My goodness I haven’t read something this lovely in such a long time. If an author was to take a list that said “Jaz’s Checklist for Perfect Book”, this would’ve basically ticked all the boxes. I didn’t really have any idea what I was getting into reading this (didn’t even read the blurb) but your girl was SO pleased.

I loved Brienna’s character. She starts off as kind of average, not really excelling in any of the passions of art, music, dramatics or wit. She eventually settles on knowledge but she knows she’s got nothing on the other knowledge student. What I admired about her character was her dedication and diligence – hell she knows she’s lacking and makes up for it by studying endlessly and trying her hardest. I saw in her this drive to extend herself and when she found a purpose, a calling, she dedicated 110% to the cause. She’s loyal, committed and uses her brains to her advantage when she knows she lacks in swordsmanship.

There’s a whole cast of characters dedicated to the cause of overthrowing the tyrant king and I liked the way Ross showed different sides to the characters – the refined Valenians versus the Maevans who are skilled with swords. I admired Jourdain who accepted Brienna so quickly for his cause, it took a lot of trust on his part. My favourite was Yseult who’s very quick with her blade but also kind and had a just side to her. I really hope we get to see more of her in future books. The Queen’s Rising was really Brienna focused and didn’t have the other characters as fleshed out, which I’m sure means we’ll see more of them in the sequels!

The romance WOAH AM I HERE FOR THE ROMANCE. Like I said I hadn’t read the blurb (or properly looked at the cover) going into this (sometimes I like to live life on the edge and request books based on their titles LOL) so didn’t have a clue there was romance. BUT BOY WAS I ON BOARD THIS SHIP FROM THE GET GO. I’m getting all swoony and biting my lip just thinking about it. It’s hella slow burn… SLOW. And it’s worth every. Angsty. Agonising. Precious. Stolen. Moment. I love my men smart, gentle, slightly broody but caring and hella sweet. The kind who don’t try to hide their feelings but tell you straight out how they feel and my heart is pounding just thinking of Brienna and the love interest haaaaah. I’m rest assured by Ross that there is more of this person in book 2 and I AM EXCITE.

I thought the plot was very intriguing, starting with Brienna’s flashbacks, then the mystery unfolding and the whole plan coming together. I did have a few questions as there were things that happened that looked a teeny bit like possible plot holes. I overlooked these because the beginning of the book has a whole cast of characters that gives some things away so I may have gone off these assumptions? I don’t know. Either way, it was still very fun and I loved the adventure. There’s also a touch of magic with the promise of more. I’m not usually one for light magic but I’m here for the potential! Not gonna lie, some twists were predictable but I was having so much fun (AND MY SHIP) I was happy to be along for the ride.

I can’t get over Ross’s lovely writing. It’s the perfect balance of flowery and effortless so I just flew through the pages, every night going “one more chapter” and reading like 3 instead. I really liked the world she created too – the French-inspired Valenia was delicate and lush, whereas Irish-inspired Maevana was more wild in a highlands-calling-you kind of way that spoke of freedom and castles. I loved both and can’t wait to see more of Maevana in the next books.

I enjoyed The Queen’s Rising the further I read, to the point where I was smitten. I’m not going to even deny that it’s mainly because of the romance/ship because IT IS. Lovely writing, great ship, dedicated heroine, swoony love interest and an intriguing world set up for more – WHEN IS BOOK 2?

"We are ready because of sisterhood, because our bonds go deeper than blood. We rise for the queens of our past, and for the queens to come."

I absolutely LOOOOOOOOOVED this book so it is already a contender for my favourite read of the 2018 and Rebecca Ross is officially on my “all time fave authors” list.
I am still experiencing a major book hangover for this book.

Rebecca Ross has created an incredibly enchanting world and a unique storyline that had me reading well past my bed time. You can tell that Rebecca has really thought about this world and where everyone fits in the “universe”. The inclusion of a map and the various family trees really takes the book to the next level. On top of that the actual writing is absolutely gorgeous.

Our heroine, Brienna, is incredibly relatable and her strength was just so inspiring and heart warming. She would find herself in situations where she would struggle with the decision of whether to take the easy way out and it was so refreshing to see a character wrestle with these human concepts and ideas.

There is a very slow building romance in the story, however the book was more focused on friendship; especially the solidarity of sisterhood. I absolutely loved this aspect because I find that so many YA Fantasy stories get stuck on the whole romance angle.

The story easily reads as a standalone but I am VERY excited and happy to hear that The Queen’s Rising is the first book in a trilogy.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a story that includes political intrigue, rebellions, hidden queens, a battle and incredibly strong women.

