Queen Among the Dead by Lesley Livingston
“Now. Seize Destiny by the throat and make it bow to you.”
~~~
First off, I would like to thank Lesley Livingston, Zando Young Reader, and Netgalley for sending me an eARC. Queen Among the Dead out 1/17/23.
I enjoyed the idea of this book and enjoyed the characters. I loved the idea of using Irish mythology and then putting a twist on it for some fantasy. Some of the scenes were also really intense, mostly at the end. Which to me felt a little odd.
Personally, I think this will be a book that I will have to wait to reread when it is available on audiobook form. The reason I say that is because there were a lot of times where I was extremely confused by the context; whether it was describing the locations, magic system, politics, or just the relationship between some of the characters. Livingston’s writing is really neat, but some part in the book just got confusing where I could not figure out the story.
Now again, that’s a personal opinion. Others may be able to read it perfectly fine, that’s awesome. But as someone who’s dyslexic, this book would be one that I need someone else to read to make it make sense for me.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was WILD. And I loved every second of it!

I just finished this book and I have mixed feelings about it, sadly. I was soo excited by the premise of this story; Celtic mythology & fantasy, helloo!! I just feel like I was sooo confused as I was reading. The plot took a while to shape itself properly, and now that I know what happens I understand how things progress but it was SO confusing to read. There's also so much world-building, like maybe too much honestly? Or it wasn't done concisely enough- I'm not sure. I just think this needed another round of editing to tighten the story and make everything flow better; the fact that I was so confused & so much time was spent explaining things made the characters suffer. Also everything jumps around so quickly. Ack. That being said, I love the premise and the elements of this story, the magic system- such good pieces here that just needed a little more finessing! Thanks to NetGalley & the author for the chance to read this.

Thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC!

The Celtic inspiration for Queen Among the Dead made me want to learn more about Celtic Mythology. Because of the names unfamiliar to me, I think this book would be fantastic on audio.

I really enjoyed Neve and Rowan, but I felt like they were such surface characters and I wanted to go deeper. I couldn’t keep up with the plot but overall I did enjoy reading this.

‘Queen Among the Dead’ by Lesley Livingston had me hooked from the beginning. Full of Celtic influence, this fascinating, unique story fully swept me away. Definitely recommend!

A YA fantasy that uses Celtic mythology and legends, the title and the description drew me in and I was very excited to read this, but unfortunately it fell flat for me.

This mostly comes down to it not really picking up story-wise until about half way through and my dislike of both Neve and Ronan, our narrators. I found both of them to be fairly annoying and incredibly pessimistic for most of the book and it wasn't fun to read. Neve also falls prey to the "princess who wants to fight not be a lady, her older sister is the perfect court lady and she feels she cannot live up to the expectations" and Ronan is the dark, broody love interest that's unfit for a princess as a thief and (ex) Druid. Their relationship just seemed to just happen by nature of it being a YA book adhering to certain tropes, more than it felt like they had grown past being enemies and into romantic interests.

Overall it just lands in the middle of the road, it wasn't bad but it wasn't anything I'd reread or recommend to anyone unless they were specifically looking for a YA Celtic fantasy book. It definitely had the elements to be an intriguing read, but it didn't succeed for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Zando Projects for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

DNF at 42%

It has sadly taken me 7 days to get to 42% and It felt like I was forcing myself to get through it. I also missed that it was pdf (oops on my part) and so it was really harsh on my eyes and I could never read longer than 15 minutes at a time.

The world building was a bit too much, too slow, too dense, with not much else bringing you in to the story alongside the info dumping. Ronan met Neve once YEARS ago and again in the future, and yes I can totally believe in love at first sight - if it's written in a way that sells it, but Ronan acts as if he TRULLY knows her and they have been acquainted for some time personally, and his been in love with her forever, it felt abit 'quick' to me, I even wondered if I had missed something, if they had perhaps had more interaction somewhere? But nope, just met the 3 times at that point.

I am sure that this book is amazing, it's perhaps just not for me, and that's perfectly okay, we all have our own tastes and likes 😊

I had never heard of this author but after reading this one, im excited to read more of their work. This book had the perfect percentage of bad ass female mc, romance, action, plot twists and magic. What a beautiful book.

Reader, this may be the book that redeemed YA for me. It’s a Celtic lore based fantasy novel about Neve, the youngest princess, and Ronan, an ex-Druid’s apprentice turned thief. When the two meet at children, they never expect to see eachother again, but through a series of at least mildly magical events, they come together.

I liked this book a lot, I thought the plot carried itself well, and the world-building was wonderful. I love how Neve’s story parallels that of her ancestors, and how that melds into the story. Despite feeling slightly rushed at times, Livingston produces a great story that is well-worth reading.

Rounded to 3.5 stars.

CONTENT WARNING: violence, blood, death, grief, murder

While I’ve always found Druids and Celtic mythology to be fascinating, I never really learned much about it. Naturally, I was thrilled to get a copy of this book, and see a whole fantasy novel built around it, and hopefully learn more about these intriguing stories.

Throughout the book, it felt as though I was reading a cross between historical fiction and fantasy. The way the author incorporated a historical landmark that still exists as a central focus of the story made it feel more realistic. However, I found it difficult to keep track of all of the different terms, and frequently flipped back to the list in the beginning of the book that kept track of the different folk of Eire, although some of the terms weren’t defined, and I struggled to understand what some of them were. While the world-building was beautiful and vivid, I did wish that the magic system was explained better. The Druids were mysterious and unexplained, which I expected, but the way that the magic worked was never explained, and we never learn what the limits are or why some people are able to access magic while others can’t.

