Early Review – The Shadow Queen by CJ Redwine (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 440 pages
Publisher: Balzar and Bray
Release Date: February 16, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-0062360243
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 4/5 stars
I got this book from NetGalley to review. This ended up being a well done fairy tale/fantasy. I enjoyed it a lot.
Lorelai Diederich is the crown princess but she is in hiding from the wicked queen who has stolen her father’s throne. The only way for Lorelai to take back the throne and start to repair the Kingdom of Ravenspire is to master her magic and confront the Queen. Meanwhile in the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, Priince Kol is having big problems of his own. His parents and brother are killed by invading ogres and he suddenly finds himself King of Eldr.
In a desperate gamble to save Eldr from orge takeover Kol pleads his case to the Queen of Ravenspire. She demands that Kol bring her back the heart of the Crown Princess Lorelai in exchange for aid. However, Kol wasn’t expected to like Lorelai as much as he does and wasn’t expecting the Ravenspire Queen to be quite so evil.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, it was predictable but still a very fun read. The characters are fun and easy to engage with; I really enjoyed them all and was surprised at how quickly I came to care for them. I even felt some sympathy for the Wicked Queen.
I also really enjoyed the magic throughout. I loved how the Eldr people can transform into dragons and enjoyed the interesting ways in which both Lorelai and the Ravenspire Queen use their magic.
This is obviously a retelling of Snow White and, although some things have been changed quite a bit, there are definitely parallels between the two stories.
The story wraps up completely. Looking on Goodreads it looks like this may be the beginning of a series, however this book stands alone very nicely. The writing was easy to read and well written.
Overall a fun and entertaining fantasy fairy tale retelling. I really enjoyed the characters and the magic throughout. The plot is fairly predictable and I would have liked to see a bit more world-building, but it was still a fun YA fantasy read.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