I give this book 5 dazzling stars, and despite the fact that I have the eBook I am going out to purchase a copy of the actual book.
If this book isn’t already in your bookcase or in your immediate TBR list fix that situation ASAP.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's only February, but The Queen's Rising is already a contender for favorite read of the year! This book was an amazing nostalgic return to my youth - I used to binge on high fantasy that had inspiring female protagonists (most from modest backgrounds), journeys to defeat a corrupt ruler or great evil and perhaps a hint (or more!) of mentor/protege romance.

In more recent years, I haven't come across many books that ticked all those boxes (The Queen of Blood is closest in feel, but doesn't feature a romance) and I feel the market is more saturated with elves and assassins and love triangles and heroines with a bad attitude who are supposedly kickass but need their love interest to save them from their own follies. In that context, The Queen's Rising felt like chicken soup for the soul. The story didn't reinvent the wheel, but it was a delightful remix of tropes and themes I love, so it was perfectly suited to my tastes.

Relatable, down-to-earth heroine: in most YA novels, Brienna would be the queen from the title, but nope, Brienna is NOT the Chosen One, which won me over immediately.

I find that Chosen One protagonists tend to either be unrealistically super-skilled at everything OR painfully average and yet still rewarded with success because the universe bends over backwards to accommodate them. On the other hand, we have Brienna who struggles to find her 'passion' (a talent for either art, music, dramatics, wit or knowledge); she suffers through a year of studying each of the passions in turn, finding herself humiliatingly bereft of talent in some more areas than others, before finding that knowledge suits her best. Even then, she only has 3 years to master that field, and at the final hurdle when graduates are to find a patron who will further their studies and give them practical experience in the real world, Brienna fails.

I love her for how she deals with this mortification - she knew it was coming and braced herself for disappointment, then made sure to put on a happy face and celebrate her fellow students who succeeded instead. She knew she hadn't put in as much work as they did and she wasn't entitled to the same outcome, and rather than sulk around about how unfair the world is, she supported her friends, then threw herself into her studies to make sure she could prove her worth in future. That's a fabulous heroine imo!

Throughout the story, Brienna has chances to take the easy road or to put herself to the test and risk her life to do the right thing, and even though we know which path this is going down, I like seeing her wrestle with the decision and acknowledge the temptation, which is only human nature. There are moments when she's afraid and she tries to be strong and project confidence, but fails to keep up this facade, and I feel for her, I relate so strongly to that! Courage isn't the absence of fear, it's overcoming it, and I was really impressed by Brienna's resourcefulness and determination to persist in the face of danger.

Focus on female friendship: the sisterhood angle that this book took was completely unexpected, I didn't anticipate that from the blurb and it was SUCH a pleasant surprise! I live for ladies who actually get to have supportive relationships instead of simply competing over love interests and backstabbing one another. <3

I enjoyed the camaraderie between the arden sisters in the first quarter of the book, and how they related to each other in different ways, from the sweet easy bond with Merei and the more complicated interactions with Ciri, who also aims to be a passion of knowledge and is understandably put out at having someone taking the attention of her tutor, Master Cartier. She and Brienna thankfully don't become arch-enemies, but there is a realistic friction between them as a result. It's great that it isn't black-and-white, that this book doesn't compensate for the tendency to cast women as villains in other stories by having every single one get on perfectly here in response.

It was a little sad to leave Magnalia House behind once the other ardens passioned and Brienna found her own path, but that led to her blossoming friendship with Isolde, the rightful queen. I loved how Brienna offered her emotional support when Isolde was doubting herself and later Isolde taught Brienna how to sword-fight! <3

Slow-burn romance: as mentioned earlier, I adore mentor/protege romances, BUT I need there to be some change in the dynamics so that both characters are on an equal footing and it doesn't feel as though the older character is grooming or taking advantage of someone under his care. This was well-executed here, with Cartier and Brienna clearly developing feelings for one another, but not acting upon their mutual attraction while she was under his tutelage. Even afterwards, they restrained themselves to corresponding via letters, which I found delightfully charming!

Cartier becomes an important figure later on in the story and I daresay everyone will see this coming as it's a very predictable twist, to the point I can't even call it a 'twist' with a straight face. But the revelation to the characters and ensuing intrigue is DELICIOUS, the UST has me giddy and the resolution was swoon-worthy. If you're expecting any steamy scenes, I'm sorry to disappoint, but nothing of that nature is in this book; for fans of repressed longing and mutual pining and old-fashioned courting, step right up! This is the kind of pairing where the simple touch of a hand speaks volumes, and I love that restrained passion, I find it so much more moving and meaningful than just going straight for the kiss. 

Plot & Writing: I'm really impressed this is by a debut author because it's such an assured and polished story. The writing is smooth and lyrical, vividly painting the scene, and it may be a cliche, but the characters practically walk off the page.

