Jordon
Written on May 30, 2017
Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.
"Raising her gaze from the sight of her own blood, she caught her own amber gaze in the vanity mirror, 'Is this what it's like to be Queen?'"
Haven
Haven reminded me a lot of The Queen of the Tearling. Why? I honestly think it was because I felt the same sort of feeling and atmosphere, and I thoroughly enjoyed most of this book. I couldn't put it down, just like I couldn't put the above down.
Haven is a story about a princess that was never meant to be queen but has it thrust upon her when her whole family is killed in an act during war. Haven was no ordinary woman, she had this unusual
The very first chapter Haven is at her coronation, as soon as she is crowned an assassin shoots her through the heart with an arrow. She wakes up a minute later feeling fine. Haven's immortality is never really explained during the book, Haven simply does not know where she gets this ability from and no one else has the ability like her. I was a little confused on the rules of this ability: Did Haven ever age? It was suggested she wouldn't but I was unsure. If she did not age, at what age would her body stop aging? Was it simply she would age a lot slower than everyone else? Or maybe she would age but she would just never die. Clearly Haven wouldn't know because she is the only one in the world with this ability, but I wanted to know these answers to get a clear image of her future. Would she rule Rythern forever?
Haven was a fun character to read. She was very polite and proper to begin with, but as she learned how to handle each disaster thrown her way she became more and more fierce. She became a strong queen that wanted to fight for her people and fight for what was right. These qualities shined many times throughout this book. It was fun seeing Haven grow into such a strong woman.
Story
"She was not meant to be Queen."
The beginning of this book starts off slow with Haven acclimating to her new life as queen. This involved a lot of paperwork and not a lot of fun. This does not mean things did not happen however, there was a war happening within the 6 Kingdoms of Warshard. The Mad Queen of Dagan is slowly taking over the Kingdom's one Kingdom at a time. How? No one quite knows. There are whispers of soldiers that appear from the shadows then vanish after the fight.
The Kings of the 6 Kingdoms meet secretly in a cave well hidden, every so often and always in the middle of the night. At these meetings each King explains their Kingdom's situation in the war, and all heads come together to help solve the problems. While these meetings were interesting to read, I was very confused as to how each King made it to these meetings. Are Kingdom's not so far apart it would take weeks to get from one castle to the other? Yet here all the King's meet to discuss and come up with a war strategy every few weeks. How long did it take each King to travel to this cave? Haven usually left in the middle of the night and made it there in no time, so was the cave in Rythern? It was all a bit confusing to me. At one point Haven travels to Salander, the Kingdom closest to hers, and it takes her one and a half days at speed without breaks. Although it is mentioned usually it would take two and a half days.
Pacing
Once the war ramps up the story really starts to get interesting and fun. Haven is a bit of a boring character until this turning point. I was bored by her day to day activities, the story takes a good 35% to really start going. But as things start moving along I found myself glued to this book. I became invested in Haven and her Kingdom's people. Was she going to be able keep them all alive? Would the other Kingdoms survive?
I found it very hard to put Haven down after this point. Haven became fiery and passionate, she was no longer this sweet little girl. Well she was still sweet but she was no longer just a princess, she was a Queen. She put her people first, she genuinely intended on making sure everyone survived or as many people as she could look after. Since she could not die she would throw herself in front of swords for these people, those scenes were exciting. There was a lot of fighting and this really made the story interesting, even though you knew Haven could not die, you still worried about the other characters in this book.
"The clang of swords and shing of metal grew hollow. Haven could see the fight for what it was now: futile." ... "Darkness crept across her vision. "Run," she murmured. It was the last thing she said before she blacked out."
The Women
The theme for Haven was strong, independent women.
The Mad Queen. The Immortal Queen. The Guard Ladies. All women. All bad-ass. All incredibly intelligent, resilient, brave, and strong.
I loved this aspect. These women literally did not need a man to protect them or to conquer for them. They went out and did that themselves, albeit in different ways. The Mad Queen takes over a Kingdom, then one by one takes over them all. How freaking amazing is that? I mean also super twisted and evil buuuut, you know. The Immortal Queen is determined on keeping as many people alive and winning this war. The guard ladies protect and serve their Lady Queen and would never let someone get in the way of that. All strong women.
The Kings in this book were all stubborn and brash. Their Kingdoms fell one by one, as they fled further away from their homeland, only Haven was prepared enough to give up everything so she could keep everyone else she cared about alive. Most of the males in this story were no match for their female counterparts, yet they respected the women, they respected Haven as Queen and listened to her ideas seriously.
That was refreshing. King's listening to a new, young, less experienced Queen? Yes, yes, and yes.
Romance
I love a good story that doesn't need romance. Haven is full of war, strategy and politics. So you would think their is no place for romance here. And you're right, there is no 'romance' per se. There is no 'wooing', there is no 'courting', Haven does not swoon after a man, and nor is she looking for one. But love does seep its way into the story; you don't expect it, you don't see it coming, it's suddenly there. Romance is not the objective of this story, but it sure does make it more enticing. Oh but how I enjoyed that.
The story got exciting when the romance was factored into the story, I was suddenly even more interested to see where this lead Haven.
"Corrin looked at her in a way she wasn't familiar with. His eyes smouldered in the light of the fire, flickering flames reflecting across his irises. Everything about him was unfamiliar, and though she didn't sense anything dangerous about him, she couldn't help be wary."
Overall
Haven is a spectacular novel with bad-ass women winning the world, political intrigue, and a bit of romance to tie it all up.
If you love reading independent women, Kingdom's fighting for their lives, and a bit of a magic I highly recommend this.
This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift