The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire #1) by C.J. Redwine | REVIEW

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine (Ravenspire #1)
Published by Balzer + Bray on February 16th, 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling
Pages: 387
Format: Hardcover

LINKS: Good Reads | Amazon | Indigo | Book Depository

Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.

In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.

But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.

🌟🌟🌟

3 Stars

First Line:

Nothing had been right in the castle since her mother’s death.

---

Review

COVER 🌟🌟🌟              PLOT 🌟🌟

CHARACTERS 🌟🌟🌟        ROMANCE 🌟🌟

WRITING 🌟🌟🌟🌟             WORLD 🌟🌟🌟

 

Her skin was as white as snow, her lips as red as blood, and her long hair as black as ebony.

The Shadow Queen – C.J. Redwine

---

The Good

• The cover although simple, is nice a clean and reminiscent to the original fairy-tale it is based off of, Snow White. After looking at this cover and reading the book, it kind of made me rethink eating apples again! (I’m only kidding, apples are delicious… but just not in this book.)
• The characters were fleshed out and unique. I really enjoyed Leo, Lorelai’s brother the most. He was great comedy relief when times got tough. Kol, the dragon prince was really intriguing. I loved how he fought between his human and dragon hearts. And then there is Irina the Evil Queen. She was the perfect villain. Vain, vindictive, and not afraid to go for what she wanted. Finally we have Lorelai our main character. I did not care for her at all. To avoid spoilers I will leave it at that.
• Overall I thought the writing was strong and all the action scenes were executed with great writing and visual points.

You don’t go into battle because you’re sure of victory. You go into battle because it’s the right thing to do.

The Shadow Queen – C.J. Redwine

 

The Bad

(Bare with me… this may get a bit ranty.)

• The plot was horrible. There were certain aspects of the plot that I didn’t feel were necessary. It was a lot of going back and forth between Lorelai and Irina. It dragged on for far longer then it needed to. But most importantly, there was a certain character exit that I did not agree with. I didn’t feel it was necessary to driving the story forward and served no purpose what so ever but to annoy me as a reader.
• Now don’t get me started on this romance.BORING and cringeworthy. There was absolutely no chemistry between Lorelai and Kol. There dialogue together was dull and unoriginal. Honestly Kol could have done a lot better to be honest. I was more interested in Irina and Viktor’s romance more. At least there was more substance with that relationship!

---

Ok, that’s it. Let me know what you guys thought of The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine! I would love to hear your opinions as well!

Until next time,

#TheShadowsHaveArrived

C.J. Redwine loves fairy tales, Harry Potter, and any movie starring Johnny Depp. She is the author of the Defiance trilogy, a post-apocalyptic fantasy from Balzer + Bray. C.J. lives in Nashville with her husband and children. If the novel writing gig ever falls through, she’ll join the Avengers and wear a cape to work every day. To learn more about C.J., visit her website at www.cjredwine.com