Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

I was pleasantly surprised by this! Had to get through the first couple of chapters and settle in before I really got into it but once I did I really enjoyed it. Good pace, easy to love characters. The action was well done, and it had a good amount of intrigue and romance. I am going to make sure to get my hands on the next one and see what happens!

The premise of the book sounded intriguing right off the bat, reminding me a little of the Twelfth night, which is the reason I was eager to pick this up. The multiple Point of views makes it an interesting read as you understand the characters better and lets you know exactly how they feel first hand.
Rowan and Aven's banter is fun to read and the way their story progresses if cute. I found the story to be moving at a good pace and I did not feel that there was an information overload at any point, so kudos to the author for that. Personally, I felt like it was a refreshing read with characters you like and good character development.
I would definitely recommend this to readers who love a fast paced read!

I really enjoyed this book. I read it in the middle of dealing with Hurricane Ida and it was a great distraction. I felt a distinct Game of Thrones vibe several times throughout the story and really enjoyed the layers of history and politics. I loved the relationship between our main characters Raena and Aven. I look forward to the next in the series.

I went into this one with high hopes, but was unfortunately disappointed. Although I was happy to see a f/f romance, as well as bisexual and lesbian representation in a fantasy setting, this one didn't meet my expectations.

To me, the story was very slow, and I found myself bored of the plot line at times. One of my main issues was the pacing of this one. It was quite heavy on the politics, something which wasn't emphasized in the synopsis, and I was surprised to find out just how much of the plot revolved around political happenings.

In theory, this is a book I would have loved. Raena is a woman who crossdresses to be a knight and get revenge on the queen, and falls in love with Even, the duchess? A retelling of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night? Sounds right up my alley! Unfortunately, the pacing was not consistent, and the work as a whole fell quite flat. I wasn't a fan of the instant romance, lack of good world-building, and the meandering plot.

I mostly feel robbed of a good sapphic fantasy romance! I look forward to reading more of the author's works in the future, in the hopes that future novels will improve upon my issues with this one. But for now, I'd only recommend the work for people who want a politics-heavy fantasy novel, who don't mind instant romance, and who aren't put off by slow stories.

Traitors of the Black Crown by Cate Pearce

Raena Schinen has a lot of issues, firstly she's not supposed to be alive because everyone believes she perished in a fire along with her entire family and bloodline.

Her second issue stems from the first but has a creative spin in that she can no longer be Raena Schinen so instead, she now goes by Sir Rowan. As if pretending to be a man wasn't enough, Raena now finds herself straying towards the fairer sex when she becomes the knight for Duchess Avanna.

Thirdly, and pay attention because this one is the ultimate doozie, Raena is out for vengeance against her Kingdom's Queen and Prince who arranged the fire in which her entire family perished.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about Raena who has lived her life by one simple rule: Never let them get too close and who can blame her? As she is thrust into service for Avenna, and Raena begins craving her touch, the simple truth of her identity could devastate her entire life's purpose. I honestly felt for Raena, her struggles of hiding who she is and what she wants was a torment that I cannot articulate.

Traitors of the Black Crown did have one great lesson after all the battles, lying, conniving, and treachery which is the importance of understanding people's motives, looking beneath the surface for that which lingers untold.

I am truly torn by this novel because despite having a strong LGBTQ representation and an enigmatic main character, I had some issues which were mainly the inconsistency in the writing and plot development. While there was very intricate world-building, there were certain areas that felt stretched and seemed to go on forever without any relevance to the salient points.

Thank you to Hansen House and NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I am not sure how to feel about this story. I have enjoyed it but I found it not the easiest to read. For me it meandered a little too much in the telling and took far too long to get to the point most of which I had already guessed from the hints being dropped.

I enjoyed the Romance between Rowan/Raena and Aven and appreciated the care given to its development. However half a book with nothing else happening had me almost dnfing it. Once the wider plot picked up though I started to get more into the story.

