Member Reviews
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.
I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.
I finally got a change to finish Queen of All. It had a strong beginning and I felt really interested early on in the story, but it fell a little flat as nothing really happened. Also would have appreciated some romance in the story! Overall was just an OK read but if it not for receiving an ARC, I wouldn’t have finished.
I didn't enjoy this book that much it fell a bit flat. character development and worldbuilding weren't all the way there, and I got a little bored halfway through.
Such a great book! I enjoyed reading this one so much! I highly recommend this book. Side note: the cover!!!!
Hard hard pass. This was just for me... The characters felt boring and no growth. Stuff happend but, it was just... meh?
The writing was beautiful and the characters felt very realistic. It portrayed unrequited affection well, and I definitely do plan on reading the sequel! Personally, however, the book fell short with its plot, pacing, and world building (or lack thereof). Certain unimportant things felt very dragged out, but conflict was resolved too quickly. I would also love for the world to be explored in more detail in the sequel, because there wasn’t much for us to work off of. Overall, I’m glad I read this book, even if it did have some flaws.
I am so grateful with Net galley and Gen Z Publishing for giving me this ARC in exchange of an honest opinion.
This book has a story that take me a lot, or for me, it was so difficult to end the reading. But it is entertaining. Really entertaining.
The story is about this girl that lives on kind of like a province or something like that. One day her cousin gets a letter from the prince. They make a journey to the palace and get there. There Jena explores a new world in the palace.
What I liked a lot is this story and the way the author narrated it. The story contains a little adventure, romance, emotions. What more can I say? I liked it a lot.
3.5 STARS
If you like magic, unrequited love, turmoil and an evil prince then this book maybe for you. This is basically a coming of age story it follows Jena and Sisi growing into women. Jena struggles with her unrequited love towards Sisi. I think this is a really great story. I really enjoyed the story development and world building. I would recommend to anyone that is looking for a coming of age story starting a lgbtq main character. Its a great read.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
In the Kingdom in which Jeni resides, there are two types of houses: those that are Numbered and those that are not. Those who are Numbered are those who are eligible for succession to the throne, like Jeni’s best friend and cousin Sisi. But Jeni is just an average farm girl with no thought that she’d ever get close to the royal court — until Sisi is summoned by the crown prince to the City, in what seems an attempt to woo her. Jeni and her Aunt Mae travel with Sisi to the royal palace, where Sisi, suspicious of the prince’s intentions, enlists Jeni’s help in learning about the prince’s role in the death of Sisi’s parents. But when Sisi does fall in love, Sisi must decide how far she’s willing to go to help Sisi’s dreams come true, when those dreams no longer involve Jeni.
This is a YA fantasy that follows a well-known path — a young and stunningly beautiful women with humble upbringing meets the prince and fall in love. But in this book, we get the story of that woman’s best friend, who is grappling with her sexuality and romantic feelings for her best friend. There’s a particular scene with Jeni and her aunt, as Jeni is starting to understand her feelings for Sisi, that was I really loved. It also highlights that queerness is relegated to the shadows in the kingdom. I was intrigued by Jeni’s story, especially once I learned about her mother’s strange departure from her life as an infant.
The pacing of the book felt somewhat off — a lot of time passed through the book with nothing to mark the changing of time. The author may have had some key milestones to meet but was unsure of how to put them together. While Jeni and Sisi (and their aunt, to a degree) had strongly developed characters, the rest of the characters were more like line drawings than full fleshed characters. Additionally, this book seems to be more of a set up novel for more action-packed sequel(s). That being said, I enjoyed the book, and I’ll likely read the next installments!
I really enjoyed this fantasy read, the characters were really well done and I enjoyed the world that was built in this book. Loved getting to know Jena and Sisi.
I LOVE WHEN AUTHORS GIVE PLUS SIZE REP IN BOOKS! That was my main pull to read this one! This is a great YA, LGBTQ+ novel that has wonderful story telling!
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
This book was such a beautiful story, and look at the cover, I love it so much. Read this book, you won't be disappointed.
I. Adored. This. Book. I am so looking forward to the sequel. I imagine there will be one especially after that ending. I absolutely cannot wait for people to stumble over this lovely first book that will surely end up being a series.
The things I absolutely love? Main characters of color, body diversity, and queer representation that felt right to me. I enjoyed watching character growth, and I loved to see our MC come into her own. It was so lovely to have a bigger bodied, dark-skinned woman seen as the most beautiful woman in the world - I have been trying to diversify my reading this year and I felt really good about the representation in this book. I definitely want to live in this world and watch these two women burn the patriarchy down.
I can't remember the last time I sat down and read a book from start to finish, but this book was worth it. The pacing was fast and it kept me interested and hooked because nothing felt like it was being dragged on longer than it should have. The relationships between the characters are all so realistic, characters don't just claim to love each other, they show it through their actions. The relationship between Sisi and Jena is so loving and is obviously the main relationship in this book, but the others aren't weak either. The scenes between Aunt Mae and Jena were actually some of my favorites and her tense bond with her father literally brought me to tears towards the end of the book. Yes, there are a lot of loose ends that need tying up, but that's what a sequel is for and I, for one, cannot wait to get my hands on it.
I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley
This for free like a love letter to my young queer self. Beautiful, heartbreakingly true at times. But it is all that I could help for and the Young adult glg fantasy
Thank you to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I read this entire book in one sitting. Okay I was trapped on an airplane, but regardless this was the perfect book for the trip. Queen of All follows young Jena who is a farmer's daughter. Jena has never known her mother and no one in her household speaks of her. Her only friend Sisi is a lost heir to a noble Numebered household and the Kingdom's famed beauty. The two have spent almost all of their childhood together, but when Sisi is asked to come to the palace as a guest of the Prince, both of their lives will change forever.
As far as action and plot goes, this book is very much character based. It's focused on Jena's growth as a person and her and Sisi's adventures in the castle. While there is a plot, it is very slow moving. More time is spent developing the world and mythology system--which I greatly appreciated. I loved learning more about the Kingdom's relationship with magic and the history of it. The ending really hints at a sequel and hopefully one that will focus on the relationship Jena will develop with other people.
Jena was a smol bean, and I really just wanted to protect her the whole book. She's more introverted and hangs out in Sisi's shadow a lot. The friendship between these two girls was everything. I loved that neither of them would give up on each other. I was kind of sad that Jena's crush was unrequited, but I'm sure she'll find someone who will be able to return her love--if she wants of course.
Overall, this was a great introduction to the world and I really loved meeting all these characters.
Unfortunately there was an issue with this book as the file downloaded only seemed to contain the front and back covers, so I can't give an accurate review of the whole of this book; however, I did track down and read the sample from Amazon, and I enjoyed what I was able to read. The writing seems to flow well and the characters are well-introduced. I look forward to perhaps reading this in future.
i enjoyed the narration and prose of this book! it was extremely satisfying to see jena’s character grow the way she did. however, the plot had too many holes in it for me to give this anything more than 2.5 stars (rounded up to 3). the threat made by ricard at the ball never came to light, nor was anything done about returning magic to the kingdom. furthermore, no one is ever found for the murder of garem which i found highly unsatisfying seeing as everyone was sure it was ricard. the plot could’ve been wrapped up neatly and dealt with whilst also projecting the message of jena’s story in my opinion.