3.5 stars!

We had some good character development with this one. And the world building was incredible, which I was expecting of course! However I just didn't think the plot was as strong here. And the romance, while cute, just wasn't really adding all too much for me, but overall the book was definitely still enjoyable.

And that ending!

What a powerful text that showcases courage, strength, and tenacity to overcome trial and tribulations. What a great novel for YA to teach these life lessons. This would be a great add to classrooms

A Queen of Gilded Horns was a worthy follow-up to A River of Royal Blood. Eva has fled from Ternain with a captive Isa alongside for the journey. Told from multiple points of view, Amanda Joy does a great job in showcasing each character and there is continued greatness in the world-building. Although I didn't find it as fast-paced as the first book in the duology (particularly in the middle of the book), I still enjoyed where the story took me.

3.5/5 (rounded up to 4)

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for early access to this title. A Queen of Gilded Horns is the sequel to A River of Royal Blood duology and it definitely packed a punch. This is a North African inspired YA fantasy that will really get the blood flowing. In this sequel we get to read from multiple characters view points which really sets a different tone from the first. I really enjoyed this. I enjoyed the political intrigue, the world building, the complex character development and the writing style. I don't want to say too much as to spoil since this is a sequel! I will say that I was rooting for the MC throughout this entire book and felt like it wrapped up so nicely! Highly recommend!

Honest review for an ARC copy on NetGalley

Okay, so over all I was torn on this book. I liked the first book in the series, A River of Royal Blood but this one did not grip me the way I so wanted it to. I think the main problem with this is that it keeps switching to different points of view. I am more of a one person point of view. It got a little confusing at times for me. I wanted to focus more on just Eva. I liked her a lot and loved tense relationship between Eva and her sister Isa. It felt like a real relationship between sisters.

It's a good book but I feel like it could be better.

3.5/5 stars: The Queen of Gilded Horns was a satisfactory follow up to A RIVER OF ROYAL BLOOD that shows Eva on the run and on a quest to find out more about her heritage with her sister Isa as her prisoner. It has been such a long time since I read the first book that I felt lost in the first half of the book. While that is not a reflection on the book itself or the author's skill, it did signifcantly hamper how immersed I felt in the book and thus my enjoyment of the book. One of my issues with the first book was that we were limited to just Eva's perspective in a story that was marketed to be about sisters. Thankfully, not only do we have scenes from Isadore's perspective (which is awesome!), but we get Baccha's, Aketo's and a new character named Ysai's perspectives as well. I thought that doing this worked really well for the author and how she propelled the story forward. I also noticed that the quality of the author's writing itself has been improved since her debut as well. I loved getting deeper with these characters, especially the female characters such as Isadore that were really well developed and complex. The ending itself though felt a little underwhelming, but I loved seeing Eva and Isa work together to survive and to navigate their complicated relationship. THE QUEEN OF GILDED HORNS is a story about owning who you are and the complicated dynamics between sisters who are pitted against each other.

Amanda Joy always wins my heart with these characters, what a wonderful ending to a brilliant work! I love Eva with all my heart, I loved the way Eva struggled with her powers, and I love the dynamic cast!

“Change comes and with it, so shall the truth.”

Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes included in this review are from an unfinished copy of the book.

Overall Rating: 3.5 / 5
Plot: 3.25 / 5
Writing: 4 / 5
Characters: 4 / 5
Setting: 4 / 5
Romance: 3.5 / 5

As a warning, this review will contain spoilers for the first book! Read my review for A River of Royal Blood here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3372833705?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I can confidently say I enjoyed A Queen of Gilded Horns more than the first book. This book picks up a few months after A River of Royal Blood ended, when Eva is on the run with Isadore as her prisoner.The book is told primarily from Eva’s point of view, but it was fun to see segments of the story told in other characters’ perspective. It was nice to see the backstory and motivations behind Isadore’s character unfold. I finally felt some connection to characters as the story progressed, but certain character arcs felt incomplete and rushed at the end of the book.
Like the first book, I was captivated by the rich worldbuilding and magic system. I enjoyed the continuation of Eva’s character development as she explores her new magick. I also enjoyed seeing loose ends from the first book being tied up and the introduction of new characters. Though I wanted slightly more from the characters, A Queen of Gilded Horns was a satisfying conclusion to this duology.

This book is super interesting and the political intrigue is fascinating but just didn't hit the spot for me. I felt like it moved too slow at times and then too fast at others times, especially the parts where it was inconvenient. I felt that that odd pacing threw me off my reading experience of this book a bit too much that I kept getting pulled out of the story too much. The character growth and story progression were good enough that I didn't completely lose interest though.

