Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Tor Books for the advance reader copy Winner Take All by Laurie Devore in exchange for an honest review. I did not realize I received only an excerpt, because that definitely doesn’t help in an “overall review”. All of a sudden the book ended and I was “WHAT!!!” So I will give a short review of what I did read. I loved the SciFi/Fantasy element, the world building, but the many hints at what happened in the past and Ban’s secret spying ideas left me wondering about too much. I will definitely be reading this book when it comes out because I did like Ban, Aefa, Kayo as characters that were authentic. I did not Elia’s character (as much as was in the excerpt) she is so idealized by Ban, that I truly wanted to like her character and Elia had a wonderful childhood with (Ban) but she is conflicted and can’t make decisions since after her mother’s death, Elia decides to side with her father (what does she see in him???), stop practicing earth magic and using the language of trees. This results in her sisters’ animosity towards her and isolates her, thankfully Aefa is always trying to fins ways to help Elia. I so appreciated the magic-rich nature world of Ban, Gratton’s language was heady and beautiful as Ban would commune with the trees, animals, and water. There was so much good vs evil, magic vs no magic that I loved turning the pages to revel more in the fantasy of this world of kingdoms, kings, queens, lords and ladies.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a digital arc of "The Queens of Innis Lear". The excerpt I read is fantastic. The world building is my favorite part. It reminded me of the "Earthsea" series by Ursula K. Le Guin and that is high praise. I can't wait to read the entire story!

So far it’s been a very intriguing story and I’ll definitely be purchasing the book once it’s out to continue reading it and know what happens next.
I think the whole plot was so well done and interesting. I liked what I read so far about the characters and the world, and found their dynamics well executed. Since it’s a preview I can’t say much more, because the story hasn’t fully develop, but so far I’m very intrigued.

It's a testament to how much I was ejoying this book that I was deeply upset when I realised it was only a preview. The title has been changed now but originally this wasn't made clear. But I'm sold, I will be buying this when it eventually comes out, based on only 20% of the preview I read.

I'm going to give a 3 star rating at the moment, only because a star rating is necessary to send a review and that seems the most neutral.

I was given a excerpt from Netgalley and I am now counting the hours till release date. The beginning is slow but is highly detailed in it's world building. The excerpt ended right where the story got interesting. I am invested the outcome and hope it does not disappoint.

It's only an excerpt but I do look forward to reading the book.

Well I'm glad it says "Preview Excerpt" now but it certainly (and evidently) didn't when I and a lot of other people downloaded this. Bad move. If I ever end up buying and reading this book, I'll come back to write a review but I gotta be honest, this has definitely put me off from doing so (plus the sexual harassment allegations against Tessa Gratton).

This is only the preview, which I didn't realize--but I really liked the beginning. It has the feel and pace of some of my favorite epic fantasies. I'm really hoping for more queerness and feminism so I'll definitely be picking up the rest of the book.

Dynasties battle for the crown in Tessa Gratton's debut adult epic fantasy, The Queens of Innis Lear.
One kingdom, three sisters entitle to the crown.
Gaela. Ruthless Commander.
Regan. Master Manipulator.
Elia. Star-blessed Priest.
When I learned that this book was a retelling of King Lear by William Shakespeare, I was totally in. I have not read "Three Dark Crowns" but through the synopsis, it might be kind of similar.
A dark, epic, fantasy story about the ambition, dreams, and desires of three sisters totally different from each other. Two with the strong commitment to being queens of Innis Lear and the third one, who is only enchanted by the magic, the language of trees and the mystical world. In this book, the author took the time to build the worlds, introduced the characters, and give us a hint what the story will continue in the coming series. I adore Elia, the priest sister, who is in the dilemma of fighting for her beliefs or for her right to her kingdom. Needless to say, I did not like the other two sisters whose only purpose, is taking over their father and crowned the elder, Gaela queen of Lear. A story which takes a while to read, as it has many flashbacks, among the lives of the characters. The description of the settings is poetical and descriptive. Beautiful writing. Thank you, Mac. Millan Tor to let me read this ARC. Looking forward to the hard copy and add it to my collection.
Published March 27th, 2018

A substantial extract from a wonderful and impressive retelling of King Lear: my review of the full book is here:
www.goodreads.com/review/show/2309656734

My review will go live on my blog on the 13th March.

Three sisters. One crown.

Innis Lear is a place of deep magic. The blood of the island runs into the holy wells, people communicate with the trees and earth. That is until King Lear caps the wells in his heartbreak. Busy focusing on the stars he forbids the people of his island, from worshipping the land and trees. Some forget the language of the trees, some still practice in secret and others learn the language of the stars, like the obsessed King wants. King Lear's oldest daughter Gaela has a clear plan for the future of Innis Lear and it involves her being on the throne. Regan the middle daughter has her own ambitions, and the youngest Elia wants to watch the stars and care for her father. All of these ambitions are thrown up in the air once King Lear decides it's time for him to place his daughters in their rightful place. Everything changes in one afternoon.