I would be interested, now that the Romance is fully established, to know more of the future for all three races. I will look out fir a second bok to be released.

Raena is living a duplicitous life as a male knight named Rowan. Her plan of revenge against the Queen for the death of her family is disrupted by her exile to the service of once commoner duchess Avenna. As circumstances make them unlikely allies, romance seems to bloom. Things may not be as they seem, since a bigger threat appears and enemies become allies.

If you like lots of details in your descriptions, then this is tailored for you. Even though there is a lot of info to digest, I think the author does quite well in relaying it to us through the narrative and cleverly from the dialogue. Unfortunately, it does sort of fall into the trap of these kinds of fantasies having a lot of names, places and mentions of battles.

Each POV is equally interesting and conveys the right emotion and knowledge needed for you to know and care for the character. There are parts so brilliantly encompassing of the story, you forget whose POV it is. The conversations between Rowan/Raena and Aven are amusing and intelligent (they play well off each other) and their growing feelings for one another are smile-worthy. That and the impossibility and absurdness of it makes you anticipate the reveal, if there is to be a reveal, even more.

The intriguing plot progresses successfully at a great pace, adequate enough for you to digest the events transpiring. The action scenes are quite exhilarating, nailbiting to the extreme, especially the fight scenes. This story has a villain you love to loathe.

Loyalty is the attribute most celebrated here. Compassion and kindness are always the best way. Love is love. Being true to yourself is everything.

In between the smaller reveals & surprises you anticipate a bigger reveal coming, the build-up leading to something that will change everything. And it does. Promising an even more exciting sequel, despite the abrupt ending.

With the essence of Twelfth Night, this is a medieval-touched, enthralling adventure fantasy you will absolutely enjoy.

I think the story has a lot of potential. The pacing is slow and it takes a while to get into the story. Think now that the foundation is there the rest of the series could be great.

This was a good fantasy story. This was a book I was really excited to read, until I noticed the early reviews. I was seeing all these low stars and DNF’s, so my heart sunk and I went into this read with low expectations, but now I’m sitting here confused because I enjoyed this story. It’s not perfect, and being a debut it has its newbie bumps, but I had a lot of fun with it and I can’t wait for the next book.

After seeing some of early DNF’s, I figured this book was going to start really slow. Luckily, that was not the case at all. Pearce throws us right into the action and immediately we are in a possible life and death situation. I read so much fantasy that I’m use to a real slog in the beginning so this was a treat. I did think overall the world building suffered a bit, not having a slow beginning that the author could try to hide some info-dumps into, but entertainment wise, this was a fun way to start the book.

I do want to mention that this is ADULT fantasy and not YA. I recently read that when a woman author writes fantasy people assume it is YA but when a man does they think its adult fantasy. I’m not going to go into that but I think its food for thought. I love YA fantasy personally, but I enjoyed the change and I appreciated the adult characters. And while this was adult, it is not very explicit in its violence. It is there and people do get hurt and die, but this is not a gory, bloody book. While I’m no kid expert, I think a wide range of ages could read this.

A few people have mentioned that this has a Game of Thrones feel and I have to agree. I would not have been surprised if this started as a fanfic before it was developed into a book. The villain character is one of those over the top ‘mwahaha’ bad guys, who is very Joffrey like, and Queen Zarana, an older version of Cersei, who you love to hate but are also fascinated with. The two main characters were wonderful, but they were a tiny bit wooden at times, so it was hard not to be really interested in the Queen.

There is a romance that is WLW and is really sweet. It might have moved a little fast, but I thought they had genuine chemistry together with good flirty banter. Because the mains are so great, they might have been almost too good together. There wasn’t any conflict or good angsty moments and I was missing that fact. I think Pearce was trying so hard to make likeable characters that she didn’t give them enough faults. But if you want more of a sweeter romance, then it should work for you. The characters do sleep together, but most sex scenes are fade-to-black except for one I remember as only mildly explicit.

