A review by whimsicallymeghan
The Caged Queen by Kristen Ciccarelli

4.0

Roa and Essie were the closest of sisters, until one day Essie had an accident leaving her soul wandering. Wanting nothing more than to help her sister, Roa has decided to make it her mission to save Essie and seek vengeance on the person whose fault it was for the accident, Dax, the King of Firgaard and her husband. The reader really liked that this could be read as a standalone; it takes place in the same world but you don’t need to have read the first book to understand the events of this one. Sure, there are moments where things from the first book are mentioned, but the author does an amazing job of describing how that benefits this story and this book that the reader never felt lost. Speaking of the writing, Ciccarelli is a master of her craft in writing this poetic, not quite purple prose, way that really gripped the reader and had them so invested in the story and the characters. In this novel, we don’t really see Asha, who was the main character in the first, but this one focused on her brother, Dax. The reader didn’t really care for him when we first met him, and it felt like the author was trying to give him a redemption arc, but it still didn’t really warm us up to him. He had good moments throughout, but they didn’t really redeem him to this reader. Roa was a fun main character, she had a lot of different hats to wear; her sisterly bond was so beautifully written and executed. As much as she wanted to do everything in her power to help save her sister, the lies and deception were strong in this novel, but so good and fun to read, yet in the end she knew what she would have to do; it was heartbreaking, but felt really justified and selfless. As for the plot, it was so fast-paced; as soon as the reader started they were sucked in and they didn’t want to leave. They liked that there were these little intermissions between chapters that gave us exposition into the character’s pasts without completely taking us out of the story; it was really well done. The reader is curious to see where the last novel will go, who the main characters will be and how it all fits into this world. In the end, this was a fun fantasy novel with many twists and turns that had the reader on their toes wanting to know more.