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A review by scareads
Queen & Conqueror by Isabelle Olmo
5.0
One of my favorite reads of 2022!
This book was phenomenally written. The tension was gripping. The political battles and maneuvering were delicious. I loved how Almira both succeeded and failed, how right was mixed with wrong, and how the characters had to live with the cost of their decisions. Almira's character was a gift - so complex, strong yet vulnerable. The worldbuilding was a delight. I felt like I was there. I can't wait to pick up book 2 when it comes out!!
Now I will say that I didn't pick this up because of the feminist sales point. In truth, that almost made me set it aside because often that kind of advertising ends up being misleading. But I was pleasantly surprised. Out of the four povs, three are women. They are each strong, opinionated, and stand their ground. It does show women standing up for themselves and striving for what they want moreso than most books I've read. And I am so glad that the sales pitch was not undersold. The only thing I found a little irksome about this was that there was only pushback from the antagonists.
I'm a firm believer that perfection doesn't exist. And there are certain things (despite me loving the writing and this novel) that I had to overlook in order to fully appreciate the brilliance of the story.
Out of all 4 povs, Almira's character is the one with the strongest arc. Second strongest would have been Alton. As Almira was the main character this worked. Unfortunately, it still left me wondering about Sanaa and Hira's pov. Sanaa's character, imo, didn't have any kind of inner journey, but we did need to experience certain things that Almira's pov could not have given us. That said, it did leave me a little ungratified. For Hira - while I understand Hira will be an important character in book 2, her pov in this story felt unnecessary as almost every scene from her pov could have been relayed by Sanaa or Almira and the other ones could have been left out. Hira's inner journey was also very abrupt from denial to acceptance. All that said, I didn't feel like those points were enough to drag me away from enjoying the story. Never once did I want to put the book down because of a change of pov.
Another thing to note was Alton's change in behavior. While I loved the evolution of Almira's and Alton's love story, I personally didn't think the explanations given later in the book complemented or corresponded to Alton's inner thoughts and behavior the first time those two characters met. But I easily overlooked that and kept reading to feed my need to know what Almira was going to do next.
Thoroughly recommend this!!!
This book was phenomenally written. The tension was gripping. The political battles and maneuvering were delicious. I loved how Almira both succeeded and failed, how right was mixed with wrong, and how the characters had to live with the cost of their decisions. Almira's character was a gift - so complex, strong yet vulnerable. The worldbuilding was a delight. I felt like I was there. I can't wait to pick up book 2 when it comes out!!
Now I will say that I didn't pick this up because of the feminist sales point. In truth, that almost made me set it aside because often that kind of advertising ends up being misleading. But I was pleasantly surprised. Out of the four povs, three are women. They are each strong, opinionated, and stand their ground. It does show women standing up for themselves and striving for what they want moreso than most books I've read. And I am so glad that the sales pitch was not undersold. The only thing I found a little irksome about this was that there was only pushback from the antagonists.
I'm a firm believer that perfection doesn't exist. And there are certain things (despite me loving the writing and this novel) that I had to overlook in order to fully appreciate the brilliance of the story.
Out of all 4 povs, Almira's character is the one with the strongest arc. Second strongest would have been Alton. As Almira was the main character this worked. Unfortunately, it still left me wondering about Sanaa and Hira's pov. Sanaa's character, imo, didn't have any kind of inner journey, but we did need to experience certain things that Almira's pov could not have given us. That said, it did leave me a little ungratified. For Hira - while I understand Hira will be an important character in book 2, her pov in this story felt unnecessary as almost every scene from her pov could have been relayed by Sanaa or Almira and the other ones could have been left out. Hira's inner journey was also very abrupt from denial to acceptance. All that said, I didn't feel like those points were enough to drag me away from enjoying the story. Never once did I want to put the book down because of a change of pov.
Another thing to note was Alton's change in behavior. While I loved the evolution of Almira's and Alton's love story, I personally didn't think the explanations given later in the book complemented or corresponded to Alton's inner thoughts and behavior the first time those two characters met. But I easily overlooked that and kept reading to feed my need to know what Almira was going to do next.
Thoroughly recommend this!!!