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A review by tired_cicada
The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Okay first and foremost I know this isn't going to make any sense but was anybody else really bitter that they didn't go to the Cadets Ball?!?! Of everything that happened in this book I don't know why that is the thing that upset me! I don't know, maybe I just wanted something frivolous and fun to happen to these characters just once! Anyway I really enjoyed this, I was honestly really engaged with the school setting. Like we got to spend so little time at Odens Ford in the grand scheme of things but I was in love with it! I would have read three more books about them just going to school, because it was interesting. We got to learn so much about their world through them going to the school and it didn't feel like a useless info dump that was never going to get brought up again. I felt like I was learning things that I was going to care about. And also didn't feel like a travel book. Like they spend a good portion of the book traveling through the world, but it didn't feel like those novels where you felt like you were trudging through Page after page of useless travel that did nothing to the story. The people that you meet with along the way complete the story and are vividly engaging in a way that I'm not used to seeing. Nothing that the characters did felt like it was filler to make the book longer, everything felt like it was important.
Han having to juggle all of his commitments is so fun to watch because the man cannot just sit and mind his own business, he has to get involved but he hates it just as much as everyone else does. The boy is never not been stressed a day in his life and it shows! And can I just say how much I love Fire Dancer and how cute their friendship is! Like I love those two so freaking much! They are my comfort friendship, and I simply adore them! I find it particularly funny that in that one class they told each other nonsensical statements that they thought were completely ridiculous and never ever going to.... And then both of them ended up being 100% correct. I love that trope more than anything in the world, and it had me rolling!
By contrast the emotional turmoil that Raisa gets to go through throughout the entire book was simply Delicious! We do have a hard and fast gag put on that building love triangle, and I'm not going to lie it was a little sad to see the secondary love interest go, but at the end of the day I think we all know it was for the best! And I'm not just saying that because I already know what happens (I accidentally read the first part of the sequel series before reading this series)
I want to talk about this series with someone but no one else I know has read this series and so I just get to sit here and suffer instead. Absolutely phenomenal world building! Oh I can't even handle it! The characters are so well written, all of the "side characters" are flushed out and feel important. They aren't just there to push the narrative forward they have their own things that they're doing. I just love it so much!
Han having to juggle all of his commitments is so fun to watch because the man cannot just sit and mind his own business, he has to get involved but he hates it just as much as everyone else does. The boy is never not been stressed a day in his life and it shows! And can I just say how much I love Fire Dancer and how cute their friendship is! Like I love those two so freaking much! They are my comfort friendship, and I simply adore them! I find it particularly funny that in that one class they told each other nonsensical statements that they thought were completely ridiculous and never ever going to.... And then both of them ended up being 100% correct. I love that trope more than anything in the world, and it had me rolling!
By contrast the emotional turmoil that Raisa gets to go through throughout the entire book was simply Delicious! We do have a hard and fast gag put on that building love triangle, and I'm not going to lie it was a little sad to see the secondary love interest go, but at the end of the day I think we all know it was for the best! And I'm not just saying that because I already know what happens (I accidentally read the first part of the sequel series before reading this series)
I want to talk about this series with someone but no one else I know has read this series and so I just get to sit here and suffer instead. Absolutely phenomenal world building! Oh I can't even handle it! The characters are so well written, all of the "side characters" are flushed out and feel important. They aren't just there to push the narrative forward they have their own things that they're doing. I just love it so much!