I don’t think people will find anything new here, and if you have really high expectations you might be disappointed, but overall this was a good story. This is a case of me not agreeing with the average Goodreads rating, for this book, as it is oddly low. I feel like I read a different book than other people did. It has its issues sure, but it’s entertaining and is a quality debut. I think Pearce is only going to get better and I’m excited to read the sequel.

*I was given the opportunity to read this book ahead of the release date, courtesy of NetGalley*

In the first few pages of the first chapter, I wasn't sure. The introduction to the main character (though there is more than one I would say) was a bit clunky. It felt like the first pages were the hardest to write or that the story hadn't exactly found its tone or voice. But quickly, things got better, much better.

I enjoyed myself quite a lot for most of the book. The changes in PoV was cleverly done, didn't felt gimmicky or unmotivated, it felt like it served a narrative purpose. The 3 main characters are all well build, or at least the fondation is there so that you feel like they are whole.

You think you guessed the twist coming up numerous times, but (and that's very rare for me), there are still angles and surprises you just cannot see coming. Surely, you don't have all the info, but I didn't feel tricked, it was just fun to be surprised even with the clear hints sprinkled throughout the book.

However, other than the clumsy intro, there's 2 things I felt could have been better:
• Rowan/Raena is not the same character has she was set up to be during the last stretch of her journey. And I'm not talking at how she perceives things (this felt natural). I'm talking about how she is written while interacting with Aven. I don't know who's this character, and I don't feel this was bury inside her all along either. How she act and talks in a precise part of the story where they both ride the same horse... It wasn't good, it was annoying. Something isn't well built with this, it isn't connecting with her persona.
• The ending. I get it, it's a series, there will be at least another book. But it felt too dry and abrupt.

That being said, these are minors in comparison to the real enjoyment I felt while reading and the clever way the story unfolded. I thought this was going to be a story about revenge from 2 unlikely allies, plain and simple, but it ended up being so much more than that. Will definitely read the next one, I want to know what is going to happen. I also really liked Aven and want to see her again.

“Traitors of the black crown” is a retelling of the Shakespearean Twelfth evening, which follows Raena Schiden who is a young lady whose family got killed by the seat under charges of treachery. She alone escapes it with the assistance of a family companion. She is compelled to shroud her personality via preparing as a knight and taking up the character of a man. She develops to be an exceptional knight, nonetheless, she has one significant goal- to look for retribution for her family’s demise and she will do anything to accomplish this. Killing the sovereign who destroyed her childhood will be her lone vindication. Due to some woeful and crazy wrongdoing, she gets outcasted from her realm to live in another where she meets Duchess Avenna, who turns out to be the affection interest. An old foe prowls and before long war breaks out. Numerous things occur along the line, insider facts are uncovered, people die, blunders are made, and love blooms.

I was expecting a thrill-pressed experience, yet this book is all the more a sluggish-paced sentiment with a couple of provocative and hot scenes, some action scenes, and a great deal of voyaging. My primary issue with this book is the exceptionally sluggish speed, and the plot is not very interesting. Very little occurs in the initial segment of the book, and surprisingly however the subsequent part has more activity. I didn’t feel associated with the characters so I couldn’t have cared less regarding what befell them. The plot blends with the legislative issues, battling, and a charming sentiment. There are a couple of distinctive POVs in this book. A few sections are told according to Raena’s viewpoint, others from Aven, and some are even from the sovereign of the ruler’s perspective. The world-building and history are intriguing and top-notch.

The author works hard by giving the reader foundation data without depending on information unloading. Occasionally, mostly in the book, it seemed like the characters were continually discussing the past war. The ladies in the book are pioneers, and Aven is a strong-headed woman. She thinks often about her kin and attempts to give a valiant effort for them while managing the difficulties of being a lowborn lady living in an elitist and male-centric culture. She adores the sovereign and is exceptionally faithful to her, yet she will forfeit her relationship with the crown in case it’s what is best for her kin. Raena is additionally a decent person, yet I am not as dazzled with her as I am with the Duchess. I respect her ability to move from male to female sexual orientation jobs relying upon the circumstances and the people she’s dealing with. It was additionally reviving to have a book about knights, without an excess of macho manliness among them.

