Summer Queen (Fairy Queens, #4)

by Amber Argyle

The Winter Queen is coming.
And vengeance will be hers . . .

Determined to save her family from an invading army, Nelay hires a smuggler to attempt a rescue behind enemy lines. A smuggler with a penchant for legends and a touch that threatens to melt every hard edge Nelay has honed over the years.

But their is no safety from the Winter Queen's wrath.

If Nelay is to survive - if any of them are to survive - she must stop the Winter Queen. Even if that means she has to embrace the curse the fae gave her long ago. A curse that just might reduce her to ashes.

To rise from those ashes, first she must burn.

Can Nelay can stand between the cinders of her once-great nation and the vengeance of the Winter Queen? Will she save her family and the man who stole her heart? 

• ISBN10: 0985739479
• ISBN13: 9780985739478
• Publish Date: 13 April 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Starling Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[inlibrisveritas]

Summer Queen picks up two decades after the end of Winter Queen, and several years after Of Fire and Ash; centering around Nelay, a priestess of the Summer Goddess. I would say it is much better to read both Winter Queen and Of Fire and Ash before SQ, but it isn’t what I would call vital to your enjoyment and so it could serve as a standalone. However I feel that the pair of the novels (and novella) make for a wonderfully rich storytelling experience.

Nelay has grown quite a bit since the novella, she’s much more sure of herself and far more dangerous. This woman is a badass. She’s independent, smart, and capable of taking care of herself.Where as a lot of characters need development with their inner strength and facing danger, Nelay is the opposite. She slowly learns softness, what it means to love, and how to be truly selfless. However she stays strong minded, no matter what and for that I love and adore her in way I only reserve for my favorite strong female characters. She learns to love, but her heart doesn’t cloud her thinking…it doesn’t shut down those most vital of instincts that she’s honed over the years…if anything she becomes more deadly as she fights to keep what she deems hers. The whole host of characters alongside her is just as wonder and rich as she is, my favorites being Jezzel and Rycus. The banter that they share is just so perfect. I loved the juxtaposition of the two books in this series and what it offers in depth. In Winter Queen we learn about the clansmen, and they seemed like a pretty good people and the people to their south seemed harsh and unfeeling…but Summer Queen flips the tables and we learn that these characters are nearly the same. We see the differences in their ways of thing, their vibrantly and varied personalities, but at the core of it they are human and in that they share more than they know. But it’s not just on a grand scale we see this, we see this with characters in Nelay’s personal circle as well and I appreciated the complexity. And for those of you who have read Winter Queen, yes we do get to see Ilyenna again.

The actual story is beautiful. much like the cover. It’s a story of strength, and it shows that strength can be many things to the same person. The strength to defy rules, to love, to turn away, to help, to say goodbye, to say yes, to sacrifice willingly, to keep fighting in the face of death, etc. etc. However even with the story being so character focused we still get the beautiful world-building I’ve come to love and expect from Argyle. The desert seems so real I could feel the dry heat, I could easily see the abandoned mines and raided villages, and see the windstorms kick up the sand as they move across the land. Summer Queen has a lot of action as well, and towards the last 25% of the book the adrenaline barely takes a break. The life of those in the summer lands is one of harsh survival and strategic games, you fight against nature and you fight against others in order to make sure you maintain and keep your place.

In short, this book was beautiful and I finished it in one sitting. It’s a great series for those out there who enjoy fantasy but don’t feel up to a incredibly world building heavy book. It’s character driven and quickly paced, while still making time to paint a beautiful picture of the world around them. I can not wait for book three to come out!

[tweetybugshouse]

I really like how the author is really building this whole series. The first book we find all about the winter queen and the clansman and now in this second book we find out about nelay the priestess and how strong and cunning she is. She pulls off this amazing escape in the beginning to save her family and then when all hope is lost she strives off with new goals. I love the descrpitions of all the fairies she encounters. I can not wait to see where our amazing author is going to take us next in book 3.

[Kim Deister]

Summer Queen is the second full-length novel in Amber Argyle's Fairy Queens series. It takes place after Winter Queen and in a different part of the world, a part that seems to be based on Middle Eastern mythology. I am a huge fan of the author and this series, and this book, does not disappoint!

This book is focused on Nelay, an acolyte priestess in the temple of the Goddess of Fire. She has lived most of her life in the temple with her only goal to avoid ever being a wife and mother after seeing the pain her mother went through after loss after loss. She has trained as a priestess, a warrior, a tactician. She is smart and independent and yet still willing to risk it all to save a family that has essentially abandoned her.

There is so much more intrigue in this book than I had expected, with twists and turns. There are some battle scenes that are worth of a tactical military commander which I, as a former soldier, loved! While Nelay is the center of the story, there are a number of key players, all of whom are well-developed and who have their own stories. I loved that there were no clear lines between good and bad with the characters, each character, as in reality, having a bit of both as the situation requires.

The tie between the two novels in this series in not a direct one, which made it rather interesting. In Winter Queen, we meet the Clans and they were generally characterized in a postive light. In Summer Queen, the Clans are the enemy and portrayed in a much more savage light. It was interesting to see them in a totally different way and to have that new perspective.

My Recommendation: Such a great series, but Winter Queen should be read first!