Title: The Fire Queen
Author: Emily R. King
Type: Fiction
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Imprint: Skyscape
Publisher: Amazon Publishing
Date published: September 26, 2017
Page Count: 286
Source: Publisher

A physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

In the second book in The Hundredth Queen Series, Emily R. King once again follows a young warrior queen’s rise to meet her destiny in a richly imagined world of sorcery and forbidden powers.

Though the tyrant rajah she was forced to marry is dead, Kalinda’s troubles are far from over. A warlord has invaded the imperial city, and now she’s in exile. But she isn’t alone. Kalinda has the allegiance of Captain Deven Naik, her guard and beloved, imprisoned for treason and stripped of command. With the empire at war, their best hope is to find Prince Ashwin, the rajah’s son, who has promised Deven’s freedom on one condition: that Kalinda will fight and defeat three formidable opponents.

But as Kalinda’s tournament strengths are once again challenged, so too is her relationship with Deven. While Deven fears her powers, Ashwin reveres them—as well as the courageous woman who wields them. Kalinda comes to regard Ashwin as the only man who can repair a warring world and finds herself torn between her allegiance to Deven and a newly found respect for the young prince.

With both the responsibility to protect her people and the fate of those she loves weighing heavily upon her, Kalinda is forced again to compete. She must test the limits of her fire powers and her hard-won wisdom. But will that be enough to unite the empire without sacrificing all she holds dear?

– MY REVIEW –

The Fire Queen is the second book in a series called The Hundredth Queen series, and you can read my review for the first book here. The thing that really attracted me to both of these books respectively was their covers. They are colourful, the first being an eye-catching red, and the second being a lush purple…and it was also the fact that the character pictured on the covers (probably Kalinda, the main character) is wearing a saree, and has henna on her hands! Considering the fact that I had never seen books with covers like these before, I felt really drawn to the series before I even read the first word.

I also found it a little funny that I was sent an ARC of The Fire Queen as a surprise (a.k.a. I requested it, but had no idea it was being sent to me!), and that it arrived while I was away at a Bengali wedding, and wearing a saree myself! I wish I could have taken a photo of myself holding the book while wearing the saree, and though that sadly didn’t happen, I was able to take photos with the book while I still had the wedding mehndi (henna) on my hand when I got home the next day!

I really enjoyed the world building, and the general introduction of the world and characters of The Hundredth Queen series in the first book. The second book in the series, The Fire Queen, however is more focused on advancing the plot, which I really appreciated too. I missed some of the descriptions which were found in the first book, that helped me to picture the palace and other settings, in the second book, but am also glad that the plot was not sacrificed, or the book made longer due to the addition of descriptions. The plot, like in book one, remained easy to follow, just as King’s writing remained easy to read!

I also wanted to note that although the second book picks up where the first one left off, I had some difficulty getting back into the story at first (or maybe it was just a bit slow for me?). But that could be due to how my having read the first book in June, and also having had a lot of work-related things to do. So, the start of this book might not be slow for everyone, but just keep in mind that if you’re having a bit of a hard time getting into it, you should not give up, because the excitement that comes after is well worth the wait! I kind of flew through the rest of the book in one sitting after I hit a certain part of the story.

Another change in the second book from the first book is that we no longer get just Kalinda’s first person perspective, but also Captain Deven Naik’s. I found this change to be quite interesting, and was intrigued to see what was going on in his mind as well. I think that due to how the plot is laid out, it was a very good idea to change the format in this manner. That being said, I did not enjoy Deven’s character quite as much in this book as in The Hundredth Queen, but that does not mean that I disliked his character in any way! I just didn’t like him as much as I did before. His character also did develop throughout The Fire Queen, and I look forward to seeing how I feel about him in the third book (coming out in February 2018).

I recommend this book to those who have read the first book, since it was very interesting to see how the plot progressed and will lead into book three. And I also recommend the series as a whole to those who enjoy fantasy with a hint of romance, in a setting quite dissimilar to the high fantasy books we are normally used to!

– ABOUT THE AUTHOR –

Emily R. King is a reader of everything and a writer of fantasy. Born in Canada and raised in the USA, she has perfected the use of “eh” and “y’all” and uses both interchangeably. Shark advocate, consumer of gummy bears, and islander at heart, Emily’s greatest interests are her four children. She’s a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and an active participant in her local writers’ community. She lives in Northern Utah with her family and their cantankerous cat.

– PURCHASE LINKS –

THANK YOU FOR READING MY REVIEW! HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT DID YOU THINK? AND IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET, DO YOU WANT TO, OR NOT? HOW COME? LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!