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A review by thebooknerdscorner
The Queen's Assassin by Melissa de la Cruz
2.0
A young assassin and a future noblewoman collide in this fantastical tale of political intrigue and illogical romance.
"The Queen's Assassin" follows Shadow, an ambitious girl who dreams of joining the illustrious Guild and Cal, a young assassin who is bound to the nation's queen due to an oath given by his father. Shadow will do anything it takes to avoid going to live among the court with her mother, even rescue an assassin from the heaviest guarded prison in the nation. Cal, on the other hand, doesn't need some merchant girl to complete the mission his queen gave to him. But when the two meet, Cal reluctantly agrees to take Shadow under his wing. Cal knows that as an assassin, his job is to be an inhumane monster, but he can't help fall for his mysterious apprentice. . .
After finishing this one I have to start by saying, were we not supposed to know Shadow's identity from the beginning of the book? I was quite confused at the end when there was two whole chapters describing everything about Shadow's life and the "secret" she had to keep. I was quite literally baffled that this was all being explained in such detail because I assumed this from what happened in the beginning moments of the book. I either read the intro stuff completely wrong or else this book was structured so poorly that it was so obvious that I didn't even think it was a mystery. Consider me thoroughly mystified by this.
I wasn't very intrigued by much of the political nonsense that was happening in this one and the magical elements of this story aren't all that unique. Despite this, "The Queen's Assassin" was an easy read and I found the majority of it entertaining. By the end of the book, I am at least interested to see what will happen with Shadow and Cal's predicament and how Cal will complete his quest that he has been burdened with since birth.
The romance in this one was just okay to me. It took me awhile to even kinda like Shadow, so it took at least three fourths of the book before I even appreciated the romantic elements that were happening. Cal is cool with his no-nonsense assassin vibes and his general charisma. I think the fated element of them being together makes things slightly better, and I hope their relationship gets stronger in the conclusion of this duology. But also, they're both in denial about almost everything and they really need to pull themselves.
Overall, "The Queen's Assassin" is a pretty cliché young adult fantasy that didn't really bring anything new to the table, but it wasn't horrible. There were parts that I found confusing and others that I found rather counterproductive. I was a tad bit disappointed in it in the long run due to how much I loved "The Encanto's Daughter" by the same author. I will be moving on to the sequel now and crossing my fingers that many of the things I disliked about this one will have been turned around in the latter installment. I'm intrigued to see what happens to Shadow and Cal, so "The Queen's Assassin" did at least hook me on these two characters and the quest that they still have to complete.
"The Queen's Assassin" follows Shadow, an ambitious girl who dreams of joining the illustrious Guild and Cal, a young assassin who is bound to the nation's queen due to an oath given by his father. Shadow will do anything it takes to avoid going to live among the court with her mother, even rescue an assassin from the heaviest guarded prison in the nation. Cal, on the other hand, doesn't need some merchant girl to complete the mission his queen gave to him. But when the two meet, Cal reluctantly agrees to take Shadow under his wing. Cal knows that as an assassin, his job is to be an inhumane monster, but he can't help fall for his mysterious apprentice. . .
After finishing this one I have to start by saying, were we not supposed to know Shadow's identity from the beginning of the book? I was quite confused at the end when there was two whole chapters describing everything about Shadow's life and the "secret" she had to keep. I was quite literally baffled that this was all being explained in such detail because I assumed this from what happened in the beginning moments of the book. I either read the intro stuff completely wrong or else this book was structured so poorly that it was so obvious that I didn't even think it was a mystery. Consider me thoroughly mystified by this.
I wasn't very intrigued by much of the political nonsense that was happening in this one and the magical elements of this story aren't all that unique. Despite this, "The Queen's Assassin" was an easy read and I found the majority of it entertaining. By the end of the book, I am at least interested to see what will happen with Shadow and Cal's predicament and how Cal will complete his quest that he has been burdened with since birth.
The romance in this one was just okay to me. It took me awhile to even kinda like Shadow, so it took at least three fourths of the book before I even appreciated the romantic elements that were happening. Cal is cool with his no-nonsense assassin vibes and his general charisma. I think the fated element of them being together makes things slightly better, and I hope their relationship gets stronger in the conclusion of this duology. But also, they're both in denial about almost everything and they really need to pull themselves.
Overall, "The Queen's Assassin" is a pretty cliché young adult fantasy that didn't really bring anything new to the table, but it wasn't horrible. There were parts that I found confusing and others that I found rather counterproductive. I was a tad bit disappointed in it in the long run due to how much I loved "The Encanto's Daughter" by the same author. I will be moving on to the sequel now and crossing my fingers that many of the things I disliked about this one will have been turned around in the latter installment. I'm intrigued to see what happens to Shadow and Cal, so "The Queen's Assassin" did at least hook me on these two characters and the quest that they still have to complete.