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A review by allieryanreads
The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout
3.0
Definitely read A Shadow In the Ember first for a better reading experience! There are a TON of references and context necessary to fully understand everything in The War of Two Queens.
This one was like the previous book, where it felt like it needed another round of editing and the story definitely could have been parsed down and tightened. I do think the story was tighter than book 3, and would place this in 3.5 territory. I’m keep the star rating as a 3 though for the below reason:
I feel like I had to address one major thing: blurred consent. Previous books of the series have played the line of blurred consent and this came up again here.
Spoilers incoming for the rest of the review. As a caveat to my thoughts, I know I’m processing this all with a modern lens, and that there can be different rules applying to fantasy worlds (like the wolven have a different view on nudity than say an American). Even so, we have to acknowledge how things come across to a modern reader.
Poppy’s and Kieran’s feelings shift and as such their dynamic changes during this book. I admittedly thought it likely that Kieran would fall for Poppy and there were definite hints in previous books (I had hoped not since I wanted him to have a character arc outside of Poppy and Cas). What I hadn’t considered was the development of romantic type feelings to come from Poppy at the time that they did. We had references to her finding him attractive before, but here in this book, Kieran and Poppy’s relationship primarily develops during the time Cas is imprisoned.
Sleeping and cuddling/comforting while naked (on Kieran’s part, in both human (comforting) and wolven (sleeping) form) is crossing the line past what is considered platonic. Poppy also thinks several times of Kieran in a sexual way. They have banter that if it was a romantic coded relationship, would have been considered flirting. They start acting differently enough that Tawny, after spending just a few brief moments with the pair, even asks Poppy why Kieran is acting like her husband.
The feeding scene between Poppy and Kieran skirted the line of what would be considered appropriate—an act that both knew could lead to sexual activity, and while knowing Poppy could sense his thoughts, Kieran purposely thinks of Poppy and Cas together (doing sexy things) to shock and seemingly to arouse her. He realizes that such a thing “intrigues” her. Poppy then shoves down the emotions in the moment, but still they sleep next to each other as they have been. This just crosses the line of platonic. Poppy needed to feed, but it became something more intimate than it should have under the circumstances, even if they cut it off from going further.
Kieran even does the same thing again the next time he’s helping Poppy with her feeding, with Cas in the room. It’s just the lack of communication to either Poppy or Cas in the moment that bothers me.
I’m honestly fine if the three become a poly relationship (which honestly isn’t clear at this point, they need to talk it out). The problem I have is that Kieran and Poppy’s relationship developed while Cas was imprisoned and in no position to be able to give consent. Even if Cas is ultimately fine with it, as implied in previous books, the timing was not. Once Cas was liberated, it’s like that second feeding scene I mentioned above, Cas didn’t seem to mind that Kieran thought something “inappropriate” but consent just was never given aloud.
Later when Cas and Poppy are discussing the joining, Cas brings up that he thinks that Poppy loves Kieran and she just kind of hedges and says it’s complicated. That’s the first time, consent even comes remotely to being discussed, and even then it’s never explicitly stated. In fact Cas just reemphasizes that the joining doesn’t have to be sexual, and he gets that it takes a bit to figure out what’s going on with emotions/relationships. Even if there was just one line in there saying “hey Poppy it’s okay if you do” have feelings, I would be immensely more comfortable with the dynamic. Since that would have cleared the air, but unfortunately we didn’t get that.
A lot of …whatever Kieran and Poppy are feeling is undefined, and I think that makes it difficult. Even when they were talking with each other before the joining, neither would put it into clear words, just that it was something more than friendship and it wasn’t familial. This was just compounded after the joining where the three never discuss how the joining impacted the feelings within their relationship and towards each other. Cas and Poppy talk how they are doing individually, but never bring up the shift with Kieran’s relationship. So right now, we don’t know if they’re going to be a poly relationship, if things are just going to be weird, or the focus will be solely Poppy/Cas.
Kieran deserves to have his own identity outside of the Poppy/Cas dynamic—his own character arc. Perhaps bringing in his own heart mate into their joining group (as mentioned is possible) might fix things, but that’s definitely not a guarantee. After all Poppy and Cas are “two hearts, one soul” and apparently now Kieran. It’s overly messy and the characters have not talked about what any of this means for them. The next book really should have the characters address it.
Also a minor gripe I had narrative wise is just that Poppy and Cas have sex after he was rescued before they cleaned off all of the blood and grime… that’s just asking for a UTI.
Even after all of this, I’m planning to continue with the series, especially the sequel to Shadow in the Ember. I did enjoy things overall, even if this was my lowest rated book of the series/prequels so far.
And please, never attack an author if you just didn’t like a book. Doing so, you’re attacking a real person, and ultimately most books are just figments off the imagination that you were invited to meet. JLA does not deserve threats just because you didn’t like how the relationships or the plot developed. Respect her and yourself better than that.
