongest heroines I've run across in a while. Kelsea is full of fury for the injustices her mother, the late Queen of the Tearling has delivered onto her people, and Kelsea is determined to be a just ruler and one that defends her people from the tyranny of the Red Queen. And she is totally kick ass. I love her fierce nature and I love her level headedness--at times the fire inside her erupts, but mostly Kelsea is a thoughtful, intelligent queen and I found her extremely well balanced.
Many of the other characters are equally compelling, and the problems of the day that face Kelsea are daunting enough (and horrible enough) that the entire novel has a sense of direness to it. Kelsea has drawn a line in the sand and now she must face war. The amazing thing about this novel is that is the problems Kelsea faces--many of which deal with both human rights and more specifically, women's rights--are vastly in line with many of the problems we face today on a global scale. It was a failing economy that brought about many the laws and traditions that now oppress the Tear people, and that Kelsea must change for the good of her people.
We don't know much about the Red Queen other than she is a sadistic sorceress who has the Tearling in a death grip. She, like many of the nobles of the Tearling, has no regard for human life, no empathy, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I suspect the next book will give us a deeper understanding of her, but I cannot say I think I will ever empathize her. She is evil manifest.
Which makes this novel a simply devastating read. You have injustice on a scale so great that it stings too sharply to be ignored, a young and righteous queen who wants to put things to right in her kingdom, and enemies unknown as well as the powers of the Red Queen to contend with, and the vastly superior army she commands. You wonder when war will break out, if Kelsea can keep her position as Queen, and you just keeping turning those pages. By the end of this novel what you have is an epic tale unfolding with a strong female at its centre, and societal issues that will speak to the modern reader. All wrapped up in a fantasy novel, which I think is the perfect vehicle to touch on many of the issues that this novel addresses.
A gripping and compelling novel and I cannot wait to start book two.
Happy Reading,
Jewels
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