This book sounded great and was very short but ended up being such a long read because I just didn't want to pick it up.
The author seemed to focus a lot on the very boring parts of the story without describing the actual storyline much. No, "why is this happening" was answered which was just frustrating and no one seemed to have intentions.

Personally I wouldn't recommend this but I also wouldn't try to put someone off reading it. Everyone has different opinions and likes different things. Otherwise the world would be very boring.

I really like that the story revolves around Roman mythology. I like the world-building! I find it to be very creative and original! The story was very fast-paced. However, it seemed to be very rushed, and it did not take the time to develop the characters! Still, I recommend this for fans of Defiant!

I was supplied this by NetGalley, I really enjoyed this read.

What an incredibly exciting fantasy novel by Alex Linwood.

I fell head over heels with this one, all the things we love in fantasy, gods, magic, fighting and all the rest that comes with it. Villains in all different versions, bullies getting what they deserve rather than being boosted up the food chain.

Absolutely incredible read, one for the physical shelf.

Highly recommend this if you love adventures, magic, mythology and all those things we love in a fantasy read.

TW// this book does mention suicide.

Valentina is a fifteen year old royal whose spent the majority of her life locked away in a high tower, surviving on the basic rations, just enough to keep her alive, and to not upset or anger the gods. One day the knights within the kingdom begin to battle one another, and Valentina's nurse takes the opportunity to help her escape from the tower and subsequently the kingdom itself. Armed with a box of supplies, Valentina makes her way through the forest, alone. On her journey she meets a young man named Mercato, who takes her to his cottage where he and his grandmother reside. Her grandmother, Jessop, who is quietly observant, is aware of who she is, despite her not being honest with Mercato. Both Jessop and Mercato help Valentina travel to Volderhorn to be accepted into the Stables school to give her some protection from the Kingdom that's hunting her. We then follow her as she navigates this new world, making friends and enemies in quick succession, and trying to rein in her powers, whilst trying to remain undetected from the knights who are pursuing her.

This was a really interesting book and the plot has really good potential, it's based upon Ancient Rome and mythology which piqued my interest, I'm a sucker for retellings of mythology or history. I did find that it got quite repetitive, and slow in some points and felt that it meant the plot didn't exactly reach the potential that it could've had overall. There was a lot of descriptions of the settings, which at times I found myself skipping over, I understand the need for descriptions in certain areas but it felt a little overdone at points. However, it did get really engaging and tense within the last 5 chapters, but I would've enjoyed it more if this tension and gripping quality had been shown throughout.

Overall, it was an okay book with a really interesting premise, but it was slow in parts, and difficult to stay engaged, although I feel it does set up well for the next instalment.

The Queen of War offers so many potential since a mysterious girl running away from the mansion she being keep as captive. Valentine was an interesting MC. I cant wait to see her unravel all her potency to become badass heroine. I like unique and memorable worldbuilding I can imagine. Additional to the glimpse of this part and extra development on it will sealed me to this story.

The writing style was enjoyable and easy to follow. But I found out some inconsistencies such as overly descriptive in less important event but fly with super pace on important plot.

Thank you Netgalley and Greenlees Publishing for let me read this copy. I am truly grateful and the thoughts are my own. The Queen of War published at 21 June 2022.

The Queen of War by Alex Linwood is such a nice story and one I will definitely follow.

Valentina's story is intriguing and how the story unfolds makes for an excellent read. I look forward to see how she grows into her potential and where the next twist takes her along her journey.

Also, the cover art is very much so beautiful.

This book was such a fun read! I was in a reading slump and this book really got me out of it. I flew through this book in one afternoon and I am so sad it is over. I will be looking out for this author in the future and will be recommending this book to all of my family and friends.

Thank you for providing me with an eArc of this book in return for an honest review.
The start of what I can see will be a detailed epic fantasy tale! The start of this was hard to get into but once I got past the first few chapters I was engaged and ready to push the whole way through this book. There is a large amount of imagery used in this book and that did make me quite confused at time because it was just a bit too much detail, there would be rambles on stuff that wasn’t quite necessary for me to know. At the start of this book I was left with a lot of questions and I was happy that some were answered, and I have a feeling that others will be answered in following books. But my main question is why was she in a tower? The first part of the book just doesn’t match up to the rest of it. The book itself has vibes similar to throne of glass and an ember in the ashes and I absolutely loveee this vibe! The plot was mildly predictable but there were a few little twists which made reading it quite enjoyable. I loved the characters, Valentina was an enjoyable main character and clelia was quite fun to read about. I also loved Dante and his fashion. As for the other characters they were lacking depth, but I hope in future books there is character development and we get to learn more about them. I of course am also ready to learn soo much more about Valentina and her past because we end on such a high of finally finding out oh! That’s what’s up with her! And that was satisfying because I spent the whole book trying to figure out how the whole goddess of war thing tied in. There was a lack of relationships in this but I was ok with that, the book still carried on quite well and I know that somewhere down the track there is the possibility of something quite amazing (this book has set up the story so well, and I can’t wait to see where this series goes!). I definitely will recommend this to fantasy readers who can handle having to wait for the answers to their questions because I can just tell that the rest of this series is going to be worth the wait and then the read!