And speaking of cliche, that is where I have to discuss some flaws - I personally wasn't bothered by how predictable this was, but readers who are looking to be surprised and kept on their toes will probably not find this as engaging as I did. There are a couple of 'big reveals' (for eg. the mystery father) that come as a monumental shock to the characters, but which any remotely genre-savvy reader would've figured out from the first chapter. 

The author also takes some shortcuts in relationships between characters meeting each other for the first time and fast-forwarding the scenes that should've shown them bonding and growing fond of each other. I would've liked more interaction between Brienna and Jourdain or Brienna and Luc before they were embracing each other as family, because the groundwork wasn't properly laid. I still bought into their fierce loyalty to one another and their familial love, so again, this didn't bother me, but the platonic insta-love may be an issue for others. (I was mainly just super relieved that Luc wasn't going to crush on his pseudo-sister and propel a love triangle, so I was completely happy to buy into their sibling dynamic!)

I can see how the basic storyline of 'hunt the Macguffin that solves all the problems' may seem uninspired and done-to-death, but I don't mind that as a plot device, it's about the character development along the way and I was happy with Brienna finding herself and her place in the world, building relationships with new people and steadfastly meeting the challenges in her way. 

IN SHORT

Catnip:

Ladies supporting ladies, female characters with different strengths, mentor/protege UST, platonic relationships between men and women (it's possible!)

Pet hates:

The use of the word 'passion' became very grating very quickly ('failed to passion', 'she passioned', ugh). Also characters referring to each other by relationship - 'father' this and 'sister' that, it's unnecessary!

Personal Rating:

5 out of 5 kitties recommend this book!

*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and do not represent the publisher or author.*

I tossed between giving it a 2 star rating or a 3 star rating, but I decided to give it a solid 3 stars because I do believe that while I personally struggled to find interest in this book, it still fits all the criteria for a well-written YA fantasy and therefore would appeal to new YA fantasy readers.

The story follows Brienna, a 17-year-old orphaned girl who is taken in by the prestigious Magnalia House to become a patron of one of the “passions” - art, dramatics, music, wit and knowledge. However, on the eve of her graduation, things do not go as planned and she is thrown into this intricate plot to restore the rightful monarchy, growing closer to her tutor and uncovering her past.

From the blurb, I was expecting a story similar to Divergent - the protagonist is expected to fit into a certain faction, or in this case “passion”, and their world is changed when they realise that they cannot. And while there were elements of this in the book, the plot was far more preoccupied with the political intrigues of the kingdoms and I do commend it for that!

This political intrigue makes up the entirety of the plot, and it was complex with sudden plot twists, and the way it was interconnected with this beautifully written French inspired fantastical world was enjoyable to read. The history of the families and the world were also deeply interesting and well explained.

However, apart from that, everything else in this book really fell short.

I think the main reason why I struggled with this book was that there was no hook to motivate me to read it. Even though the political intrigue was enticing, it did not matter because there was nothing that made me care for any of the characters.

It pains me to say this, but Brienna was such a stereotypical YA protagonist, by the end, it was almost painful to read. She had no depth whatsoever - nothing interesting about her that made me want to hear her story in particular. Unfortunately, that is the case with a lot of YA fantasy books nowadays (it is almost as if people are scared to write characters that push the boundaries) and it was such a shame that this book fell victim to that because this was probably the main reason why I could not care for this book.

While the descriptions and world building were beautiful, the dialogue was incredible lacking particularly between Brienna and her friends, which was such a shame because relationships between family and female friends was an important theme of the book.

I did like that romance was not a large part of the plot or the character development, however, in the moments where it was present, it made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. I get that the whole student/teacher relationships are a common fantasy among a lot of people, but is this really something that should be present in a teenage book???

The overall pace of the story was a lot slower than it should have been, and I believe that it very much had to do with the dialogue and the (quite frankly) boring character. I did feel that the ending was a nice and neat close to the story, and it structurally does well as a stand-alone book. I also feel like I should mention that including a family tree with spoilers at the start of the book confuses me so much! Who thought it was a good idea to do that haha?!

Overall, I can see how this book could be enjoyable to new and younger readers of YA fantasy, however for it to live up to the hype surrounding it and even to the beautiful cover, it needed to have an interesting character to match the interesting world! I understand that it can sometimes be difficult coming up with original and interesting characters, but at the end of the day, that is what separates good books from average books, and unfortunately, The Queen’s Rising did not rise to its potential.

Disclaimer: I received a copy from Netgalley for a true and honest opinion

The Queen's Rising is the debut book by Rebecca Ross.

The book follows a 10 year old girl named Brienna who with the assistance of her grandfather is admitted to a prestige boarding school called the Magnalia House. This is a prestigious school, in which the girls select a "passion" which they excel in.

