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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
“Sometimes failure is the beginning of success”
A murder mystery in a fantasy setting ... YES PLEASE!
Keralie is a thief who lives in a nation divided into four quadrants and ruled by one queen each (thus Four Queens). Under the watchful eyes of friend and boss, Mackiel, she finds herself with her hands on valuable instructions stolen from a "messenger". She discovers a plot to kill the Queens and quickly becomes embroiled in a hunt for the assassin.
Keralie. Morally grey protagonist. Bucking against the desires of her family to work on the sea, Keralie finds herself working with "the dippers" for wares to be sold at a local auction house. And she is good at it, very good.
The world building is cool - its almost dystopic, where people are separated by factions (think Divergent) and have roles to play in the economy. You really only get to experience two of them, would have been cool to get a glimpse into the other two!
The plot ... omg the plot! It had me guessing almost to the end; Scholte certainly has a natural knack for mystery writing.
All in all, would highly recommend this Australian authors book, it was an all round enjoyable read.
A murder mystery in a fantasy setting ... YES PLEASE!
Keralie is a thief who lives in a nation divided into four quadrants and ruled by one queen each (thus Four Queens). Under the watchful eyes of friend and boss, Mackiel, she finds herself with her hands on valuable instructions stolen from a "messenger". She discovers a plot to kill the Queens and quickly becomes embroiled in a hunt for the assassin.
Keralie. Morally grey protagonist. Bucking against the desires of her family to work on the sea, Keralie finds herself working with "the dippers" for wares to be sold at a local auction house. And she is good at it, very good.
The world building is cool - its almost dystopic, where people are separated by factions (think Divergent) and have roles to play in the economy. You really only get to experience two of them, would have been cool to get a glimpse into the other two!
The plot ... omg the plot! It had me guessing almost to the end; Scholte certainly has a natural knack for mystery writing.
All in all, would highly recommend this Australian authors book, it was an all round enjoyable read.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Murder mystery + futuristic sci-fi + fantasy kingdom = this book. There were a couple good twists in this book, and overall it was an interesting and entertaining read.
I'm a character-focused reader. To really care about a book, I have to care about the characters or have some sort of emotional connection. I don't necessarily need to like them as people, but there has to be something that makes me root for them. The issue with this book, for me, is that the only characters I found truly compelling were the four queens. And um. Look at the title.
I think the premise was clever and different and the writing was good. I also didn't find the change from third person to first person narration throughout to be jarring, so that was well-executed.
Rating 3.5/5
I'm a character-focused reader. To really care about a book, I have to care about the characters or have some sort of emotional connection. I don't necessarily need to like them as people, but there has to be something that makes me root for them. The issue with this book, for me, is that the only characters I found truly compelling were the four queens. And um. Look at the title.
Spoiler
although I'm glad at least one of them made it out alive, yikes.I think the premise was clever and different and the writing was good. I also didn't find the change from third person to first person narration throughout to be jarring, so that was well-executed.
Rating 3.5/5
3.5/5.0
While I’m not in love with this book, I did enjoy it. The main characters were interesting enough to enjoy following (though I didn’t LOVE them either) and the plot itself had me interested. Considering that, the book wasn’t too long. It moved at a good paced and I finished it very quickly. An easy and entertaining read, but nothing life changing. I would describe Keralie, Varin, and other key characters as good, but if there was a sequel or spinoff (perhaps there is one I’m just not aware of) I don’t think I’d be intrigued enough to follow up on. I REALLY enjoyed the backstory of this universe and the plot itself, even if the resolutions at the end of the book seemed a bit - convenient? A good read, but not great.
While I’m not in love with this book, I did enjoy it. The main characters were interesting enough to enjoy following (though I didn’t LOVE them either) and the plot itself had me interested. Considering that, the book wasn’t too long. It moved at a good paced and I finished it very quickly. An easy and entertaining read, but nothing life changing. I would describe Keralie, Varin, and other key characters as good, but if there was a sequel or spinoff (perhaps there is one I’m just not aware of) I don’t think I’d be intrigued enough to follow up on. I REALLY enjoyed the backstory of this universe and the plot itself, even if the resolutions at the end of the book seemed a bit - convenient? A good read, but not great.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Pregnancy
dark
mysterious
medium-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
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Would have been a 3.5 but i strongly disliked the ending.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
It took me a bit to get into just with the back and forth of POVs. I didn’t see some of those plot twists playing out the way they did! The last half of the book really grabbed my attention and had my heart racing at some points.
UGH, I was expecting some major twist at the end but got an ehh kind of ending.
Four Dead Queens was an okay book. It was interesting to see a thief become a Queen. Then it was equally intriguing to see that the Queens weren't exactly happy either - which one would assume that they would be. Yet, the daily life of living by strict rules doesn't really sound appealing.
In it, you will meet Keralie, Iris, Corra, Stessa, and Marguerite. One is a thief and the other four are the queens of the four quadrants. Now I did think it was interesting that this world was divided into four quadrants and each had their queen - but at what price? Well, they each live by a lot of strict rules which honestly doesn't sound like fun. Then there's Keralie who kind of gets swept off her feet (not in a good way) because she's apparently conspiring to kill the queens. No big deal right?
The whole murder mystery was intriguing to a point. I kind of felt like I was getting a bit lost with all the POV's (plus being super tired and having a migraine while reading this) but I was invested enough to see this through. The murder and world building was on point - at least for me. However, I honestly didn't really care a whole lot about the romance in this. I really wanted to but ugh, it was just kind of meh to me.
Overall, I was expecting a different ending because the one I got was a bit disappointing. I was hoping for some kind of BANG - the end or mic drop the whole situation - yet, I got nothing exciting really. It was still good though.
Four Dead Queens was an okay book. It was interesting to see a thief become a Queen. Then it was equally intriguing to see that the Queens weren't exactly happy either - which one would assume that they would be. Yet, the daily life of living by strict rules doesn't really sound appealing.
In it, you will meet Keralie, Iris, Corra, Stessa, and Marguerite. One is a thief and the other four are the queens of the four quadrants. Now I did think it was interesting that this world was divided into four quadrants and each had their queen - but at what price? Well, they each live by a lot of strict rules which honestly doesn't sound like fun. Then there's Keralie who kind of gets swept off her feet (not in a good way) because she's apparently conspiring to kill the queens. No big deal right?
The whole murder mystery was intriguing to a point. I kind of felt like I was getting a bit lost with all the POV's (plus being super tired and having a migraine while reading this) but I was invested enough to see this through. The murder and world building was on point - at least for me. However, I honestly didn't really care a whole lot about the romance in this. I really wanted to but ugh, it was just kind of meh to me.
Overall, I was expecting a different ending because the one I got was a bit disappointing. I was hoping for some kind of BANG - the end or mic drop the whole situation - yet, I got nothing exciting really. It was still good though.