Interesting excerpt. I can’t wait to read the entire book. I wish there had been more to this sampler.

I'm hooked already!

I love/hate these preview chapters because it gives me a really good idea of whether I will like the book or non, but then it always leaves me wanting more. I definitely felt this was with 4 dead queens. I have already pre-ordered a copy of this book, and cannot wait to dive into this world.

Thank you for the chance to read the preview of this amazing book!

At the very beginning, I had a hard time connecting with the story, but I was ingrained in the world and character building. Since this was just a sneak peek, I look forward to seeing how the rest of the book turns out.

Thanks to #netgslley I have read a “Sneak Peak” for #fourdeadqueens and I want more!
I was not certain I would read this as I don’t usually like reading sneak peaks or the chapter or two at the end of a book to get you hyped for the next one because I frequently forget I only read the beginning and when the book comes out I think I’ve already read it.
This book is different. It is inventive, appears to be a fully fleshed out world and time and in the “peak” we are beginning to see characters develop.
I will be avidly waiting for the full version of this!

Review based on full hard copy arc recieved upon request (actually 4.5 stars but that is not an option here or at goodreads). I hope this might improve my relations with Penguin in the future. Since someone over there doesn't seem very fond of me for reasons I can't explain (once I stepped away from my career in education, anyway)

I have posted it on my website, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, goodreads, edelweiss (also denied there) and I will post on Amazon Tuesday. I have tagged as requested on the back of the book.


4.5 Star ARC Review of Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte

Four Dead Queens, published on February 26th, is the debut novel from Astrid Scholte. A murder mystery set in a fantasy world involving Quadara, which is made up of four regions: Eonia, Toria, Archia and Ludia. After hundreds of years of unrest, a system of rule was determined to maintain the peace. One queen from each region would reign from the palace to represent the best interests of their respective citizens. Together, but apart.

Throughout the book, Scholte artfully lays out essential Queenly laws that are quintessential to the success of this system and provisions for heirs, length of rule, actions forbidden, and those required. She wastes no time revealing the restlessness of royalty and the secrets that lie within the palace walls. In Shakespearean fashion, when you try the hardest to control your fate, sometimes you often end up walking right into what you fear the most.

If that wasn’t enough intrigue to keep you in suspense there is the black market area of Toria ready to wreak havoc during this perfect storm. Master of ceremonies, Mackiel and his best dipper/thief, Keralie steal the most valuable wares from other quadrants to auction off each night on the black market.

However, when Mackiel has Keralie steal Eonia technology from Eonist messenger Varin a new conspiracy begins to unravel and suddenly Keralie, Mackiel and Varin’s worlds collide with the very fates of the four queens and their very lives.

Here in lies my only, only fault in this amazing debut. The fast paced, world-building, thrilling suspense and incredible character building with the queens, and the dynamics of their relationships would lead me to expect the same of Mackiel and Keralie. Yet it isn’t there. There are vital pieces of their character background that is missing from the beginning of the book. Later on, when certain chapters that are incredibly well written with brilliant structure and dialogue between the two, it is difficult to glean everything necessary because we don’t have enough backstory to truly know who is playing who, nor are we given the chance to truly and fully invest in their relationship.

Going back to the queens, which are essential characters and the dynamics of their relationships, the exact opposite is true. Not only does Scholte thoroughly develop them as people. She also brilliantly unfolds their relationships with each other by interweaving it as secrets and pieces of the mystery are unveiled. Additionally, she makes each quadrant the queens represent characters onto themselves. These provides an additional dimension to the story and to the personality of each queen. I would like to have seen this applied to Mackiel and Keralie, whom seemed rushed in their development.

Lastly the murder mystery development, structure and plot twists were laid out in a torturous way that left me breathless and feeling like I had been punched in the gut right till the end.

Over and over I thought I got this! Then Scholte drops a bomb and you rearrange your thinking. So, then you think you have it, yet again. And then you realize you know nothing. Jon Snow thinks he knows nothing? It is ok Jon. Hold my beer. I got this.

Up until the final pages you will be guessing. You will be yelling back at the book. You will throw the book. Whether your reading partner is someone in the room, your pets or your poor neighbors? Your behavior will send them running for shelter. For me? It was my poor cats.

This book has been on the must-reads for a reason. Unique, twisty and captivating. You won’t regret it for a minute. Run, don’t walk and curl up when you have plenty of time. You won’t be able to put it down.

https://www.amazon.com/review/RHEPVXCRYAXUI/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv
http://novellives.com/?p=563
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuJUUI0gxkp/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=qnet8mkt67dx (account just started)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34213319-four-dead-queens
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6504338322289238016

I have only read a preview of this book so I can't give a full review.

The book is about Keralie who is the best liar and thief. I was intrigued by her attitude and demeanor however I feel like I can't say much more then this. The excerpt I read was mostly world building which is important I just don't feel like I got enough of the story to say how I felt about it.

The writing is beautiful, poetic all though a bit wordy. I will probably pick up the book from the library and finish it off.

