The Queen's Assassin

Meh. Pacing was weird, twist was lackluster.

Spoiler Free + Spoiler Review now up!

Initial Thoughts: Despite my rating I don't think this is a terrible book. I know I would have enjoyed this as a young teen, unfortunately as I've grown I've become more of a critical reader and this had too many issues to ignore. Regardless, it has potential as a series if the issues with characterisation and cheesy plot lines are fixed, and if the world building is improved.

Changed my rating to one star after realising I couldn't find anything positive to write about in my reviews

Spoiler-Free Review:

Damn, what a disappointment.

The story focuses on Shadow and Cal, one a young girl hoping to train and join the Guild, the other the Queen's deadliest assassin. A surprise attack brings the two together and they team up to try and uncover a new threat and plot that could tear their country apart,

This book is nothing other than forgettable, the plot and the characters alike lack development and progression and the world building isn't fantastic. I'm not even sure I could tell you what the plot was, so don't worry there's definitely no spoilers in this review.

Despite being forgettable both of the main characters are irritable in their own ways, and somehow managed to frustrate me despite the fact both of them have very little discernable traits. And there's not much to say about the minor characters in this book as they were all flat and very one dimensional.

The romance is was forced and unnecessary and forced. I want to say it didn't anything to the narrative, but honestly if it hadn't been there I don't know what this book would have been about. And that's this books biggest flaw: there's no plot progression, and all the time is spent on a romance that makes little sense.

Also, I find the writing to be extremely lazy and it was clear some things and plot points were only added for convenience or because the author had written themselves into a corner.

Honestly this book borrows tropes and concepts we're tired of seeing in YA fantasies and runs them into the ground, it's frustrating and boring and there's not many good things I have to say about it. You're better off avoiding this one for sure.

Spoiler Review:

God, I don't really know how to summarise this review without being exceedingly harsh.

Shadow, babe, you need to stop.

Shadow is somehow one of the most annyoning yet boring characters I've read about in a while. She clearly was written with the only positive character trait being ‘badass', and PSA to all YA authors: that's not a character trait! . Beyond that Shadow is just annoying, she is clearly entitled and lacks respect for anyone else. She navigates life be believing her judgements and way of thinking is correct and everyone else wrong, and the author never challenges her on that so she never grows!

Cal really is no better, he lacks any kind of personality. His only character trait is talking poorly about women and then trying to convince himself he's not attracted to Shadow - that's it! And I'm kinda over the ‘I hate all women expect you' romance trope. Honestly, if I was a younger YA reader I would probably melt over how ‘mysterious' he is, but truly he's just bland, unseasoned, there's no flavour there.

Their romance therefore doesn't really work, as there can't be a romance if you don't really have characters - and they're not characters, they're just figures with names. The romance was forced and rushed, and honestly with the little we did know about them they clearly didn't suit each other - they would have been far better in a platonic relationship.

However, somehow the author managed to build a book exclusively off of this relationship because there was really nothing else going on. I don't remember what the plot was, and the points I do remember are underwhelming as they were plot twists I saw coming from about page 20. The plot suffered from the same problem everything else did: it was underdeveloped and therefore forgettable.

As well as this, they were massive problems with the writing I can't ignore. If De La Cruz was a debut author I be far more forgive with these issues, but she has experience and really should know better. We were told everything rather than shown it and a lot of concepts and plot points were added for convenience, or because De La Cruz had obviously written herself into a corner and didn't know how to escape it.

Honestly it's a shame, because this book did have potential and it could have been a solid YA fantasy, but instead everything lacked progression and development and turned this into a really underwhelming read.

Full review: https://moonlitbooks.home.blog/2020/05/01/thequeensassassinreview/