I loved Neve’s character. She’s the fierce female protagonist that is easy to identify with, for me at least. As a female who is expected to be quiet and demure and work behind the scenes, Neve doesn’t fit into the box that’s supposed to define her. She’s rowdy and unruly, and prefers to be out riding in her chariot, learning how to fight, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, with a sword, her double headed axe, or with a bow and arrow. Neve is a warrior princess in a time when that is not socially acceptable, but she never tries to hide who she really is, and the people closest to her fully accept her for who she is.

Ronan was orphaned in the unrest that swept through Eire when he was young. He apprenticed with the Druids, but when that didn’t work out for him, he left and makes his way through the world as a thief. When his path crosses with Neve’s, things don’t go well, and they don’t exactly hit it off well. When they meet up again in the future, their second meeting doesn’t go any better. However, they don’t quite fit into the “enemies” category. They’re forced to work together, and there’s something going on that connects them, so it’s more like an uneasy truce rather than enemies.

It takes a long time for the underlying plot to actually appear, but once it does, I was sucked into the story. The book is fast-paced, and there’s a lot of action, right from the start. I found myself fully invested in the story rather quickly, despite the issues mentioned above. I did enjoy the story itself, and even though I predicted a few of the plot twists in advance, more than a few blindsided me and kept everything exciting. Overall, this was a good story set in a fresh setting that kept me intrigued and reading avidly straight until the end.

I try very hard to be positive. I have no doubt this book will find a happy home in many hands but I am not one of them. I found the fantasy muddled (I honestly couldn’t tell who the bad guys and the good guys were, and what was the significance of the fight against magic?) and the romance unconvincing (their chemistry was not based on anything believable, it just happened at convenient moments). I made myself finish “Queen Among the Dead” and for that, it gets 2 stars.

While I appreciated the opportunity to read and review this, I tried but just couldn't get into the story.

I felt like this book was very slow moving for the first 65% but finally picked up towards the end when everything started to make sense. There's lots of world building And I think if there is another book it will definetly be faster paced amd easier to get hooked into. The characters are likable and the storyline is there but it's a book that I had to keep telling myself to finish and not one that hooked me and wouldnt let go

Hello and welcome to my three star review of Queen Among the Dead! First off, I want to put out there that this book was <i>fine</i>. I liked it well enough, but it just didn't hit all the right notes for me.

I am a huge fan of Celtic mythology. It is some of my favorite, and I find it so interesting. I had very high hopes for this book, and while it was steeped in mythology and written overall well, I did have some issues with it.

This one is not the authors fault, but the formatting (for kindle) was so bad it made the book almost unreadable. I was going a bit cross-eyed trying to read it. I know that'll be fixed in the final edition, so I didn't take points off for that because I ended up switching to the NetGalley app (which also irritates me lol)

I enjoyed Neve and Ronan as characters, and I liked the way the mythology was interwoven. This book is essentially your typical YA mythology fantasy. I wouldn't say that it adds anything new to the genre, but that didn't make it less enjoyable. It was generally predictable, but well written.

There was nothing about this book that bothered me, or I overly disliked. It's a book that I liked and feel like I don't have a lot to say about? I know that sounds bad, but it isn't!

Overall, I think this is a book that I would definitely recommend to people who like mythology and are looking for a nice YA fantasy to read!

Some great celtic mythology and world building. A solid first chapter that draws you in and I personally would’ve liked the continuation from there but we have a time skip and end up moving along into a different story than expected. Pacing could get a little slow at the start possibly to introduce all the lore which may be difficult to get through at first. It may have been a better read for me if I knew more of the mythology to begin with but that’s no fault of the author’s who does take the time to explain things (even if it’s between characters who should already know this stuff).

I want to start off my saying I LOVED this book. I love Celtic mythology and this book was rich with it. The imagery and story telling was wonderful and there was also an air of mystery to it. The one thing I wish the book had, and maybe tine final edit has it and ARC did, is a glossary of terms, Because this story is steeped in Celtic mythology, I got a little bogged down with the words and pronunciations. I wished there was something to help with that. I was about half way in when-reading got a little smoother. All in all though, I loved this story and I’m kind of hoping the author delves more into this world.

A decent story that absolutely fits the genre references in the synopsis however not one I expect to be as memorable.

“Queen Among the Dead” follows the unlikely rise to power as Princess Neve struggles to find her place in court against the wildness of her spirit but when a series of events puts her kingdom in jeopardy she will have to rise to the occasion and make friends out of enemies in order to protect those she loves most.

This book very much follows the YA formula with both the characters and overall plot which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if both of those components are strong enough to make you forget you’ve read this story before how ever this book never quite manages to accomplish that.

Ronan and Neve respectfully are fine and together again just fine but what I craved was some sort of spark that set them apart from other variations, or even in some cases the background characters themselves, though I was left disappointed. There’s a lot of mythology here that I’m not sure was ironed (no pun intended) out to add emphasis to the stakes of what was to come as well as the villain itself who again was rather anticlimactic once we reached that point.

I think if you’ve a fan of the YA take on Celtic lore you’ll enjoy this but if you’re coming into it without that affinity you may leave it as underwhelmed as I did.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

I throughly enjoyed this novel. In fact, it’s one of the few lately that has held my attention throughout the entire story. While I could see a few things coming, I never felt like rushing though it. I would definitely recommend it to friends.

I really enjoyed this book! It is very complicated at times, but the writing style is unique and I loved the characters. I also loved the Celtic and Egyptian inspired elements to the worldbuilding. Highly recommend!

Received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review

RECOMMENDED FOR READERS WHO:
• Fierce Female Protagonist
• Beautiful lore & world building ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Action 💥 packed plot sequence
• Enemies-to-lovers
• Raw & Gritty
• Tales of Destiny (Brave style)

Celtic influence
➣ refreshing twist in regards to the YA genre

Pacing, plot, character cast & the ending ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️