The writing; it instantly transported me to this world. The vivid descriptions, the rich beauty, it all popped off the page. It reminded me of a fairytale, with the way it flowed and painted a picture.
I did only receive an excerpt, so I only know about a small part of the book. I will 100% be ordering this when it's released so I can give it a proper review. This is a character driven read, with multiple points of view. We have King Lear's three daughters Gaela, Regan, and Elia, Ban the Fox of Aremoria and several others. Each character has a unique voice, they don't blend at all, and the gradual introduction really builds up the suspense over what is eventually going to happen. I don't want to say too much, I don't want to give anything away so I'm going to wrap this up really quickly. Lear's daughters are three incredibly different women, but they are all made of steel, it's just that each carries their strengths in a different way. We have family drama, political intrigue and magic in this bold fantasy tale. This really has the makings of a wonderful book and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the rest of the story.

Difficult to review, because my thoughts on the text are obscured by frustration that this is a sample, and wasn't described as such. Great cover art, interesting premise. Bizarre spellings of names (Aefa??) made it difficult to get into this. Flowery language might not be for everyone. One that I'll consider getting from the library once it's published,

The netgalley copy only contains the first 1/4 of the book, so I can't really do a review on it until I get a chance to read the whole thing.

From what I've read, I'll just say a couple of things. The writing style is more of what you would see in "literary" fiction than in fantasy. It's wordy, it's flowery, and you can tell the languid confidence the author has in the manipulation of the language. While I can't deny that it's gorgeous, it often veers towards the exhaustive side of purple prose. And I don't know if I want to read *400* more pages of it.

The chapters alternate between many different POVS, and the pacing is very slow, with a large focus on character relationships. I did like all the characters, though it felt like we only brushed the surface of their personalities in this first bit.

I don't know. Having just completed a different book with flowery prose, I might not be in the right mindset to appreciate this book right now. I'll try again when it releases.

I am very dissapointed that i received a exerpt of this novel when in never said it would be a small version. I lied what I read but will only be able to tell my full opinion when I get to read the whole thing.

DNF …
I was really looking forward to reading this adaption if Shakespeare’s King Lear but it didn’t take long for me to realize that this book just wasn’t right for me.
The language is very, very poetic, descriptive and flowery and while I kind of got used to after a while I never grew to like it and every so often I stumbled over phrases that were just too much. Also after a pretty infodumpey beginning the story drags beyond belief and nothing ever really happens in the first half of the novel. Or maybe it does and I just didn’t see it beneath all the overwhelming prose, who knows …

This is really hard for me to review, since it's only a preview and not the whole book. When I requested the download, it didn't say it was a preview.
So what I read so far, it was a bit slow to start but then once I really got into it, it ended. So, I can't wait to read the actual book.
I really love the characters and the plot was quite fascinating to the point I got. I wish I had the whole book!
Thanks for the preview!

Even though this is only a sample of what's to come. I am in it for the long haul!

This is the story of King Innis but retold in a new fantastical lyrical twist which includes magic, a new original setting, and a thrilling plot. The writing has this calming and peaceful sense to it and I found myself reading and losing track of time. My only problem was the pacing felt a little awkward but it's not so bothersome that it hindered my enjoyment.

But please send help because I did not realize how invested into the characters I was going to be and now I can't continue until the book is released! Oh the misery...

I got 21% into the excerpt before I realized it was an excerpt. Though, this realization did not even come from netgalley, but through someone else telling me it was. In fact, in the many time I looked at the book on my shelf, not once did I notice it was an excerpt. Just today I see that it is one, as the name seems to have been updated.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy what I allowed myself to read. I basically read the establishing chapters of each character, and fell a little bit in love with all of them so far. While the writing style takes a bit of getting used to, I was fully okay with it about halfway through the fox chapter. I do hope to read this when it comes out in a few weeks, but I do not want to read half the book now, and the other half 4 weeks from now, forgetting almost everything in between.

I didn't realize this was only a preview. When it abruptly ended I was disappointed. This book grabbed me from the beginning and I look forward to reading it when it comes out.

The preview provided by the publisher via NetGalley gives readers a window into author Tessa Gratton's skillful writing. Rich visualizations of the island's history and nature makes it easy to picture in readers' minds. 'The Queens of Innis Lear' looks to be a wonderful and intricate re-telling of Shakespeare's 'King Lear.'