Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Book Review: The Shadow Queen by C. J. Redwine

My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Author: C. J. Redwine
Genre: YA Retelling
Published: 2016

My two favorite books to read are Fantasy and retellings. Retellings hold a special place in my heart and when I find a good one I'm ecstatic. Retellings can be hard because, of course, they are a story based on another story. Sometimes the author can follow to closely and you know exactly where that story is headed. C. J. Redwine did a superb job with The Shadow Queen.

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.


Our main character, Lorelai (I love that name btw), is a fierce girl determined to get her kingdom back. After the death of her father shes on the run with an exiled guard and her brother. I love lead females who are strong but don't come off as to much. Which in my opinion can be hard. We don't need a guy to save us but we also don't need to be the one saving the guy or worse scorning the whole male population simply because they are male. Lorelai was the perfect combination. She was strong and determined but also vulnerable and willing to accept help when she needed it. 

I Loved the magic in this book. In books we sometimes run into the same story line, or the same old trick but this book had a fresh feel to it. There was such a solid build. We had kingdoms, and history, and different types of magic for each one (I had so much fun with the map included in the book). Dark and light magic. Earth magic as well as air and earth. Shapeshifters and giant serpents. There was just so much this book had to give! But sometimes this became a little much. There were a few times whilst reading when I'd get overwhelmed with all the information, but it wasn't enough to make me stop reading. 

This story is based on Snow White. You can see similarities throughout the story but I think the author did a good job of putting her own twist on it. Of course we had our evil queen, runaway princess, and a huntsman. But our huntsman was a prince with the weight of an endangered kingdom on his shoulders. Our Queen was a lonely woman with a greedy heart. And our Princess was a grieving, magic wielding heir to a throne. All kinds of new things came in to play with this story and I had so much fun seeing what would come next.

The ending of this story gave me so many feels. It just made me so happy. Just happy tears you guys.

If you enjoy retellings, magic wielding girls, and dragons then I recommend this story to you. At times it may be a little slow and overwhelming but its definitely worth it.




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