The Queen of the Tearling: A Novel (The Queen of the Tearling, #1)

by Erika Johansen

Katherine Kellgren (Narrator)

'Like Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games meets Pulp Fiction' Daily Mail

Her throne awaits . . . if she can live long enough to take it.

Kelsea Glynn is the sole heir to the throne of Tearling but has been raised in secret after her mother - a monarch as vain as she was foolish - was murdered for ruining her kingdom.

For eighteen years, the Tearling has been ruled by Kelsea's uncle - Regent in name, but in truth the debauched puppet of the Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of neighbouring realm of Mortmesme. On Kelsea's nineteenth birthday, the tattered remnants of her mother's guard - each pledged to defend the queen to the death - arrive to bring this most un-regal young woman out of hiding...

And so begins her journey back to her kingdom's heart, to claim the throne, win the loyalty of her people, overturn her mother's legacy and redeem the Tearling from the forces of corruption and dark magic that are threatening to destroy it. But Kelsea's story is not just about her learning the true nature of her inheritance - it's about a heroine who must learn to acknowledge and live with the realities of coming of age in all its insecurities and attractions, alongside the ethical dilemmas of ruling justly and fairly while simply trying to stay alive...

• ISBN10: 0062332287
• ISBN13: 9780062332288
• Publish Date: 8 July 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperAudio
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (MP3)
• Duration: 14 hours and 30 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

This.....this one is hard to rate. I devoured it. I spent any time I had available at work to read. It was long, yet I was enamored. But, despite this, I also had many issues with it. This book is a contradiction to me. There were some things that really bothered me, yet I still read this greedily.
Full, confusing review to come.

I found the premise of the plot intriguing and the characters enjoyable. This is definitely a book that was intentionally written with a second book in mind, so there are questions and situations that have not been answered in the end. If you think you might like this book, be prepared to purchase the next one. If you think you might hate it, be glad that the torture has an intermittence.

Truthfully though, for 434 pages, I felt that it lacked action and development. Most of the "it's getting good" part was in the last few pages of the book, but overall it did hold my interest long enough to keep me turning the pages. I hope that the continuation picks up the pace a bit though. This first book felt slow in comparison to similar genre readings, but might be worth more stars later if the lag time was worth it. (Only the continuing book to follow will tell for certain.)


Overall, I enjoyed the book enough to probably search for the 2nd book after it's release, but it's not necessarily on my "I must have it now" shelf. I think it's one of those stories that will either be a sensational read after the next book, or a complete let down depending on what the following book reveals.

Disclaimer
*I received an uncorrected Advanced Readers Copy of this book in a First Reads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content disclosed in my review. *