Four Dead Queens Review
Keralie Corrington looks like an average girl, but she is really one of the most skilled thieves and liar. Varin is her opposite; he is honest and a top notch citizen of Eonia, a region of Quadara. Their paths intertwine when Keralie steals a package Varin is meant to deliver. Under threat of death because of Keralie's actions, Varin attempts to retrieve the stolen goods. Both end up entangled in a criminal plan that results in Quadara's four queens dying. In order to save both their lives, Keralie and Varin must team up. As they spend more time together, though, their forced acquaintanceship starts to turn into a romance. In order to be together and stay alive, they must solve the murder mystery of the queens.
Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Let's begin:
I'll start out with the more negative part of this review just to get that out of the way. I didn't feel the romance. Varin and Keralie had their more cute moments where I thought Ok, I can see how this can be a slow burn into a strong romance later on. However, I did not feel the slow burn in the end. It felt like the romance was too rushed all of a sudden. It started out slow and steady and I was liking it, but then it seemed like the author wanted to start wrapping up so the romance started getting rushed along. Their relationship is a pretty big part of the novel and storyline, so for me to not get into it did impact the book overall in a bigger way.
That was really my only complaint with the book though. I really enjoyed Keralie and Mackiel's characters. They were very fun and intriguing in a cunning sort of way. I loved all of the layers to Keralie and how she is unashamed of things people normally would be afraid to embrace about themselves. Her character development and growth was done nicely. I also like all of the queens. They were all very different, but I liked seeing the deeper parts of them that were more similar than any of them realized.
I greatly enjoyed not seeing what was going to happen. I thought that I knew one of the more major plot twists of the many that occur, but apparently, I was way off. I've never been more happy to be wrong though. The twists were smart and I liked their development and how they were explained after they happened. The plot in general was very good.
I appreciated the thought that went into the book. I definitely got the feeling that the author spent a lot of time planning and making sure everything made sense. This is so important with murder mysteries and the book did not let me down in this aspect. Everything from what I saw made sense and worked out logically. I did not see any of it coming, but reflecting back, I can see how the scheme would have occurred. It was quite brilliant the way everything worked out and was written.
The society and world of the book were very interesting. I don't think Quadara is a place I would want to live, but I liked reading about it. It was a very unique world and its systems were fascinating. I especially liked learning about Eonia even though I do not like how that region actually functions and some of the things that the citizens there are forced to endure. I liked how the world was introduced, laid out, and explained. I got a good understanding of how everything worked and, I think, felt the appropriate emotions because of that.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and thought it was very clever. There were a bunch of twists that I did not see coming, but loved, and everything logically made sense once it was revealed. The characters were interesting and developed nicely. The world building was good and intriguing. I wish that I was able to feel the romance a bit more, but that is my only complaint.
Rating: 4/5 stars (-1 for romance)
Author: Astrid Scholte
# of Pages: 413
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Murder Mystery
Series: Standalone
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