Great beginning to the book! It was a little slow to get into it at first but now I am really enjoying it. Can’t wait to finish!

I liked what I read of this book enough to go out and buy it when it came out. Just wish at the time of download it was specifically noted to be a sampler.

The writing in this book is beautiful. I love the world building. I like that the traits of the sisters are all-encompassing. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more from this author

The Queens of Innis Lear. Some Shakespeare, some love, some hate and adventures in this book kept me going, even though it took me a while to finish it.

Too many flashbacks (when that person had been already struggling through half the book with these issues) and we finally find out why.

I don’t know if I’ll read this book again, knowing it’ll take a while of getting through the vast descriptions of the places.

I received a free ebook copy through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review..

I was unaware that this was a sample of the book, but regardless I was excited to have received a copy of this. I consider myself to be a big fan of fantasy, and I was looking forward to the story revolving around three princesses. From the blurb, it seemed to be a story similar to Three Dark Crowns, targeting to an older audience. Count me in!

However, to be completely honest, it took me more than one shot at reading the opening chapter, and even then I can’t say it fully caught my interest. I was intrigued by the characters — at least, two of the three sisters — but some of the other points of view I struggled with. I can’t say that I will be picking up the full version of this one.

DNF, mostly because I thought I was receiving a full copy, not a 200 plus page excerpt. The little I did read however was very beautifully written and I enjoyed the world building. I just would have preferred to know it was an excerpt versus a completed story before requesting.

OK, I am going to be totally honest with you here and say that initially this book is what you'd say is a cover buy.
Now, This is literally what happened "Oooo Cool Cover! Ohhh I love the synopsis... but look at that cover!"

Now that that picture is going of the way, I'll honestly say that this book, The Queen Of Innis Lear is a dream to read. I would advice that you read a para or two just to familiarise yourself with King Lear's story because it does help (It's not mandatory that you read it but it does help).
Now, Back to this beauty of a book! The Queen Of Innis Lear is beautifully written. I don't know how she did it but the storyline and the characters in this book are complex, diverse and to be honest, the whole things works like a well oiled machine.

Having said that, The Queen of Innis Lear is slightly on the slower pace when it comes to storytelling but If you hang on to it, I swear you have a gem of a book here. This writing of this book is almost poetically lyrical. The vastness and character descriptive is amazing in this book.

If you haven't read this book yet, read it! I highly recommend you to read this book because The Queen Of Innis Lear has captivated me!

Happy Reading!

The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton

3 stars DNF

I read an excerpt, an incredibly long and misleading excerpt that must have been around 200 pages, of this novel. If I had known that I was reading an excerpt and not the full novel I would have DNFed it. However, I will be considering this novel read because I have no desire to pick up the entire novel. I’m massively peeved about this and I feel like I wasted a large chunk of my time reading a novel that I thought was the first in the series and now I know why I felt like I was reading so much exposition. I was wondering why new characters were being introduced 98% into the novel and it’s because my ARC copy was only excerpt. I have a lot of problems with this novel that goes beyond feeling betrayed the publisher and mislead because when I downloaded the copy it did not state that was excerpt until AFTER the publication date did this become a subtitle on my Netgalley dashboard.


Moving on, this is a standalone retelling of King Lear by William Shakespeare. I am a massive King Lear fan and I think it is one the easier plays of Shakespeare’s as well as being overall brilliant in concept and themes. I have a great passion for Lear and so when I saw that there was a fantasy retelling coming out for this novel I was excited and intrigued.


A Breakdown of the Pros and Cons of this novel:
There are talking trees and magical elements that are vastly fascinating. However, if I’m being honest these magical elements did not seem fully expanded upon and they lacked believability within the world created.
Gaela, Regan, and Elia sticking close to the original characters, but being heavily expanded upon. I always associated Goneril with gonorrhea and she was easily my most hated character of the original play, but Gaela is much more human and she is a force to be reckoned with. I also greatly dislike her, but I dislike her actions not her character and that is a huge plus. Regan stays true to the original Regan, but she is much more fleshed out. Regan struggles with miscarriages and failed pregnancies and it really makes her devotion to Gaela real and understandable. Whereas in the original play, it just is. Elia does stay true to Cordelia in a sense, but she is easily the most boring of the sisters. I loved Cordelia, but I can barely stand Elia. I think Gratton struggled with this character.
The best thing about the original play is the Fool. Gratton stays true to the Fool’s wise, but confounding phrases and it is so enjoyable.
My favorite line from King Lear is in the opening scene when Cordelia tells Lear “Nothing, my lord.” When she is asked how much she loves him. I loved the way the scene was done in this retelling. It’s told from the PoV from the Fool’s daughter (who does not exist in the play) and it is done so brilliantly. It was the part of this entire excerpt I read. The problem is that it occurred 50% through the 200 pages I read.
The lyrical prose is trying too hard. I love lyrical prose, but I also know that not all writers are able to capture this style with grace and ease. Gratton is one of those authors who struggles. A vast majority of her descriptive language is redundant and pointless. Early on, I considered DNFing because of the style, but I pushed on because I love King Lear and wanted to see how it would end. I didn’t even get a conclusion, so I should’ve just DNFed.


I’m mainly disappointed because I don’t know how Gratton approaches Gloucester losing his eyes, the Edmund obsession that all the sisters eventually acquire and the death of everyone. I really just want to know how everything is handled so send me spoilers because I won’t be seeking out this novel to find out.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 3

Character Scale: 3.5

Plotastic Scale: 4

Cover Thoughts: It’s so wonderful to see PoC hands on the cover of an adult fantasy novel.