The Queen of War by Alex Linwood
“Reputation is everything. You cannot be seen to be weak. Ever.”
~~~
I was hooked on this right away in the beginning. I loved the way Linwood had described the settings and world. Once I got into it more I got the feelings/vibes of Percy Jackson, but I might need another opinion on that. Oh Andrea?
The ending was very energetic and I liked the little cliffhanger that it left off in. It made me really curious about what the next book will be like and how these characters will survive what’s to come. Out June 21, 2022! Once again thank you Alex Linwood, Greentees Publishing, and Netgalley for the eARC.

The Queen of War offers a classic, fantasy premise with tons of potential but wasn't a fit for me. There was nothing "wrong" with the story, no terrible plot lines or unintentionally unlikeable characters, but the writing style didn't hook me as much as I had hoped.
If the premise intrigues you, definitely give it a shot and, if you can sink your teeth into the style and get immerse into the world, this is just the start of what could be a very promising fantasy series.

I wanted to like this book, because at it's core, it's very much a story type that I like. There's a mystery girl, gods and goddess, and it takes place in an ancient Rome-inspired world. The main character has potential and is generally likeable, if closed off and a bit of a poor narrator. My main issue is with how the narrative was executed. There's so many good elements, but none of them really reach their potential. This book sets up a series and does not do much to really introduce readers to the series-we barely know any country names, the state of the world at the moment, or even the names of the gods and goddesses. Nothing is explained, not even Valentina or what's up with her (though it's stated at the end what's going on), and there's a large cast of side characters that are interesting, but appear and are cast aside quickly. The story is fast-paced, which is nice, but at the expense of giving readers a chance to meet these characters and understand the world. The story leaves off at a point that i'm interested in giving the sequel a chance, but I hope the story gets a lot more fleshed out in the next book.

well written with a good storyline and well developed charcaters and worldbuilding. The pacing and flow of the book was great and really easy to follow. A great read.

I really enjoyed this book! It was fast paced and flowed nicely. The turn of events were done beautifully and the ending was terrific!.

Unfortunately, the writing style is not for me. 3 stars, as I need to be somewhat neutral

~ I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own ~

I didn’t really care for this book. I was excited to read it based off the synopsis and the cover but the writing/plot seemed very juvenile. I also felt like the pace was fast but not in a good way? But the book was also kinda boring? This book just wasn’t for me unfortunately.

With plenty of excitement, mystery and teenage angst Linwood makes the reader hunger for more. The created world is vivid and coherent. The Queen of War could serve as a great movie script with fine attention to detail. It climaxes with a dramatic swashbuckling combat scene. There are many interlocking story lines with plenty of questions to resolve in future volumes.
I'm looking forward to them.

I started this book with questions. By the end of the book, none of them were answered. I assume there will be further books in this series that should offer explanations, but it feels like poor planning and poor writing to end this book no further than where it started. This book should have been a few chapters in the beginning or perhaps the book needed a further 200 pages, but I am sorely disappointed. There was next to no character progress and only a drop of plot development. The questions I have aren't even fun questions like when reading The Locked Tomb series; they're questions like "what is this book about?" Even the Roman influence seemed superficial. I don't care about any of the characters because I don't know anything about any of them. They don't seem to know anything about themselves or each other. I still read the whole book so overall I guess it wasn't that bad, but I wouldn't read any others in the series and I probably wouldn't read any others by the author either. It might be more enjoyable for younger audiences in a fun, casual sort of way, but I still don't think it will stick with them.

The queen of war by Alex Linwood seemed something that might interest me since I am a big fantasy reader but I just couldn’t get past the fact that the writing style was not up my ally. I totally despised the writing style with how vague everything was. The author straight up jumped into the story without providing any info about what’s going on. Now I get that in fantasy books it takes time to settle in and do the world building and first books are generally more focused on that and later books are more Plot-based but for this one I’m not going to lie I was totally confused as to what is going on.

The whole first few chapters are just prologue of Valentina, our main character but I did not understand anything in that background because of lack of world building and just in first chapter it’s all plot. I couldn’t really finish the book and the urge to DNF was so strong I stopped in the middle.

It just wasn’t my reading taste and now how I would prefer a book to be written but I think if someone is okay with the writing style they can enjoy the book