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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is book 2 in the series. May answers many questions I had from Book 1. My favourite part was the magic. I read those parts over and over. So beautifully written. I love Emilia but poor Lawrence has my heart strings. He keeps getting into trouble and Prince Thessian gets very grumpy but he bails him out everytime. The beautiful telling of their friendship had me smiling. Lawrence would protect Prince Thessian at any cost. Then there’s Clayton, oh my. My older brothers name is Clayton so he is special. The dynamics between Emilia and him are a rollercoaster ride. Can she trust him? He has a lot of secrets. Clayton also has a sister that is one bad B.. yup. There are so many interesting characters, there’s magic, mages, creatures and May keeps the story flowing like a stream then bam “Wow”. Thunderstorm. This is not your normal fantasy. Honestly you will feel like you are there. Thank you May. It was a delicious read
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another fast-paced great read!
This book keeps you wanting more! Wanting to know what happens next, and to which characters it will happen to!
This book keeps you wanting more! Wanting to know what happens next, and to which characters it will happen to!
adventurous
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is book two of the Empire of Shattered Crowns and the main characters are Prince Thessian of Hellion, and Queen Emilia of the Dante Kingdom who has lost most of her family after they were overrun by barbarians and betrayed. Her life is so different from her upbringing, alone and locked in a tower, thought to be cursed by her family and the citizens of the kingdom. Now she is treated as the queen and is working on trying to join with Prince Thessian to have him win the fight with his brothers for Hellion and therefore all the kingdoms. All she wants is somewhere to live in peace and freedom. Thessian has had to bring lady Riga back with him, but got badly injured on the return journey, only just being healed on arriving back at the Dante castle and receiving stronger healing. Thessian is trying to build allies within the Dante kingdom, but has issues to deal with as his second in command, Sir Laurence joins other team leaders within his travelling army, to go for a bit of light relief, only to find themselves somewhere completely unexpected. That cause quite a few issues and even huge damage to the city! Emilia gets plagued by night terrors and nightmares haunting her every bit of sleep, until she finds out something much more insidious is responsible. Her assassin Clayton of House Escariot is supposed to have found the man, Julio, Thessian has been hunting for years, after finding him experimenting on children at a research facility in Darkgate, to his disgust. Somehow he had managed to escape after the king was killed, only for some ghostly figure that looks like him being spotted by the servants!
Emilia decides to hunt whoever is responsible for her night terrors and also check out the strange disappearances of this ominous figure in the castle, through what must be a secret passage! Lady Riga as Thessian found out, is a fire mage, whose secret has been kept, from fear of the Church of the Holy Light, who have decreed mages to be evil, like Emilia herself was cursed from her birth due to some old prophecy! She finds that characters who were not well featured in the book she now finds herself appearing within, during this second reincarnation. Discoveries of who might have actually been funding these sick experiments comes as a huge shock to Thessian, making all he had believed be thrown into turmoil! For Emilia, she needs to find out why the bishop has been trying to take her down and why certain Lords of the kingdom are refusing to support her. There are also difficulties with her own guards and soldiers, who take umbrage against those of Thessian being in charge of them! They especially don’t like the fact that the new Head Guard is a female, Lady Cali, who is in love with Sir Laurence! Ambrose is still the best side character in the stories, always having been caring for Emilia since she was a child, helping her to reach the guild and Lionheart, as well as Emilia using her knowledge from the book she is now starring in, to make decisions and gain some influence and funds of her own. I can’t wait to see what Lady Riga will get up to, as well as Lady Cali, Sir Laurence and the wild beast child he rescued. So much happening, but Queen Emilia still needs the church to allow her to be recognized and crowned, before she can have Thessian take over, and she has an imprisoned bishop to bargain with! I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
Emilia decides to hunt whoever is responsible for her night terrors and also check out the strange disappearances of this ominous figure in the castle, through what must be a secret passage! Lady Riga as Thessian found out, is a fire mage, whose secret has been kept, from fear of the Church of the Holy Light, who have decreed mages to be evil, like Emilia herself was cursed from her birth due to some old prophecy! She finds that characters who were not well featured in the book she now finds herself appearing within, during this second reincarnation. Discoveries of who might have actually been funding these sick experiments comes as a huge shock to Thessian, making all he had believed be thrown into turmoil! For Emilia, she needs to find out why the bishop has been trying to take her down and why certain Lords of the kingdom are refusing to support her. There are also difficulties with her own guards and soldiers, who take umbrage against those of Thessian being in charge of them! They especially don’t like the fact that the new Head Guard is a female, Lady Cali, who is in love with Sir Laurence! Ambrose is still the best side character in the stories, always having been caring for Emilia since she was a child, helping her to reach the guild and Lionheart, as well as Emilia using her knowledge from the book she is now starring in, to make decisions and gain some influence and funds of her own. I can’t wait to see what Lady Riga will get up to, as well as Lady Cali, Sir Laurence and the wild beast child he rescued. So much happening, but Queen Emilia still needs the church to allow her to be recognized and crowned, before she can have Thessian take over, and she has an imprisoned bishop to bargain with! I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
I enjoyed "Queen of Ashes" as much as I did "Queen of Deception," the first book in May Freighter's Empire of Shattered Crowns series.
Once again, I enjoyed the interactions between the three main characters (through whose perspective the story is told) and the notable secondary characters. Reading the novel in consecutive order with the first book was nice because book one was still fresh in my memory.