An interesting premise, characters that I was intrigued by, and some plot twists that I only vaguely saw coming.

The basic plot of this is we follow a young woman who has disguised herself as a knight because the queen killed her entire family and she needs to stay alive long enough to exact revenge. What grows from that is a B-plot romance with a duchess of a foreign land, an invasion from a people long thought to be extinct, and a prince who really needs to get kicked in the nads.

My biggest qualms about this were:
- The characters didn't quite feel distinct enough for me. They all shared a common voice and I think that it was disguised by the use of a more formal way of speaking since we're in a fantasy kingdom.
- Sometimes characters knew things that happened without them being there or someone telling them what happened. It's possible I just missed a time jump, but I don't think so since it happened so often.
- I didn't feel a strong connection with any of the character's and I don't feel that tug in my chest when I find some characters I couldn't live without or I absolutely need to hear more about.

I'll definitely read the next one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've picked this up and put it back down several times because despite having the bones of a good story, one that at times has captivated me, other parts just didn't hold my attention. Other than Rowan's determination to avenger her family I never felt as though I knew or understood what motivated either character and struggled to find any connection to either of them. The writing severely lacked in emotions for my tastes and this left the characters feeling rather wooden and "flat".

I enjoyed the descriptions, the political intrigue, the contrast between Candor and East Shore, and whilst the world building wasn't overly complex it was sufficient to understand the world in which the story was set. I did struggle somewhat with the dialogue, I'm not sure if the author was aiming for it to sound somewhat medieval/historical, but unfortunately I found it to be quite stilted and uninspired.

I didn't dislike the book, but neither did I particularly enjoy it. I don't think I will continue with this series, though I may give the author another chance at some point in the future.

This book was a truly epic fantasy adventure with interesting characters and an intriguing plot filled with secrets. The world-building was extremely intricate with complex politics and a variety of fascinating peoples and creatures. There was a great deal of political intrigue and scheming in this book, which I enjoyed a lot. The sapphic romance was fun to read, and, in general, the book had good LGBT representation. So, there were many elements of the book that were enjoyable. However, the pacing was incredibly slow, especially in the first half of the book, and, at times, it felt like the author was just checking off the different elements of the story without successfully weaving them together. For example, the first third the of the book largely focuses on politics followed by a shift to the romance before finally centering on the invasion toward the end. It all just felt a bit disjointed at times even if the different parts were interesting on their own. For the most part, I enjoyed the writing except for some of the dialogue, which felt incredibly stiff and unnatural at times. I also didn't care for the ending. It was pretty anticlimactic after everything the characters went through during the story. Overall, though, I enjoyed the story and am intrigued by the world the author created. If you like fantasy with lots of political maneuvering and sapphic romance, you might enjoy this book if you can get past the slow pacing. Therefore, I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.

I received an e-arc of this book from Netgalley for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book had everything I wanted in a book: Sapphic romance, political intrigue, a rebellious spark and women rising up.

Sadly I couldn't get into this as much as I wanted. For a debut novel, this wasn't the worst book I've read, sadly that also means it wasn't the best.

> The worldbuilding was really hard to understand in some parts and I couldn't wrap my head around it.
> The plot was very all over the place, it went from super fast action-packed to slow and boring in others. This inconsistency really got on my nerves as I would finally get into the plot and then it would flip.
> The characters weren't the greatest, the main characters were all basically Mary Sue's. ( a young female character who is portrayed as unrealistically free of weaknesses! ) And so it was really hard to see any danger or suspense with these characters as you knew they would magically find some way to survive.
> The love at first sight trope. I can never understand it.

I do think this book has the potential to grow into a strong series, I enjoyed elements of the book and I really liked the author's writing style. And they have the potential to turn this into a fantastic series with some work!

Arc provided by Netgalley for an honest review.

Raena Schinen is the last surviving member of her family who were slaughtered by the Queen and for the last 15 years she has hidden in plain sight, as “Sir Rowan” with the ultimate goal— assassinate the Queen. Before she can actually go through with her plan, Raena ends up being exiled to a forge in land in order to act as the guard to Duchess Avenna. Quickly a romance between the two starts blossoming but it is paused due to an invasion that forces them to journey together in order to Gian political allies.

When it’s written like this, Traitors of the Black Crown is a book that I would immensely enjoy but ultimately the poor prose and flat characters as well as the incredibly slow plot just made this book insufferable. I tried reading this book several times but could never get into because of how abysmally boring and slow the first 40% was. I think that Traitors of the Black Crown could have been far better if it had been edited more, it read as an unedited fan fiction.

date(s) read: 07/22/2021-09/14/2021

Did Not Finish, 40%

In my history with NetGalley, I have always finished reading an ARC that I’ve begun, even if I didn’t like the book. But after some 200 pages of some of the worst writing I’ve ever encountered in a published book, I called it quits. The premise of Traitors of the Black Crown is intriguing: Raena Schinen is a young woman who escaped when the rest of her family was murdered by agents of the crown. If they find out who she is, she’ll be instantly executed. For fifteen years, Raena has hidden in plain sight as ‘Sir Rowan’, while her one desire is to kill the Queen. Before Raena can exact her revenge, she’s exiled to a foreign land and ordered to act as a guard to a common-born duchess, the beautiful Avenna Colby, whose strange kinship with the Queen puts her under suspicion and threatens to expose Raena’s secret. Soon, a romance is blossoming between ‘Sir Rowan’ and Avenna. But a looming invasion forces Raena and Avenna to undertake a long journey in the hopes of gaining political alliances, while unbeknownst to anyone, a terrifying enemy is rising from the deeps.

Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? If only the writing hadn’t been terrible, with stilted and unnatural dialogue, clunky exposition that failed to actually describe the scenes, words used incorrectly, poor and/or confusing sentence structures, and a focus on Raena’s eye coloration that rivals an inexperienced fanfiction writer’s. I could find nothing good to say about the writing. From the sentence-to-sentence level to the overall structure, the prose was just bad. The book reads like a rough draft that no editorial hand to guide it toward anything resembling a publishable work.

In just over 200 pages, very little had actually happened. Raena participated in a tournament, broke an unwritten rule, and was sent away. Avenna tried to meet with the Queen and ended up talking to her mustachio-twirling, villainous son. Raena and Avenna traveled to Avenna’s lands. That’s it. That should have taken fifty pages, not 200. In all of that, we could have gotten, perhaps, worldbuilding or character development, but no. The characters are flat, and the world is marginally built through a series of confusing infodumps and characters declaiming to each other things they already know about their history.

I could not bring myself to read more of this book. I cannot recommend it to anyone. It should have undergone several rounds of editing before it reached this stage. That it didn’t is a disservice to both the book and the author.

Raena Schinen is the last surviving member of a family slaughtered by the Queen and she is living in plain sight by pretending to be a man named Rowan. She trains as a knight and plans to take her vengeance on the Queen who had her family murdered. However, after a contest in the capitol city she runs afoul of Prince Zander and is exiled to the duchy of Colby. Once in Colby she finds herself greatly attracted to the duchess, Avenna all in the guise of Sir Rowan. While on a diplomatic mission they find themselves in a battle for their lives during an invasion by a race thought extinct.
I did enjoy the story overall, the world building is wonderful with the different cities, duchy's and the politics that always accompanies royalty, heirs and the competition for resources. While there was some unevenness in the pacing, the story did keep my attention all the way through to the end. The creepiness of the Boens and their ability to strike from unexpected places was definitely a highlight. My main issue was with Prince Zander, who is set up as the evil ruler Raena is up against. He just didn't have any depth, he seemed evil and cruel just for the sake of it, without any backstory other that he was just born that way. I like my nefarious characters to have solid reasons for their actions, so you can at least understand how that got to that point. The ending was a strong point and finally finding out the secrets that were hinted at throughout the story was a great way to bring a lot of tension and make you look forward to what is coming up in the next book.

