Author: Claire Legrand

Synopsis:

The stunningly original, must-read fantasy of 2018 follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world...or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed...unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable--until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world--and of each other.

Review:

Welcome to my first review of the blog–the second and best book I’ve read so far this year! You’ll find that my reviews usually feature a lot of fangirling, capital letters, and all of my favorite quotes. I try to be as coherent as possible but when you find a book that you’re really passionate about, that can be hard sometimes. So without further ado, here it is, hope you enjoy!

OMGGGGGGGGG. This book. So far my 2018 read list, though only five books deep, has thoroughly impressed me. BUT THIS ONE ESPECIALLY!!!!!!!!!! As I mentioned above, you know that I generally like to add my favorite quotes from the book. Sometimes I find that even in a book with AMAZING writing, I will become so caught up in the story that I get to the end only to realize that I have highlighted nothing. That was the case here and it bummed me out super hard…guess I’ll just have to re-read it again soon to come up with some.

The basis for this story is a prophecy that has been told about a coming Blood Queen and Sun Queen. We learn right away in a crazy prologue that one of the main characters, Rielle, is the Blood Queen while her daughter will be the Sun Queen. You don’t see this super often in books but starting the book off knowing what Rielle’s fate was going to be along with still having 100 different questions about how things went to crap so fast had me on the edge of my seat for the entire book. So yes, like I said, we find out right away what role each has/will play and we also see the young princess being taken away to a safe place by a young boy named Simon while Rielle dies in her attempt to buy them enough time to escape *end scene*.

The rest of the book is told from the perspectives of Rielle, pre-Blood Queen and of her daughter Eliana, future Fire Queen (who we find out actually was thrown into the future a few hundred years during her jump with Simon as a baby). After an ambush on the prince, Rielle exposes the immense power that she and her father have tried to keep hidden the first half of her life and is then required to go through a series of trials to prove she is in control and could fit the role of Sun Queen as the prophecy has predicted (see I told you it’s interesting knowing ahead of time that that WON’T be how things play out…). Hundreds of years after the fact we follow her daughter, Eliana, who is basically a hired assassin for the Empire and knows nothing of her royal heritage. She may or may not eventually join up with some rebels and she may or may not end up finding a certain time traveling man again.

I don’t want to spoil anything else, just know that the book is chock-full of adventure, gruesome death, a dash of romance in both times, AND A LOT OF MAGIC AND SUSPENSE. I personally enjoyed reading about Eliana’s journey more because I was interested to see why the world ended up becoming how it was between her mother’s death and the present. I also wasn’t a huge fan of just how powerful Rielle was and the attitude that ensued because of that power. Though I was a HUGE fan of the forbidden romance between Rielle and a certain prince. Yum. I need to know how he dies though (not a spoiler, in the prologue). There also a great cast of supporting characters, LOVED Remy and Lu and basically everyone else that was introduced. Hated the villain with a passion, though I’ve seen some people liken him the Darkling—he seemed way slimier than that to me, *shrugs*.

The only warning I will give is that there is no major blow up at the end of this book so don’t be expecting one—which I was fine with. As I said, the entire book was so fast paced and intense, I was glad that the ending more or less was a gradual set up for more bat-shit craziness to ensue in the next book. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

*ARC kindly provided by SOURCEBOOKS Fire via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review* ♥