Keralie Corrington is a talented pickpocket in the kingdom of Quadara. She steals under the guidance of her mentor Mackiel, who runs a black market selling their bounty to buyers desperate for what they can’t get in their own quadrant. For Quadara is a nation divided into four regions, each strictly separated from the other. Toria, the intellectual quadrant values education and ambition. Ludia, the pleasure quadrant values celebration and passion. Archia, the agricultural quadrant, values simplicity and nature. Eonia, the futurist quadrant values technology, stoicism and harmonious community. Four queens, one from each quadrant, rule as one.
When on Mackiel’s orders Keralie steals a particularly valuable item from a messenger, what seems like a routine theft goes horribly wrong. Keralie discovers she’s intercepted instructions to murder the queens. Hoping that discovering the intended recipient will reveal the culprit—valuable information that she can barter with—Keralie teams up with Varin Bollt, the messenger she stole from, to complete his delivery and uncover the would-be murderer. But with Keralie and Varin each keeping secrets—and the lives of the queens hanging in the balance—everything is at stake, and no one can be trusted.
In a palace ruled by four queens (one for each quadrant of the kingdom), an assassin is taking out the queens one by one. Veiled in mystery and intrigue, this story of multiple POVs follows each queen leading up to her death, while also divulging the secrets each of them kept, and also follows our unsavory anti-heroine, Keralie.
The chapters of Keralie that ran parallel to that of the murdered queens were quite boring to me. Keralie was a problematic character all around for me, as she was a petty, childish thing. And when she teams up with Varin, who is her “love interest”, the interactions just made me visibly wince. It felt forced and there was no chemistry, so double whammy for me.
The queen’s chapters, however, were way more interesting because each queen kept the façade that they’re all doing what must be done to keep the kingdom, and the way they rule it, in order – yet each queen holds a massive secret that goes against everything it means to be queen in Quadara. READ MORE!
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Reading updates
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Started reading
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5 October, 2019:
Finished reading
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5 October, 2019:
Reviewed