Flash forward 7 years and we see that Brienna is heading towards the end of her studies, worried if she will be selected by a Patron or not. Brienna is worried because her skills in the 5 passion areas isn't excel in par with the other girls (Passions fall into five categories: art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge). She knows that it was her grandfather's pull that got her in. Brienna does not get selected and is pretty devastated as her friends do get selected and one by one leave.

However, Brienna eventually gets selected by a mysterious lord, which is essential where our story begins. The problem is that it takes soo long to get there. The first 180 pages were kinda meh.

The world building was pretty interesting, the descriptions of environment and different kingdoms made it really intriguing. The political intrigue and war of different power houses within the kingdom was interesting to look at and read about, and the influence from 15th Century Scotland made that aspect very fascinating.

In saying that, I felt the the story plot had real potential but felt really one dimensional. It is a book that you might have read already. The escalation between characters relationships was just too much at times, to a point where it became a bit weird and uncomfortable. I wasn't very thrilled about the love story, I personally do not like that trope and it wasn't the strongest love story. I didn't feel that passion between the two characters. Honestly, I ship Brienna with Luc more than the Mentor.

Also, don't read the family tree at the start of the book. It spoils everything.

I received an eARC of this book in exchange for a review. Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for allowing me to read The Queen's Rising. All opinions and thoughts are my own and do not represent the publisher or author.

A solid 3-star read for me. The Queen's Rising is a story of passion, betrayal, rebellion and magic. I love the cover art for both UK and US versions and would certainly pick this up at a bookstore had I seen it. The Queen's Rising took a while to get going, and at times I found the beginning of the story very boring. Our main character Brienna, is 17 and becoming a young woman trained in one of the 5 principles of 'passion' - these being either Art, Wit, Drama, Music or Knowledge. She is basically an apprentice in the arts and she discovers herself throughout her journey at the Magnalia house (where she studies) and beyond.

I don't even know where to begin when discussing things I didn't like about the book or what could have been better. First off - even though I read the book quickly, it was the slowest book I've ever read. The plot was sooooo slow paced it took everything in me not to give up in the first 25%. It didn't have anything to hook me in and make me want to keep reading. To be honest I thought the entire 'school' part with the passions and the Magnalia house was completely strange and unnecessary. It would have made much more sense for her to be attending a boarding school or becoming an apprentice in some other skills/trade. And the fact that there is several family trees at the very beginning of the book ruins the entirety of her family history reveal. Bit odd indeed.

The story develops into a rebellion and plot to overthrow the evil king of a neighbouring kingdom, and the 'Passions' have no relation to this what so ever, and to me, this could have been done away with. I just couldn't work out how the first 25% of the story connected to the latter 75%.

I knew the plot twists before they happened, but enjoyed them none the less. I liked that Brienna took charge of her life and fought for what she believes in. I found the romance side of things to be intriguing but somewhat unrealistic. And of course there were a few times when things worked out a bit too well for our heroes that I had to roll my eyes.

I loved the magic elements of the story and seeing flash backs, which gave the story a lot more history and the reader gained understanding from this. The overall plot was fantastic (or the idea BEHIND the plot), its the typical type of YA book that everyone loves, but I found the characters a little lacking, which is why I am giving this story 3 stars instead of higher. If the story had removed the 'passion' completely it would be a 4 star read.

You know, there is a reason why people gravitate to familiar stories. We want Beauty to help the Beast, we want the glass slipper to fit, the sword to be drawn out of the stone, the tyrant to be brought down. The hero's journey, or the heroine's, makes us happy, it feeds our minds. And while there can be a thousand, ten thousand versions, a really, really good one is a treasure.
This is a really, really good one.

Yes, it is familiar, but the writing is spot on, the characters are beautifully crafted. And hells, yeah, this book celebrates women, and female friendship. Frak yeah feminism!
The male characters are great. I especially love Luc and Alderic, and their choices, loyalty and love. And I mean, Cartier is gorgeous. But it's the strong women, and women supporting women that makes me super happy.

Things I especially loved:

The Passion/ Passioning/ becoming a Passion. A celebration of art, or wit and conversation, or the seeking of knowledge is awesome. The Passions remind me a little of the great Courtesan's or Geisha's who were revered and adored for their talents, but of course in this society, their, ummm, patrons and patronage is a little different.

The Queens of Maevana. I loved the inversion of the patriarchy and rules of succession. That daughters are so valued, that a younger sister takes her older brothers our of succession. The Maevanian men are still protective of their women, even their bad-ass warrior women because of how much they are valued.

Fathers. Oh, man. Because of the above Matrilineal inheritance, a daughter is beyond valued. Having the choice between two very different men, two very different fathers, and the choices they represent is amazing. And I freaking LOVE the choice.

This is Ross's first novel, and I am already excited to see what she does next.

Arc received from Netgallery in exchange for honest review.