Reviews with content warning for Death - Four Dead Queens

Not amazing-definitely a YA ending-but still good. The main thing I found weird was the worldbuilding:
No one has ever tried to assassinate the queens before? Really?
Queenly Law is also so weird it seems to have been included for the sole purpose of highlighting the problems with the monarchy.
Also, I don't get the quadrants. I get how Archia, for instance, happens-it's an island, so there are it's borders, it's great agriculturally(main export) and that plus isolation leads to it's culture. Eonia and Toria I can kind of get- the cultures and main exports are there for logical reasons, although the borders are arbitrary, but how did you get to the point where Ludia cant produce food but has this huge culture of entertainment-how did that happen?
My main problem is that I had so many problems with Queenly Law and the divided quadrants that I could have read this book from the villian's perspective with minor changes to the motives and the villian being a morally grey protagonist.

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jaqylantern's review against another edition

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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piperclover's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I didn't realize this was going to be a deep intense fantasy plot line so I was unsure for a while if I would like it bc I usually go for more light hearted whimsical fantasy but I enjoyed this so much. The only reasons I can't give this 5 stars is that at 75% of the book we were at the peak tension building up to the climax and then we hit the obligatory makeout scene that killed so much tension and was absolutely not the right time for it. I hate that so so much.

The other reason is that there are up to 5 povs simultaneously until the very end and on top of that there's multiple timelines and eventually they do merge and everything makes sense but I don't appreciate that personally bc it makes it hard for me to keep track of. The narrators are really good at distinguishing the voices so it wasn't necessarily that I had trouble keeping track of who was who, it was just that everyone had so much information and there were so many different moving parts. I really loved though that all of the POVs except Keralie's were in third person. But because we got so many POVs from so many different people it really stood out that we didn't get a single POV from the love interest. We were in on everything except him which makes no sense and really bothered me.

The main character and the love interest are both really interesting and I love the character growth that they both went through and I really enjoyed the ending. I really enjoyed the story itself.

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themoodreader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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carma's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny mysterious medium-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? Yes

4.0

Overall I really did enjoy this book. It has lovable characters, an intriguing story line and a few plot twists along the way.
I read this right after finishing the Six of Crows duology and following another thief’s story was kind of comforting and really soothing after having my soul torn out by chapter 40 in crooked kingdom. And in many aspects our main character Keralie kept reminding me of the crows, which was a huge plus point in my case.

However, I often felt like it was too much at the same time: we have a murder mystery, a thief’s story, romance, science fiction, a dystopian-ish society, multiple narratives, queens breaking their own law and so on, it really just kept coming.
It sometimes just was too much, so that each element was only touched upon and left as a weak example of what could have been achieved within this world, if only each topic had been granted more time and attention.

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liz_ross's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious relaxing 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? It's complicated

4.5

"Loving someone means risking your heart being broken. But those moments you are together triumph over any hardship."

I saw this book for the first time on Goodreads. I felt in love with its cover right away. And I knew I wouldn't rest until I read it. It wasn't just because I was in love with the cover, though, you know? It was also that unshakable feeling that this book was going to be great.

And it was. Really, really great. I am sure that by now you already know how much I love having the chance to guess who the murderer is when there's one, but end up really upset if I ever do guess who s/he was too early. Because if I do, then I am just there, reading and yelling at the characters because they are too stupid to see what's right in front of them.

That's why I know this book is really great. Because even after I was so sure I had guessed everything there was to guess, I still wanted to keep reading. That urge to read this book till its last page hadn't vanished. And I am so glad I kept reading, because, yes, I had guessed everything right, but I hadn't guessed everything there was to guess. I had not guessed a tiny detail and we all know that in books sometimes it's the tiny details that make the difference between a good book and a great book. That wasn't exactly the case - the detail wasn't that 💫WOW💫 -, but it made everything even better.

Of course, the book isn't a bed of roses ~~(I have never understood this expression - how can a bed of roses be a good thing?!)~~. For starters, the world doesn't get enough development. I liked the concept and I think it could have been really great - it may not have been the most original idea for a world that I have ever seen, but it had its own interesting twist -, but it is just not developed enough. And honestly, if it was to develop the whole world and the background that led to its current political situation so little, we would have been far better with no development at all. It just raises way more questions than it answers - I mean, how was spliting the kindgom in quarters the solution to their problems?!.

Then there's Keralie. I do like her character. Just as I like all the other characters. They were well-written and had a really great development. And they have amazing personalities that make the book even more interesting. But there's this one thing about Keralie that bothered me through the whole book - HOW CAN SOMEONE WHO KEEPS TELLING ME THAT SHE FEELS BEYOND GUILTY ABOUT HER CHOICES SEEM SO GUILT-FREE ALL THE TIME?! Yes, what happened was a tragic accident and definitely not her fault. But she blames herself, or at least she keeps telling the reader that she does, and yet we never see that in her actions (or her thoughts) except when it is convenient to the plot.

And do you know what else I don't like, even if I like the characters? The romantic relationship. It is pointless. You have no doubts you'll have a love interest since the moment you read Keralie's description of Varin. But throughout the book, you can't help but wonder why is this love interest here. Not the character in himself, Varin is great, but the character as a love interest. Is it because this is a Fantasy and <i>all</i> Fantasy books need a love interest? Is it too add 💫drama💫? Because if it is, it failed miserably. WHY IS IT IN THE BOOK? All the other relationships I can understand and their amazing dynamics add something to the book. But Keralie and Varin's? I really can't understand that one.

However, these problems weren't enough to make me not enjoy the book as much as I did. And do you know why? Because Scholte is a hell of a writer. You could have guessed that already in the beginning of my review - she had to be really good to make me want to keep reading a book when I was sure there was nothing else to know that I hadn't already guessed. But right now, you can't have any doubts that she is indeed good - otherwise these three issues together would have made the book a little less enjoyable.

Scholte wrote a book with a plot that I saw for the first time - a murder mystery set in a fantasy world. It wasn't the hardest mystery to solve and it wasn't the most well-developed fantasy world I ever saw, but the two things together made it unique. Not only that but she managed to have six different perspectives in her book, all but one in the third person, and have it make sense. Which would have been hard on its own, but she also set for a complex timeline that would jump from the present to the past without warning (which I still don't understand why as the book would have been just as good with a straight timeline). And she made it work. Wonderfully, may I add, because the book really profited from it - thanks to that, to an amazign set of characters and to an amazing writing style, Scholte managed to write a really interesting, addicting book, I had no trouble reading till the end.

Overall, this book has problems, which may make the book less enjoyable for many readers. And that's obviously understandable. But it also has great things - like the attempt to join two genres you rarely see together and the whole mystery, which may be easy to solve but is definitely interesting. And the great writing style also helps. It may not be a complex book I am sure many may come looking for, but it is a funny, light read that may definitely help you get out of a reading slump.

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