First off, I will never understand how this incredible duology isn’t getting the rightful hype it deserves. The first book was absolutely amazing and had full fleshed characters that I immediately connected to, amazing world building, and just a great paced fantasy adventure. A Queen of Gilded Horns wasn’t any different. I fell in love with the world again and the characters.

I love when a book has multiple perspectives and while the first book did not, the author came through in this book. We get quite a few perspectives and it helped me understand the story more and made me care for even more characters. I really loved the way this book went and was quite satisfied with the ending. I think this was such a unique fantasy plot and world, I loved how much thought went into building this magical world. The politics that intertwine and learning how corrupt everything is made it such an enjoyable read. I thought the main characters had some really great growth from the first book.

I am already anticipating what Amanda Joy is going to do next because this was a compelling duology that I loved.

I am really starting to get on the duology bandwagon. I love how stories like this can bring so much together like they do. I think I am adjusting to this author's writing style as well. She tends to be more of a slow burn writer who brings the vivid world building and characters into shape before the racing ending comes sliding in to seal the deal. I am not one who is huge on political intrigue but I love how she ties this into her plot without it feeling overbearing. My favorite part that separates this from book one the most is the sisters. Having a few more portions of Isa and not just Eva really made their dynamic more complex and intriguing the deeper I got.

The themes in this second book were related to things like classism and prejudices and weaves the topics beautifully into a well delivered message for the readers. I loved the growth of the characters and have a loving fascination for the magic system Joy has built in this world. I would have preferred less of the multiple POVs and think that a focus on just the sisters POVs really would've been a great touch. The pacing is slower than I typically like and the ending did feel a smidge rushed to me. I feel that the ending lacked something. I am not sure if it is because the conflict wasn't really large enough or because it comes together fairly quickly. I just feel a sense of too perfect in sense.

I am excited to see what Joy comes up with next in her future endeavors. I have found a lot of traits that I enjoyed in her books and look forward to more of her work. I want to thank Penguin Teen for this gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review and bringing this author to my shelves.

True rating 3.5/5.

When I finished reading A Queen of Gilded Horns, one of the first thoughts was that I enjoyed this book, and that I didn’t really have to force myself to finish it. This sequel definitely moves at a slower pace than A River of Royal Blood. Then again, second books have to delve into the consequences of the actions in the first. Most of A Queen of Gilded Horns was Eva and her crew figuring out what to do next. They are wanderers with a sort of direction.

I really do love this super cool magick system, and I am glad that we got to learn more about Aketo’s family, Eva’s powers, and the Tribe. While some may find the alternating POVs disorienting, I found that it helped me stay interested. There was no POV that I did not like reading, but the consistent changing kept everything moving a bit more fluidly. In fact, I think Eva’s chapters were the only ones told in the first person; the rest (Baccha, Isa, and Aketo) were told in the third person.

There was a point when I thought “sooo is there going to be another book?” The book ended quite abruptly, and I personally like more complicated endings, so A Queen of Gilded Horns felt like everything worked out a little too easily, especially since the situation seemed so complicated in the first place. There was a lot of build up and not that much satisfaction in the end. However, it is not the worst ending out there.

So, again I would recommend this conclusion! The world building truly is fascinating, and A Queen of Gilded Horns explores the sister relationship between Isa and Eva even more than in the first book!

Leading female character(s), strength, courage, with such incredible world building! What’s not to LOVE about this duology series!

I love fantasy novels, but it’s rare for me to really find a fantasy novel that checks all the boxes for me. In the first novel, A River of Royal Blood, we are introduced to Isa and Eva, and I highly recommend that you begin your journey with this novel there, because what’s to come in this sequel, will just wrap up the entire story for you like a beautiful little gift ready to be unwrapped and read any time you want to revisit this magical world.

It’s definitely hard to believe though that this series is completed in only 2 books, I feel like it definitely had the potential to become a series like that of AEITA or ACOTAR.

A little disappointed that it ended so quickly, but who’s to say we will never hear from these characters again in the future. *fingers crossed*

Excited to reread this one for years to come!

Eva has fled Ternain with her guard and a captive Isa in tow. She has gone in search for answers to stunning revelations that occurred on the evening of her nameday and to find a way to bring peace between her sister and herself, before one kills the other.
My favorite part about this sequel is Isa’s character growth. She changed so much over the course of the journey the characters take. I really like how her arch was resolved, especially after she battled her internal demons.
The world building is so rich in this book. Every time I sat down to read, I forgot where I was. I was transported to Myre in an instant.
This was the ending this duology deserved. I loved every minute. Highly recommend this pair of books. 5/5

Quick Stats
Overall: 4.5 stars
Characters:4.5/5
Plot:5/5
Setting:5/5
Writing:4/5

This review might not make a ton of sense if you haven’t read my review of A River of Royal Blood, so feel free to do so here.
Once again, Amanda Joy drew me head first into a lush, magical world. The world-building remains my favorite part of the duology, and I genuinely have nothing negative to say on that point. It’s beautiful and perfect to escape into (because who doesn’t use reading as a form of escapism?).
We got a lot more characterization in this book, which was great! I loved watching Eva, Aketo, and even Isa grow as characters. Especially Isa. She felt very underdeveloped in the first book, but she really gets her time to shine in the A Queen of Gilded Horns and I am here for it! We learn a lot about her personality, her motivations, and just why she is who she is, which was something I felt was lacking in ARoRB. I liked the split POV, although I kept getting confused for a minute when it switched back to Eva, because it went from third person to first person. Not in a bad way, just like, wait, what just happened I thought this book was in third person? But I stopped getting so jarred about halfway through the book.
Then we get back to Falun. Falun was my least favorite character in the first book, simply because he has no point. He felt as if he was only there for tokenized LGBTQ+ rep. He had no point. I was really hoping he would have more of a point in this book. He didn’t. He actually had less of a point. A few more bi characters were present in this book—still a bit tokenized, but at least less blatantly—so what little purpose he served in the first book, ceased to exist in this one. He was there, but only ever mentioned in passing. I still maintain that the series would have been stronger if his character simply didn’t exist.
The plot twist (I guess you can call it that?) at the end did surprise me. It made sense, kind of. All the clues were there, but there was no real explanation given, so it fell hollow. The entire ending wrapped up too quickly. A lot of things needed some explaining. They just happened with little to no solid reason behind it other than that’s what needed to happen to achieve a happy ending.
However, the plot and writing were otherwise very good. I didn’t have any issues with awkwardness in the writing and dialogue like I did in the first book. Everything flowed smoothly up until the ending. The plot kept me hooked from the start and I think that how good it was throughout made the lackluster ending all the more jarring.
Despite its faults, it was a solid conclusion to a great—and grossly underrated!—fantasy duology.

A Queen of Gilded Horns is the last book of A River of Royal Blood duology and it’s the perfect ending to this magical royal fantasy.

The narrative in A River of Royal Blood came only from Eva but in AQoGH we hear from a variety of characters, including Isa who I was so curious to get to know through her perspective. I enjoyed the variety of different perspectives and gathering insight in to the other characters.

The world building is phenomenal! There’s political intrigue that is so tangled and corrupt and a host of unique magical beings which combined makes for a complex atmosphere where no one can be trusted. Family pitted against family, friend against friend, there were times I wasn’t quite sure what the underlying motivation of each character was but it’s wrapped up tightly at the end, much to my satisfaction!

Eva is a character that I can get behind and root for; she is an underdog who has fought for her beliefs despite being met with a harsh and unloving mother, a talented beautiful sister – who could possibly murder her for the crown, and feelings of inadequacy based on classism throughout the country she lives in.

This is a duology I’d recommend to any fan of fantasy with compelling world building and an intricate plot that carries a strong message!

My thanks to Penguin Teen for gifting me a DRC of A Queen of Gilded Horns for review.

For some reason I could not connect to the story or the characters in this one. There is an audience out there for this, but I just wasn't the target. The plot setup was interesting though!

A Queen of Gilded Horns is a sequel and has multiple pov. I absolutely loved the world building and Eva a lot. I loved the pace but as we got to the ending it did feel a little rushed but i am not complaining. I am definitely excited for the next installment.

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars rounded up

*sigh* This was disappointing because I LOVED the first book and high hopes for A Queen of Gilded Horns, but while it has a lot going for it (love the world, the characters, the ideas...) the middle of the book moved at a glacial pace and the ending felt really rushed and underdeveloped with a few things that didn't totally make sense. I think it's such an interesting world, there's all this political intrigue, characters with complicated relationships who possibly want to murder each other, hidden secrets...all of which should be great! But there was so much buildup to have things resolved in just a few pages. The stakes seem high, but then basically nothing really goes very wrong for the MC other than getting severely injured at one point. I was hoping for a more satisfying conclusion, but others might enjoy this more than I did. I think the high point is the arc of the sister relationship- that was lovely and handled really well. I received an advance copy of this for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Overall, I liked our growth in story and characterization (aka I felt less at arms length with our characters than in book one). Plus that ending and the magik system! I can not wait to see what Amanda Joy comes up with in the future.