I received a preview of this book from netgalley for my honest review.

(As this is a sneak peek, I can't write a proper, full review, obviously.)

So far, after five chapters, I'm on the fence with this one. The world depicted here seems interesting, but there's been quite a few info-dumps about it, and some aspects of it don't make complete sense (for instance, it's not entirely clear whether we're talking about a country divided in four parts, or more like four kingdoms sharing a hub). The fantasy/"old country" side (Archia and its agricultural society) clash with the advanced technological side (Eonia and its use of genetics and chips), in that it's difficult to see what could've led to that within one country. It'd be like having London with extremely advanced tech, while the rest of England lives like in the 18th century (and no, I don't mean Brexit /end cheap shot). So I'm really torn about the world-building.

As for the mystery itself, there isn't much to it yet, of course, as it's the beginning. I am interested in discovering what's on that comm chip, and how it can be used within the investigation that's about to take place, and who's the next queen who's going to bite the dust. I am less interested in the romance which we can see coming from chapter one, but then, 95% of the romance subplots in novels end up not interesting me.

I'll probably still pick the novel to read further, but chances are this will be only if I find it at the library.

This sneak peak was amazing! I was smitten from the first sentence forward. I cannot wait to see what unfolds as I explore the story in the full novel! 4/5 stars!

It's hard to give a rating having read only a small portion, but from that little bit, I like it and I would definitely want to read the entire book.

I like the idea of four quadrants, all with their own values.

I'm not entirely sure what's to come, especially after Keralie takes all of the comm disks. I am interested to find out more.

This sampler is so good. I love the characters and I can't wait to dive in and get to know them more. I am anxiously waiting for my copy to arrive so I can finish the rest of the story. This book so far is quite amazing.

This book sounded really intriguing at first, especially the little bit I read about the throne scene. However, it felt like too much was being thrown at me with no explanation. There were too many races and histories I felt like I was expected to know/understand to get the book better but I was left with and infodump :/. But hey, that's what samples are for, to help us decide whether or not we will like a book. This one helped me decide that this one just wasn't for me.

WOW!!!! What a start to the book. I usually like to hold off on starting free previews of books until close to the book actually releases. I swear they purposely always leave you on a terrible cliffhanger. I mean, that's what I would do too. Murder mysteries are one of my favorite genres, so blending that with YA fantasy my other favorite? I just know it's going to be EPIC! I can't wait to devour the rest of this book on Tuesday.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my review in any way and the thoughts expressed are my own.

A new dystopian that promises a murder mystery in a world divided into four sections. When the four queens are murdered, unthinkable to the society, the people are shocked and clueless. Now desperate for answers the people of Quadara must figure out who the culprit is while deciding on new queens. The four sections are strictly separated; Archia, the hard-working, Luddite farmers; Eonia, inventors of advanced technology and medicine; Toria, the traders who transport goods between quadrants; Ludia, the heart of fashion and art.

There were two points of view from two queens; Iris from Archian and Corra, queen of Eonia. It was intriguing to see the difference in beliefs and approaches from the unique sections. I was fascinated to find out what happened in their day to day lives and what lead up to their murders. While being Queen may sound like a luxurious dream to many of us, in this world it was more of a prison, they weren’t even able to leave the palace! In fact, being in prison would have given them more freedom.

Keralie, who appears to be the story’s main character, is a Torian who makes a living by stealing valuables from other quadrants. From what we learn from her flashbacks, Keralie started just like any other Torian trader; sailing from one section to another, transporting goods with her parents. Something horrible must have happened to land her in the underbelly of Torian society. Now working for Mackiel, a young man not much older than her, she’s one of his best thieves (though everyone else just thinks she warms his bed). Mackiel sells the goods at his auction house, and Keralie can hardly wait to see what her greatest theft will get, but when the auction to goes to hell so does her life.

The relationship between Mackiel and Keralie is friendly and flirty. It’s clear there’s something between them but over the past few years Mackiel has been troubled, and his interest in her has waned. He’d saved her from the gutter, and it’s clear she feels indebted to him and even has feelings of her own for him. I enjoyed their banter, they reminded me of many good YA couples like Alina and Mal (Shadow & Bone) or Clary and Jace (The Mortal Instruments but with less angst). I hope they get together but whatever is troubling Mackiel is obviously going to be a problem, even disregarding the events of the auction.

The segregation of belief/ interests reminded me of Divergent, and I was even more intrigued when I read the rest of the blurb. I loved this sneak peek and have definitely put this book to the top of my TBR! I give this sneak peek 4/5 and have high hopes for the rest of the book.

In this fantasy world is ruled by four queens. They spend part of their day meeting their people about the problems their land is facing. The lands are all set to producing something but they do not share. When one of the queens Iris is murdered the other queens are determined to find out who did it. Keralie steals for a living. Her boss and best friend runs a bidding place where people can bid on things stolen from other lands. After Kera steals a comm case and it is not put up for auction the person who she stole it from shows up at the auction to get the case back.

