Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but she's, in fact, one of Quadara's most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara's most enlightened region, Eonia. He runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie both find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara's queens dead.
With no other choices and on the run from Keralie's former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavoring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation's four dead queens.
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Netgalley has a free preview available to read, so I gave it a go.
I'm pleasantly surprised. Four Dead Queens isn't set in a stereotypical medieval European-inspired fantasy world. Its medicine and technology are advanced, but only in certain regions. The balance between the traditional fantasy-medieval regions and the more dystopian-esque technologically and medically savvy regions is intriguing. Astrid Scholte seems to capture the best of both worlds in only one world, creating this fantasy-dystopia mash-up that, unlike Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen series, so far holds up.
The writing seems a little on-the-nose at times, but the pacing and prose are good, even if there is info-dumping. I like Keralie as a character, though I do think Varin outshines her so far. Keralie seems a little too stereotypically "badass female character," whereas Varin isn't the swaggering, cocky male character YA tends to favor, automatically making him a more interesting character to me.
Overall, this preview surprised me and enticed me to pick up the novel upon release.
I'm pleasantly surprised. Four Dead Queens isn't set in a stereotypical medieval European-inspired fantasy world. Its medicine and technology are advanced, but only in certain regions. The balance between the traditional fantasy-medieval regions and the more dystopian-esque technologically and medically savvy regions is intriguing. Astrid Scholte seems to capture the best of both worlds in only one world, creating this fantasy-dystopia mash-up that, unlike Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen series, so far holds up.
The writing seems a little on-the-nose at times, but the pacing and prose are good, even if there is info-dumping. I like Keralie as a character, though I do think Varin outshines her so far. Keralie seems a little too stereotypically "badass female character," whereas Varin isn't the swaggering, cocky male character YA tends to favor, automatically making him a more interesting character to me.
Overall, this preview surprised me and enticed me to pick up the novel upon release.
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