Content warnings:
-death/executions
-violence/war conditions
-imprisonment
-torture
-many descriptions of blood (injuries and in the context of vampire-like feeding)
-child death/child abuse
-sexual content
This one was like the previous book, where it felt like it needed another round of editing and the story definitely could have been parsed down and tightened. I do think the story was tighter than book 3, and would place this in 3.5 territory. I’m keep the star rating as a 3 though for the below reason:
I feel like I had to address one major thing: blurred consent. Previous books of the series have played the line of blurred consent and this came up again here.
Spoilers incoming for the rest of the review. As a caveat to my thoughts, I know I’m processing this all with a modern lens, and that there can be different rules applying to fantasy worlds (like the wolven have a different view on nudity than say an American). Even so, we have to acknowledge how things come across to a modern reader.
Poppy’s and Kieran’s feelings shift and as such their dynamic changes during this book. I admittedly thought it likely that Kieran would fall for Poppy and there were definite hints in previous books (I had hoped not since I wanted him to have a character arc outside of Poppy and Cas). What I hadn’t considered was the development of romantic type feelings to come from Poppy at the time that they did. We had references to her finding him attractive before, but here in this book, Kieran and Poppy’s relationship primarily develops during the time Cas is imprisoned.
Sleeping and cuddling/comforting while naked (on Kieran’s part, in both human (comforting) and wolven (sleeping) form) is crossing the line past what is considered platonic. Poppy also thinks several times of Kieran in a sexual way. They have banter that if it was a romantic coded relationship, would have been considered flirting. They start acting differently enough that Tawny, after spending just a few brief moments with the pair, even asks Poppy why Kieran is acting like her husband.
The feeding scene between Poppy and Kieran skirted the line of what would be considered appropriate—an act that both knew could lead to sexual activity, and while knowing Poppy could sense his thoughts, Kieran purposely thinks of Poppy and Cas together (doing sexy things) to shock and seemingly to arouse her. He realizes that such a thing “intrigues” her. Poppy then shoves down the emotions in the moment, but still they sleep next to each other as they have been. This just crosses the line of platonic. Poppy needed to feed, but it became something more intimate than it should have under the circumstances, even if they cut it off from going further.
Kieran even does the same thing again the next time he’s helping Poppy with her feeding, with Cas in the room. It’s just the lack of communication to either Poppy or Cas in the moment that bothers me.
I’m honestly fine if the three become a poly relationship (which honestly isn’t clear at this point, they need to talk it out). The problem I have is that Kieran and Poppy’s relationship developed while Cas was imprisoned and in no position to be able to give consent. Even if Cas is ultimately fine with it, as implied in previous books, the timing was not. Once Cas was liberated, it’s like that second feeding scene I mentioned above, Cas didn’t seem to mind that Kieran thought something “inappropriate” but consent just was never given aloud.
Later when Cas and Poppy are discussing the joining, Cas brings up that he thinks that Poppy loves Kieran and she just kind of hedges and says it’s complicated. That’s the first time, consent even comes remotely to being discussed, and even then it’s never explicitly stated. In fact Cas just reemphasizes that the joining doesn’t have to be sexual, and he gets that it takes a bit to figure out what’s going on with emotions/relationships. Even if there was just one line in there saying “hey Poppy it’s okay if you do” have feelings, I would be immensely more comfortable with the dynamic. Since that would have cleared the air, but unfortunately we didn’t get that.
A lot of …whatever Kieran and Poppy are feeling is undefined, and I think that makes it difficult. Even when they were talking with each other before the joining, neither would put it into clear words, just that it was something more than friendship and it wasn’t familial. This was just compounded after the joining where the three never discuss how the joining impacted the feelings within their relationship and towards each other. Cas and Poppy talk how they are doing individually, but never bring up the shift with Kieran’s relationship. So right now, we don’t know if they’re going to be a poly relationship, if things are just going to be weird, or the focus will be solely Poppy/Cas.
Kieran deserves to have his own identity outside of the Poppy/Cas dynamic—his own character arc. Perhaps bringing in his own heart mate into their joining group (as mentioned is possible) might fix things, but that’s definitely not a guarantee. After all Poppy and Cas are “two hearts, one soul” and apparently now Kieran. It’s overly messy and the characters have not talked about what any of this means for them. The next book really should have the characters address it.
Also a minor gripe I had narrative wise is just that Poppy and Cas have sex after he was rescued before they cleaned off all of the blood and grime… that’s just asking for a UTI.
Even after all of this, I’m planning to continue with the series, especially the sequel to Shadow in the Ember. I did enjoy things overall, even if this was my lowest rated book of the series/prequels so far.
And please, never attack an author if you just didn’t like a book. Doing so, you’re attacking a real person, and ultimately most books are just figments off the imagination that you were invited to meet. JLA does not deserve threats just because you didn’t like how the relationships or the plot developed. Respect her and yourself better than that.
Content warnings:
-death/executions
-violence/war conditions
-imprisonment
-torture
-many descriptions of blood (injuries and in the context of vampire-like feeding)
-child death/child abuse
-sexual content