Thank you, Netgalley and Tor, for providing me with an excerpt of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A truly riveting story, each character draws you in. You can't help but love or hate them.

It's quiet good but I realized it's not my genre. But for those who love magic and politics then this one's for you. The world building took a while for me to get in to, there were so many things I need to keep in mind and I just can't go through with this book. It's not for me but it is for someone else.

This review is for a rather large excerpt of the book. "The Queens of Innis Lear” is a lyrical fantasy retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear. It’s told from multiple character POVs, and each is delightfully distinct. It did take me a while to get into the writing style, but by the end of the excerpt I was eagerly anticipating what would happen next. I’m looking forward to reading this book when it comes out!

This review is for a 'preview excerpt' of the book. Quite a large exceprt, well into the middle of the book.

This is fantasy retelling of "King Lear" on an island that has it's flow of earth and water magic blocked by a king who prefers to read portents in the stars. He fails to see that the land is becoming barren and the crops are failing as he himself falls into madness while his eldest daughters plot against him.

Told in a slow, lyrical style, it took a little while to get into the plot and the second half of the excerpt was definitely better paced than the first. Many of the characters are recognisable as those from King Lear including the shadowy, enigmatic Ban the Fox, a wizard in touch with the magic of the trees and the water, who is the banished bastard son of Lear's ally, Earl Erigal and the childhood playmate of Lear's youngest daughter, Elia. Lear and his three daughters are all play the roles assigned them in the original play with the backdrop of magic and fantasy. Elia, for example studies the stars and reads the portents in them. So an enjoyable read with a good fantasy element. I think it will be popular with GoT readers and I am looking forward to finishing the book once I get hold of a complete copy.

I enjoyed this preview of The Queens of Innis Lear! I was so enticed by the premise - and for the most part my excitement held up. I found the writing style a bit hard to get into, but once I kept reading, I got caught up in the story.

Of course it's hard to tell where the story is going, since this is only a sampe - but I look forward to reading more!

*Please note that this review is based off of the 193 page sampler from Netgalley, not the full book. Review is subject to change when/if the full book is read.*

4 stars

When I requested this on Netgalley, I didn't know this was a sampler. Alas.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy what part of the book I read. It's undeniable that Gratton is a good writer--you can see her technical skill and spot some of the clues she leaves for the story to further develop as a reader continues reading.

There wasn't anything that I disliked while reading, although it did get a little slow in places. Gratton's writing style is very...verbose. Not like purple prose, but she includes a lot of details in a way that I find is more characteristic to adult fantasy (such as The Night Circus and A Darker Shade of Magic) more so than young adult fantasy. There's lots of description and history interwoven into what's happening, and the paragraphs are a lot chunkier than what you might see in YA, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But this did take a little bit of getting used to for me, a young adult reader, especially because the review copy didn't let me change the formatting and shoved an entire page in one phone screen, making me squint to see the extraordinarily tiny text.

Oh yes, that definitely could have contributed to part of why I wasn't as into this book as I wanted to be--the digital copy had tiny text that was very bothersome. *sigh*

I did enjoy where the story was going though. I'm not too familiar with the King of Innis Lear fable, but I can definitely spot where Gratton wove parts of this in her own story. I think the sisterly (and family in general) dynamics were portrayed very well and there was a strong something bubbling up between them.

The whole purpose of the sampler was to hook the reader and I definitely was intrigued as to where the story would go from here. You don't get a giant sense of the plot of the story by page 193, just parts and details. There's some things going on with Ban and one of the other countries' kings, there's something going on between the older sisters, there's something else going on with so-and-so, but nothing really came together in the part of the story that I read so far.

This would probably be my biggest complaint--I wasn't sure where the story was going to go.

But overall, I did enjoy what I read and will most likely seek out the full book in the library's catalogue.

The language of the opening was a little overwrought for my tastes, but once I'd had a few chapters to sink into the story and establish the characters' framework in my mind, I devoured this excerpt. The writing is lush with tones of darkness underscoring everything, which effectively conveys the feeling that the island of Innis Lear is on the precipice of disaster. There are just enough tantalizing details to create a moody, sorrowful feeling. Each character is meticulously crafted; they are fully-rounded with strengths and weaknesses that play off each other in an intricate, ever-shifting balance of power, with hidden motivations lurking behind known agendas. I'm enamored with this story of sisterhood, legacies, loss and a grasping quest for the crown.

When I originally downloaded this copy, I was not aware that it was a preview. Unfortunately, I cannot provide a review of a preview. Thank yoU!

DNF'd at 28%.

The Queens of Innis Lear is a retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear. This fantasy story begins when the king decides to abdicate the throne to give the crown to one of his three daughters. There are different POVs and I was intrigued by the three sisters, but I couldn't stand Tessa Gratton's writing and there is barely no plot during the 28% I've read. Everything was too confuse, the pacing was unbearably slow and I couldn't connect with any character. So I decided to DNF'd this book. It wasn't for me at all.

This is fantastic so far. The world-building is convincing, and the three sisters come across as distinct personalities. I definitely want more, so I've preordered the book and will give a full review once I've read it.

I requested the full version of this book after finding out this was only a preview. I'll leave my complete review there!