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A review by chaptersofmads
The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross
2.0
“She walks with grace upon the clouds, and the stars know her by name.”
Within the past year, Rebecca Ross has become one of my favorite authors. I loved the Letters of Enchantment duology and adored the Elements of Cadence duology. After loving both of those so much, I decided to revisit this book - which I had originally dnf'd in 2019.
And my final thoughts are that I probably could have left it dnf'd and my life wouldn't have changed.
This is exactly what I thought it was when I started it a few years ago. Not only is it incredibly predictable and lacking any/all sense of mystery/magic, it also features one of the worst romances I have had the displeasure of encountering lately (which seems dramatic, because I haven't enjoyed most romances lately.)
The man is at least 8 years older than our 17 year old protagonist, which is already pretty funky, but! He has also known her since she was 10 and has been her teacher (referred to as master in this book) since she was 14. It is known that he has favored/loved her for the majority of this time. This is never questioned/condemned and every time I tried to forget their age gap, it was brought up. Again.
(I understand this book was inspired by history, but this was also a YA fantasy that did not need to pull on the historical accuracy of icky power dynamics in relationships.)
Beyond that, most of the book felt incredibly convenient or just simply stupid. I don't understand how any of this actually worked out in their favor, since they were all dumb as rocks. The villains - one dimensional and glorious as they were - were also incredibly stupid, gullible, and walking stereotypes so perhaps that's all the explanation required.
There are a lot of random things I could complain about with this book (such as the fact an evil character is conveniently killed by a dog or that the MC just so happens to find a secret passageway in her new prison/room) but this is already long enough.
I want to be clear: I did not hate this book. There are far worse books and I could still see Rebecca Ross' writing I love so much within the pages, particularly in the atmosphere and world-building. Unfortunately, these aspects were overshadowed by all of the other things I hated.
Overall, while this was a quick and easy read, I would not recommend it and I (most likely) will not be carrying on with the series.
Within the past year, Rebecca Ross has become one of my favorite authors. I loved the Letters of Enchantment duology and adored the Elements of Cadence duology. After loving both of those so much, I decided to revisit this book - which I had originally dnf'd in 2019.
And my final thoughts are that I probably could have left it dnf'd and my life wouldn't have changed.
This is exactly what I thought it was when I started it a few years ago. Not only is it incredibly predictable and lacking any/all sense of mystery/magic, it also features one of the worst romances I have had the displeasure of encountering lately (which seems dramatic, because I haven't enjoyed most romances lately.)
The man is at least 8 years older than our 17 year old protagonist, which is already pretty funky, but! He has also known her since she was 10 and has been her teacher (referred to as master in this book) since she was 14. It is known that he has favored/loved her for the majority of this time. This is never questioned/condemned and every time I tried to forget their age gap, it was brought up. Again.
(I understand this book was inspired by history, but this was also a YA fantasy that did not need to pull on the historical accuracy of icky power dynamics in relationships.)
Beyond that, most of the book felt incredibly convenient or just simply stupid. I don't understand how any of this actually worked out in their favor, since they were all dumb as rocks. The villains - one dimensional and glorious as they were - were also incredibly stupid, gullible, and walking stereotypes so perhaps that's all the explanation required.
There are a lot of random things I could complain about with this book (such as the fact an evil character is conveniently killed by a dog or that the MC just so happens to find a secret passageway in her new prison/room) but this is already long enough.
I want to be clear: I did not hate this book. There are far worse books and I could still see Rebecca Ross' writing I love so much within the pages, particularly in the atmosphere and world-building. Unfortunately, these aspects were overshadowed by all of the other things I hated.
Overall, while this was a quick and easy read, I would not recommend it and I (most likely) will not be carrying on with the series.