{Review} The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire #1) by C.J. Redwine

Posted by Donna
Release Date: February 16, 2016
Finished Date: January 9th, 2017

Publishers: Balzar & Bray
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Re-telling
Source: For Review
Format: eBook

Pages: 405
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo 

 

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.

The Review: I first read this book last year but for some reason I just couldn’t connect to the story or characters and so I ended up skim reading it and rating it two stars. But since then I’ve never forgotten about this book and whenever I thought of it I always felt like I didn’t give it enough of a chance so I decided to try again from the start and you know what? I’m so glad I did because I thoroughly enjoyed it the second time around. 

The Shadow Queen is a re-telling of one of my most loved fairy tales Snow White. I’ve read the author’s work previously so I knew she is a good story teller so of course I was excited to see what she’d do with this story and I was really surprised by how good it was. There are actually only a few similar traits to the original story but otherwise the author made this story her own and bought something new to the readers. It’s a story dark and quiet twisted story about betrayal, magic, love, loss and revenge all tied up in a fantasy world full of dragons, witches and poisonous apples that pop from people’s mouths. 

Loreali was a fantastic character and definitely one that you can root for and admire. She’s a teenage girl who has lost so much in just her short time but if anything it makes her stronger. She doesn’t wallow in it, she uses that grief to achieve the results she wants and no matter how many time she gets set back she continues to push through. I loved that about her. She’s a strong character and YA stories definitely need more character like her. 

For me the gem of this story was the twist on The Huntman’s story. Having the Huntman from a neighboring kingdom but one who is also a Draconi which basically another word for Dragon. So Kol is a Dragon Huntsman – it definitely added for the entertainment in this story. I adored Kol. I loved how loyal he was but I also loved that he wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes and is willing to admit to it. 

The romance between Loreali and Kol is a slow burning one but once you spot straight away. I was a fan from the start. Enough said! 

In all, The Shadow Queen is a really enjoyable dark retelling with a twist – perfect for any YA fantasy fans! 

Thank you to Balzar & Bray for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.