Review: The Shadow Queen – C.J. Redwine

the shadow queenLorelai 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: 2/5

This isn’t necessarily a terrible book, I just cannot for the life of me recall much of what happened in it – which says it all, really.

It just seems that far too many of the YA fantasies I’ve been reading go the ‘lost orphaned princess must team up with unlikely ally to save her kingdom from teh evil’ trope – but don’t bring anything new to the table – and quite frankly, I’m bored.

The writing’s not bad, and there’s nothing objectionable in here – everybody’s very earnest and trying to do the right thing – apart from le evil step-mother slash aunt – but it’s just entirely forgettable. Also, there are a lot of elements thrown in here that aren’t fully explored – mentions of fey, the ogres, dragon-shifters and telepathic animals. Finally, if you’re going to do a retelling, then you can’t just literally retell the story – there has to be enough unique elements to make it worthwhile. And I don’t think The Shadow Queen managed to achieve that.

ARC received from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

On that note, I’m in the mother of all reading slumps. Possibly from all the mediocre literature I’ve been subjecting myself to. Ack!

12 thoughts on “Review: The Shadow Queen – C.J. Redwine

  1. Shoot, this sounded like a really interesting spin on Snow White, but then it clearly fell flat (and that was just by reading the synopsis) : ( Pity…the premise was awesome.

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    1. Yup -there are so many ways that traditional fairytales can be reinvented or subverted – but this one pretty much stuck to the formula – with a bit of magical abilities thrown in.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. I’m glad to see that I wasn’t the only one that felt this way about this book! I had such high hopes for it too, but just found myself skimming through it. I’m still on the lookout for a book which will completely blow me away, I hope we both can get out of our funks soon!

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    1. Ah, I am eagerly awaiting that special book which will blow my mind, because so far, 2016 has been pretty meh – especially in terms of YA – at least for me!

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  3. It’s too bad you didn’t like this one. That cover is enough to suck anyone in! I also find it frustrating when so many elements are added to a story only to be left unexplored. It’s almost like the writer didn’t know where they wanted to go, so they went everywhere. I wish they’d just choose a few plot points and go in depth with them.

    Great review!

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  4. Yeah, life’s too short to read a book I’ve seen at least half a dozen time before – and brings nothing new to the table. I will be sure to skip this one. Thanks for your honest review!

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    1. Yup yup yup – and we’re only two months into the year – I’m a little concerned at how many of these books are sounding exactly the same!

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