Review: The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

Summary:

Lorelai 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.

Publication Date: February 16, 2016

Retellings are very easy to muck up completely and I was glad to see that The Shadow Queen didn’t fall into that trap. I liked the direction that Redwine went when retelling “Snow White” and I really found myself rooting for Lorelai.

The characters were all very likable, although I was pretty devastated by a death that I felt happened way too early. Lorelai was a good protagonist and I felt for her as she struggled between using her magic and risking that her magic would lead a trail straight to her and her family. Queen Irina was scary evil, but I appreciated the author giving her a back-story to make her less of a one-dimensional villain. Prince Kol won me over too. I wasn’t too sure about how I felt the whole half-dragon thing, but I was able to get into the romance early on between him and Lorelai.

The pace was mixed with the middle dragging a little more than I liked. It just seemed to take a really long time for Lorelai to make a move against Irina and I grew tired with the angst. There are a lot of high fantasy elements in this one, which normally isn’t my thing, so that could be a bit of why I grew bored as well.

The conclusion wrapped everything up nicely and I was pleased to find that it wasn’t a cliffhanger. I’d definitely check out the next book in the series to see how the author expands upon the world.   

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the novel for review!