The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.

In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.

But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.


Rating: 1/5 Stars

DNF

I'm going to be honest here, I wanted to read this book for the freaking awesome cover. I mean just look at that BLACK carved apple with the typography with The Shadow Queen. Doesn't it look amazing?! And I read in an interview that the apple was actually carved, not drawn over digitally. How more awesome can it get?

However, the book wasn't that great. Don't get me wrong, this book wasn't awful or anything of the sort, I just felt like I had read the story a thousand times before.

.The writing was simplistic, not purple prose or overly descriptive.

.The story was generic, imagine a Princess trying to regain her throne, yadda, yadda.

.The characters were boring. I'm sorry but there was nothing especial here, the one-dimensional villain, the "strong" princess who doesn't believe in politics or diplomacy (how the hell will she run the Kingdom? Why does she even want it if she's not going to do anything??), the laid-back Prince who does nothing but fool around until things "get serious", etc.

.The world building was inexistent, magic was... there? And some people could use it but others couldn't? Oh and there were several kingdoms, an Ogre war and... that's it.

When Lorelai's mother passes away, her father the King will marry her sister, Queen Irina. At first, it seems as if the new Queen is exactly what the family needs, her father and brother are happier and with Irina being a magic wielder like Lorelai herself, the two of them form a close bond. But soon things start to go wrong, and Lorelai discovers that farm from being caring, Irina is casting a spell over the entire Kingdom to do her bidden. With her magic she is able to free her people long enough to rescue her brother and escape her palace as Irina kills their father. Now after ten years, the powerful sorcerer is starving her Kingdom out of spite and Lorelai, her brother and a loyal guard pretend to be dead while they put together a revolution.

So, imagine OUAT's Snow White retelling without Regina fricken Mills.

                                      

As I said, I didn't hate the story it was just boring and predictable. Not to mention it didn't make much sense; Lorelai, her brother and guard are trying to start a revolution without Irina knowing about them, how will they do that you might wonder? Well, they steal the taxes the Queen makes the villagers pay, give it back to them and spread the rumors that Lorelai is alive and wants to take back her Kingdom… but not very strong rumours because if Irina finds out, she'll kill them all. So... basically they are basing the entire thing on a flimsy rumor that nobody will believe or support.

It just didn't make sense, Lorelai wants to save everybody from Irina, but she didn't know that things were so bad mothers were killing their children so they wouldn't have to starve. How much does she know of her own Kingdom and their situation? What is she even fighting for?

The story was divided between Lorelai's, Kol's (a dragon Prince of sorts) and Irina’s POV. I didn't like the love story between Kol, the Prince/King Irina manipulates into killing Lorelai (very snow white and the hunstman). It was too insta-love, the second they meet Kol can't kill her because "she's so beautiful and rebellious and devoid of any real personality!"

In the end, the beautiful cover once again didn't correspond with a beautiful book. It wasn't terrible, but I recommend for people who like "light" fantasy and generic stories.