The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross Review

Hello Again!

The weekend is almost here and I finished my buddy read book, An Ember in the Ashes today. I read The Queen's Rising last week and have been excited to review it. This new release has a unique story and a great cast of characters. Read on to see my full review. Enjoy!

Synopsis

Growing up in the southern Kingdom of Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her for such a life. While some are born with an innate talent for one of the five passions—art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge—Brienna struggled to find hers until she belatedly chose to study knowledge. However, despite all her preparations, Brienna’s greatest fear comes true—the solstice does not go according to plan and she is left without a patron. Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. Suspicious of his intent, and with no other choices, she accepts. But there is much more to his story, and Brienna soon discovers that he has sought her out for his own vengeful gain. For there is a dangerous plot being planned to overthrow the king of Maevana—the archrival kingdom of Valenia—and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the northern throne. And others are involved—some closer to Brienna than she realizes. With war brewing between the two lands, Brienna must choose whose side she will remain loyal to—passion or blood. Because a queen is destined to rise and lead the battle to reclaim the crown. The ultimate decision Brienna must determine is: Who will be that queen?

-GoodReads

Review

I received this book in my February ShelfLove Crate and was excited to read

it not just because of the stunning cover art but because the story sounded interesting. This is the author's first book and it's quite well written. The second book was just announced and

One of the first things that stood out to me in this book was the unique nature of the story. YA literature has a tendency to follow some story stereotypes but I have been lucky lately reading stories that have unique original concepts, including this one. The concept behind this novel is that there are young men and women who "passion" in one of five arts meaning that they are very proficient in those arts. Brienna is a student who has had a hard time finding her passion and it takes her in a different and dangerous direction.

Another thing that was great in this novel was the Celtic influence found in this story. In the country to the north, Maevana, this is the most prominent as this country is more wild than Valenia, where our story begins. There are mentions to dirks (Scottish daggers) as well as Celtic myths and traditions. It was a great element to the story and I hope it's explored more in the second book.

The character development in this novel was done well for the main character but the development of the other characters was a smidge lacking. Don't get me wrong, their development was still good but not nearly as in depth as Brienna. I'm hoping we get more development of these other characters in the second book since the story was quite fast paced in the first book.

As I mentioned, the story in this novel was quite fast paced which made it an easy read. The best part about this story were the many subtle twists that the story took that made it alot more interesting than it would have been without them. I was only able to foresee one of them twists but the story was still quite enjoyable to read. Although this book was nearly 500 pages long, it feels like we've barely scratched the surface of the story. I'm really quite excited to see what the author does in the next novel and am looking forward to reading more about this world.