This was only a sneak peek, so I don’t think what I have to say here applies to the whole book. Overall, I enjoyed it very much! This is a book that I’ve seen a lot about, and I’m very excited to be able to read the full version. The only complaint that I have is that in a few places it seemed unprofessional, as if it hadn’t been fully edited. There were a few places where the writing seemed jilted and unnatural. Also, towards the end of the sneak peek, there was a lot of language. I will be coming back and doing a full review when I read the completed addition.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Pub Date: February 26, 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Putnam
Product #: 9781984814128
Pages: Hardcover, 432

This story was very interesting, to say the least, but it was hard to get through.

Now, before you jump into conclusions, I want to say that this 3 starred review is not a bad review, nor because I said that this book didn’t do it for me doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I just felt like the overall story wasn’t interesting to me. The storyline was great, the actual characters we very well developed, and yet, the story fell flat to me.

In this story, we follow the young character Keralie, who ran away from her parents to become a thief under the command of one of her good friends. In this world, there’s a nation divided into four quadrants, each of which has its own queen. The queens live in one palace all together, and from there they rule their respective quadrants. There’s an assassin in this story trying to kill the queens and Keralie has taken upon herself to stop the killings from happening and warn the queens before its too late. With the help of her friend Varin, they set into an impossible task of sneaking away from dangers and trying to save their lives at the same time.

“Loving someone means risking your heart being broken,” … “But those moments you are together triumphs over any darkness.”

As for the logistics of the book, there was a lot going on and too much information to process in the first 5 chapters. I was so overwhelmed by the time I reached chapter five, I had to stop reading the book for a couple of hours and rest my brain for a little bit because of information overload. The writing of the author was odd too. She would use weird words to describe her characters’ physical appearance, which at often times it made her writing seem a little careless. On the other hand, there were times where her writing excelled. She wrote some very powerful and emotional scenes where she could really make us feel what was going on.

The characters were well written, but I still feel like there was much going on. You see, besides Keralie’s POV, there were other POVs throughout this story. The most important ones were the POVs of the queens. Each had their own dedicated chapters to them, but those chapters were so full of information that it was hard to process everything at once. Something that I appreciated about Keralie was how funny she was. She managed to stay upbeat and always looking forward, despite all of her problems. Her connection with Varin was very cute and I absolutely loved their chemistry.

Scholte spends a lot of time in world-building, which I think its a great thing because of the way her world is structured. Her story wasn’t too long but there were times when the story seemed to drag on forever. And I don’t know why, but the ending seemed a little bit rushed to me. I feel like authors struggle with this a lot, they focus so much in giving us a great beginning that they forget about the ending. Although the ending in this book was okay, it still felt rushed but there wasn’t a major cliffhanger that left you feeling incomplete.

Yes, there were some things that fell flat for me in this story but other ones that didn’t. There are many things to look forward to in this book, so please give it a try!

If you like Three Dark Crown, Red Queen, Blood Rose Rebellion, Six of Crows, The Gilded Wolves, etc., then you’ll most certainly enjoy this book. If you are 12 years old and older you can read this book. And as always I want to thank you for taking the time for reading my post, I truly appreciate it.

So amazing. I look forward to reading the rest. Great snack peak. everything in this preview has me hooked!

The fact that this starts with one very plucky young lady leading a heist is enough for me to so need to read the rest of this book. Heist stories will forever and always hold my heart, *especially* when they're lead by cocky teenage girls. I can't wait to read the full story!

A divided nation. Four Queens. A ruthless pickpocket. A noble messenger. And the murders that unite them.
​
Get in quick, get out quicker.

These are the words Keralie Corrington lives by as the preeminent dipper in the Concord, the central area uniting the four quadrants 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 quarter. For in the nation of Quadara, each quarter is strictly divided from the other. Four queens rule together, one from each region:

Toria: the intellectual quarter that values education and ambition
Ludia: the pleasure quarter that values celebration, passion, and entertainment
Archia: the agricultural quarter that values simplicity and nature
Eonia: the futurist quarter that values technology, stoicism and harmonious community

When Keralie intercepts a comm disk coming from the House of Concord, what seems like a standard job goes horribly wrong. Upon watching the comm disks, Keralie sees all four queens murdered in four brutal ways. Hoping that discovering the intended recipient will reveal the culprit – information that is bound to be valuable bartering material with the palace – Keralie teams up with Varin Bollt, the Eonist messenger she stole from, to complete Varin’s original job and see where it takes them.

This little peek has me so excited that I'm not sure how I'll make it to the release date. I'm hoping the leaks were correct and I can add this on to my March BOTM. 🤞🤞🤞 The characters have me intrigued, and I can't wait to read more about this Queendom. Definitely in my March TBR!
I will update my review once I finish the book.

Thank You Netgalley for a glimpse into this intriguing read

Interesting opening. The history of the kingdom seems a little simplistic, but the current situation from the first five chapters is intriguing and well-paced with engaging characters and a nice build-up. I’ll definitely check out the full book.