This was a long read, and whilst I had other things to do today, I am all about slow burn queer fantasy and this was fantastic!

Off the bat, its been a long time since I’ve had to put a book down because of the amount of rage I held towards the villain. Zander is incredibly well-written and consequently incredibly easy to hate. His role in the book, and the amount of physical and political power he wields is incredibly frustrating. I would have thrown the book, but if I broke my tablet I wouldn’t have been able to finish it!

Traitors of the Black Crown opens with a series of Trials for Knights of the kingdom, hosted by Zander (who takes great joy in unnecessary cruelty). Despite her best efforts, our protagonist Raena is banished to a foreign Duchy to serve Duchess Avenna (Aven) as political and violent turmoil washes over the land.

I adored Raena, and liked Aven – their character development was both logical AND a slow burn, which I really enjoyed; it made sense and was romantic at the same time, something that other queer romances can struggle to balance. I am all for secret identities and also people falling in love with personalities and their values rather than just because they are queer.

Can I give this 4.75 stars? It’s so so close to 5 (so I’ll round it up!) but I would have loved a map and/or a mini history at the start of this excellent book. A significant amount of character development was rooted in the previous conflict and the areas involved and so, whilst the worldbuilding was excellent and often clearly communicated, it would be good to have something along those lines to introduce the reader.

However, I adored Traitors of the Black Crown, and it physically hurt me to have to put it down to sleep last night, and then I ignored most of my work today (whoops) to finish it. F/F romance, politics and conflict – a definite must-read recommendation for 2021!

My thanks to NetGalley, Hansen House and the brilliant Cate Pearce for this e-ARC!

Raena's parents were killed by the queen when she was a young girl and since then she has been forced to hide in plain site by masquerading as a man, a knight. She has always worked hard to maintain her image so that no one would discover the truth, but she finds herself conflicted when she falls in love with Duchess Avenna.

I really enjoyed this story and the character development. The writing was easy to follow and the romance between Raena and Avenna was quite beautiful. Aven and Raena's love was a remarkable example of how love doesn't choose gender, but it is the person and soul you fall in love with that matters. The politics and history was a bit heavy for my tastes, and I was definitely hoping the next page I read would bring me back to the characters and romance. The ending was quite abrupt and left me with a lot of questions, but this book is the first in a series. This was my first time to a F/F romance book and I thought it was really well done! Since this is the first in a series, I am 100% looking forward to the next one and seeing what happens next!!!

I really enjoyed this book, the characters were all well written, and I loved the relationship between Aven and Raena, though I wish we got more time to see their relationship in the second half of the book. It started off a little clunky and strange, though it smoothed out more as the book went on. When the pov first switched to Zarana’s it became clunky and smoothed out once again. The plot with the Boens was strange at how abruptly it ended, but I do hope that it continues in the second book.

SAPPHIC FANTASY!!!

This was everything I needed, seriously. I find that queer rep (especially female queer rep) is few and far between in fantasy, and this delivered everything I needed.

This follows three women as they vow to betray a monarchy that refuses to admire them. This is full of angst, anger, and gripping world building. Pick it up!

This book was really good!! It isn't common to find a good f/f romance when it comes to fantasy books.
The plot of this book was so intriguing and the main characters were amazing. I loved Aven and Rae. Also, the writing was so nice. I can´t wait for book 2!!

I loved the book! When I read the description I jumped all over the chance to read this book because I love this genre and my fingers were crossed that this would be as good as the description lead me to believe. It was better! There was intrigue, suspense, blood, gore, love...it had everything. And the writing was superb. I loved Aven and Rae. They were sweet but strong and I can’t wait for book 2!

you know whats funny a couple months ago i was trying to find a f/f knight story but the options were very limited and now i come across this... i can’t believe netgally knows of my bery niche interests but anyways. i love the depth of the characters and the rich history that comes with the world. the f/f romance was especially my favorite part most because these types of relationships are very limited when it comes to fantasy books. it was fun to see how all of the multiple POVs played out while also intersecting with the main plot which was very reminiscent of the priory of the orange tree.