Book Review: Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake

Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Queens of Fennbirn was actually pretty good…after the first story. I already told you my thoughts on The Oracle Queen, so I’ll talk about The Young Queens, which introduces Mirabelle, Arsinoe, and Katherine as young Queens before they grow up and start killing each other in the series.

I enjoyed The Young Queens. My favorite would have to be Arsinoe because she forgot about her sisters while she was with the Naturalists, even though her powers haven’t manifested yet. She’s smart, cunning, and wise, while my least favorite is Mirabelle. I don’t know why I feel like I wouldn’t like Mirabelle when I read the trilogy, but there’s something about her I just don’t like in a way. As for Katherine…eh. She’s okay. She’s scared of anything poisonous and she’s caring a lot.

Then I reread The Oracle Queen…and it was a gut punch to read it. SCREW FRANCESCA TO THE BLOODY SUN. Lying to her own queen like that-and doing it behind her back?! That’s cold right there. So dang cold. But I really loved Queen Elsabet and felt sorry for what happened to her. I wish it didn’t happen that way, and that she was going to be Queen forever, but nope. Even though Francesca wanted to be number one in her spot on the Black Council, it was still cold as heck to do that.

I am gonna read the rest of the series to see how the girls fare and who survives, but this was a pretty good (and pretty painful) beginning to the series.

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Book Review: The Oracle Queen by Kendare Blake

The Oracle Queen by Kendare Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So...lemme get this straight….

A Queen named Elsabet is drugged every single day, not being able to use her god-given powers, right? And her husband is cheating on her left and right in front of her, and the one doing it, the poisoner, is watching from the back, pulling some strings so she can do it? Really? And on top of that the bad guys won?

What????

Basically this is my first time reading something from Kendare Blake, and I have to say, this book shocked me. One because you think that the Queen was going to win, she was going to dump her husband and that’s it, she’s still on the throne, nothing bad will ever happen to her, and she’ll be fine. But NO. It seemed like throughout the story, she was going to be betrayed by her Black Council, who locked her up (W...TF) and killed all of her subordiantes (once again...W...TF), and also killed the painter (W...TF) also accidentally killing the maid (for the people in the back...WTF).

So basically this whole entire short novella was about a queen falling from grace, getting locked up by her people, and her husband basically cheating on her. I did enjoy it, but I loved the world building the moment I started reading the first page. It was really good and I wanted to read more, even though the ending shocked the hell out of me. I fell in love with this world, and I wanted to read more (so I’m gonna read the Young Queens, because it turns out...The Young Queens is first, then The Oracle Queen, then the rest of the series…) because yes I would read the first book of the series, but I wanted to read the novella first, to see how they are before I throw myself reading the rest of the series.

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