I'm so glad I stumbled upon this hidden gem!
This is a medieval fantasy book with a lot of political intrigue and little to no magic, which felt like a breeze of fresh air. It has a girl knight undercover and a sapphic romance, wonderful worldbuilding and scenery, epic and well-described battles, complex problems, amazing characters and so much more.
I thoroughly enjoyed everything and absolutely flew through this book. I loved the writing style, the book was so addictive and beautiful to read. I loved all the characters, they were complex and interesting, it was so fun learning about their past little by little. I loved the romance, you could feel the tension between them, see it in their interactions and thoughts. All the scenery was breathtaking, different castles described in just enough detail to differentiate between them easily. We were told about cultural differences, political systems, history, lore in this fantasy land, but not in too info-dumpy way. One thing that surprised me the most was the author's great attention to detail at all times. The other thing was that in this book they don't use just your typical YA swords, but other medieval weapons as well! I never knew how much I wished to see other weapons in a fantasy book, to see beloved characters wield an axe or a polehammer or poleaxe against some big brute with a warhammer, instead of just swordfighting!
I only have 3 complaints which are in essence actually the same thing - I needed more! The first thing is about the changing between 3 POVs. It was nice and well done, but every time we started following other character, we didn't get to see what the other characters were doing in the meantime, which felt a bit jarring as I wanted to see and experience what everyone was going through at any given moment. Instead of that we saw where the other character was only when the POV changed again and we were briefly told what has happened with them in the mean time. The second complaint is that the story itself could be longer, told in greater detail, contained more scenes. The last thing is that the ending was a bit too abrupt, unsatisfactorily concluded, which felt rushed.
Needless to say, I can't wait to read the sequel!

I've rounded my review up to a 4 star even though I think it's more of a 3.5.

Traitors of the Black Crown follows a Knight, a Duchess and a Queen who have all been negatively effected by Candor, the Kingdom that Queen Zarana rules. All three have problems with how the kingdom has been ruled and what it to come of it. The question is, will they survive and does the Queen and her son, the Prince, deserve all the hate that is being thrown toward them?

I have enjoyed reading this book and following the revenge story of Sir Rowen whose family was taken from him at a young age. He now vows to kill the Queen, who is responsible for their deaths. We find out right away that Rowen is actually Reana, a woman disguised as a knight, holding her secret very close, terrified of being discovered. This was my favourite perspective throughout the book, discovering her past, the reasons behind her vengeance, and how events might influence her decisions.

It was also interesting to follow Aven, a Duchess to the east and her story. She is loyal to the queen but hates the prince who is to succeed her. Aven's Duchy and her people are everything to her and she will do anything to protect them. We see how the decisions of the crown effect the furthest reaches of the kingdom and how they suffer because of the queens/princes selfishness.

We also follow the Queen. Though my least favourite perspective, it is interesting to see the motives of the antagonist and why she has done everything she has done. We see how her suffering has bought her to her decisions and how, in turn, she has caused others to suffer under her reign.

A very interesting story that keeps you gripped throughout. The Sapphic romance became a bit lacking towards the end if the story and I would have liked to have seen what becomes of the couple, but it might come back around in book 2. The plot was also a little lacking in the first half but perhaps that was due to world building and the author giving us insight into what the world is and who is in it. I feel that the ending happened maybe a bit to quickly, like it was a little rushed.
Even with these flaws though, I was gripped right to the end of the book and I'd be happy to read book 2, especially to see if the plot improves throughout the series.