Four Dead Queens

DNF after 100 pages.

was going to be a 5 star if the main chara actually did get hanged. i love bad ending books and there aint enough of em. honestly the ending was so.... lucky lol

** 3.5**
I have mixed feelings about this book the more I think about.

The world building and shifting points of view were very fascinating, but I feel it was missing continuing development. I particularly enjoyed the queens stories, and wished there was more focus on them and their backgrounds. All the queens held secrets, but they weren't all revealed, so while some of this shifting of the politics at the end make sense to the reader, it feels flat coming from characters who didn't experience the same journey and same shifting perspectives the reader did.

The murder-mystery aspect definitely kept me drawn in and wanting more, however it unraveled very quick and felt slightly unsatisfying of an end to the story. Also, I love a good romance, but given how different they were in personality, it did feel rushed.

WARNINGS FOR THOSE WANTING TO READ
-I appreciate when queer characters are included in a book, but lament at how often they fall into the bury your gays trope. This book does that.
- There's a theme of denouncing this attainment for perfection (genetic perfection), but it doesn't quite ring true at the end, and falls flat of calling out the idea of having to fit in a perfect cookie cutter mold at the end. I understand that can be triggering and feels triggering to me as someone who carries her own invisible medical labels and is looked at something to erase/improve in order to be as worthy as others.

Regardless, this was an entertaining reading and definitely kept me engaging as I went through this journey.

Ondanks dat dit een alleenstaand fantasy boek is, werd toch een verbazingwekkend ambitieuze wereld opgebouwd. En met verve, want de schrijfster wist mij met weinig woorden toch helemaal mee te nemen in de verschillende culturen en personages. Echt heel goed opgebouwd en spannende unieke verhaallijn, die misschien iets te snel werd afgerond, maar toch heel goed steek hield en naar een bevredigende conclusie werkte.
Ik zou dit boek aanraden aan mysterie/thriller lezers die graag eens zouden proeven van een fantasy setting.

Really nice book and totally unexpected plot-twist, I absolutely loved that! This book is full of betrayals, action, unexpected things happening, passion and everything you want!

I really liked the concept of this book, but I felt like it fell apart a bit in the execution. The murder plot builds up some decent tension but the revelation partway through that things weren't being told in chronological order kind of killed the suspense. The characters were okay (though there were way too many viewpoint characters and the antagonist was ridiculous) but the romance was so embarrassing, and the plot twists near the end kind of strained credulity, even for a science fantasy setting.

This book was way too boring for me. I just couldn't get into the characters. Unfortunately, this is another book going into my dnf pile. Sad!

Holy cow. This is her debut! I absolutely love her style, word play, storyline, all of it. Very quick and enjoyable read. Cannot wait for her next one. ❤️

Loved it! I was drawn in by the separate stories and then how the author brought them all together. Absolutely fantastic story!!

Book 4 complete for O.W.L.'s 2019 Transfiguration - Red cover

Initial Thoughts: I did not know anything going into this book other than that I got it in my Owlcrate and people had mixed feelings about it. This book is kind of slow to start, but I really enjoyed the switching between Keralie and the queen's POVs. I also have to say I really enjoyed all the twists and turns. I never knew what to expect and there were many times I assumed one thing would happen and something completely different would happen. I love when a book is able to surprise me and also keep me in suspense. I think a huge part of my enjoyment of this book was the writing style. I really enjoyed how Astrid showed us things and developed the characters. I cannot wait to read more from them and see what they release next. I definitely will be buying more of what they write!