I can't quite recall if Clayton's sister, Isobelle, was in book one, but I like her character and interactions with Clayton and cannot wait for more scenes with her (or both siblings) in the future.
There were, however, a few things I believe could have been done better, but as an independently published author (and you wouldn't know it most of the time) Mrs. Freighter does exceptionally well in her story telling 95% of the time.
One major thing was the handful of plot holes leftover from book one. There was a character, who was rather an unhinged and clingy young woman from the Empire. The noblewoman arrived, was detained, caused a brief ruckus that merited only a few paragraphs and was never heard from again. Although she was a minor character, I still had questions because of her abrupt entrance and exit from the story.
Another plot hole that I noticed was the absence of Emilia's potential ladies-in-waiting. There are two scenes mentioning the subject in "Queen of Deception," however, we never find out how that plays out, granted the events of the first two books take place over the course of a few weeks (one to two months being a generous estimate), which leads to a second minor complaint.
The timing and pacing of the story. While I understand that the author is trying to make a series based off of the conflict (a human from earth reincarnates as a neglected, "cursed" princess in the backdrop of her fantasy novel and must navigate becoming queen), I feel that if she truly wanted to, she could have made a novel slightly longer and had a two book series rather than the four books she has planned.
I do appreciate her story idea because I have often wondered how it would feel to wake up in the world of a beloved story (either your own or someone else's) and the Empire of Shattered Crowns series does that fairly well.
One thing I liked about this novel was that in each instance of a more mature encounter between characters of the opposite sex, the author left the encounter to our imaginations, though some more innuendo-like comments were made in the narration. I thank the author for doing this because otherwise, I would have taken a DNF.
The world building was alright, but I did meet (however briefly) one of my favorite mythological creatures towards the end, though I can't name it for fear of spoiling. I did enjoy seeing the beastmen, whom I assume the author invented, and learning a little bit of their lore.
Overall, many of the positives from book one carried over to book two, and I hope the same will be said for the next books in the series.
I received a free, advance review copy from BookSirens and am leaving this review of my own accord.
Once again, I enjoyed the interactions between the three main characters (through whose perspective the story is told) and the notable secondary characters. Reading the novel in consecutive order with the first book was nice because book one was still fresh in my memory.
I can't quite recall if Clayton's sister, Isobelle, was in book one, but I like her character and interactions with Clayton and cannot wait for more scenes with her (or both siblings) in the future.
There were, however, a few things I believe could have been done better, but as an independently published author (and you wouldn't know it most of the time) Mrs. Freighter does exceptionally well in her story telling 95% of the time.
One major thing was the handful of plot holes leftover from book one. There was a character, who was rather an unhinged and clingy young woman from the Empire. The noblewoman arrived, was detained, caused a brief ruckus that merited only a few paragraphs and was never heard from again. Although she was a minor character, I still had questions because of her abrupt entrance and exit from the story.
Another plot hole that I noticed was the absence of Emilia's potential ladies-in-waiting. There are two scenes mentioning the subject in "Queen of Deception," however, we never find out how that plays out, granted the events of the first two books take place over the course of a few weeks (one to two months being a generous estimate), which leads to a second minor complaint.
The timing and pacing of the story. While I understand that the author is trying to make a series based off of the conflict (a human from earth reincarnates as a neglected, "cursed" princess in the backdrop of her fantasy novel and must navigate becoming queen), I feel that if she truly wanted to, she could have made a novel slightly longer and had a two book series rather than the four books she has planned.
I do appreciate her story idea because I have often wondered how it would feel to wake up in the world of a beloved story (either your own or someone else's) and the Empire of Shattered Crowns series does that fairly well.
One thing I liked about this novel was that in each instance of a more mature encounter between characters of the opposite sex, the author left the encounter to our imaginations, though some more innuendo-like comments were made in the narration. I thank the author for doing this because otherwise, I would have taken a DNF.
The world building was alright, but I did meet (however briefly) one of my favorite mythological creatures towards the end, though I can't name it for fear of spoiling. I did enjoy seeing the beastmen, whom I assume the author invented, and learning a little bit of their lore.
Overall, many of the positives from book one carried over to book two, and I hope the same will be said for the next books in the series.
I received a free, advance review copy from BookSirens and am leaving this review of my own accord.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's starting to grow on me.
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Oh my goodness, I thought the first book was amazing but the second one blew me away! The story was captivating and the character development was great. I hope the series continues!
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Queen of Ashes is the second book in the Empire of Shattered Crowns series and picks up right where the first book ended.
In this book we continue to follow the FMC (Emilia) & two MMCs (Laurence and prince Thessian). The book is told in all of their perspectives.
Also the supporting characters we met at book 1 are back in action and we meet a few new ones too. This series has some really interesting characters who I enjoy reading about. The characters are well written and multi dimensional. Also their reactions to things seem realistic.
The book is fairly fast paced but not too fast. There’s again a lot of things happening but this time it was easier to follow because the characters and places were familiar from the first book.
In this book Emilia has to make some difficult decisions and we learn more about her and other main characters. Also the story is full of twist and turns from start to finish.
Again I really enjoyed the book. The writing is really good, the book is easy to read and the storyline keeps you hooked.
Can’t wait to read the next one and learn more about Emilia and also see where the story goes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol