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A review by bigdreamsandwildthings
The Caged Queen by Kristen Ciccarelli
4.0
“‘Real love is the strongest kind of steel. It’s a blade that can be melted down, its form changed with every bang of the hammer, but to break it is a task no one is capable of. Not even Death.’”
I really enjoyed my time back in this brutal, colourful world. This book is a companion to The Last Namsara rather than a straight sequel and I've gotta say, I wish more authors did that. There were enough hints of the last book to keep me satisfied, but the new story was engrossing without having to remember every last detail of the book that came before it, which I really appreciate. But I digress.
The Caged Queen follows Roa, the scrublander queen, and Dax, her dragon king, in their new life as monarchs. Roa is fighting for her people, and Dax appears to be...not, and the tension builds as the pair travel to Firgaard to meet with councils and do monarch-y things. But there is trouble brewing from those who want Dax and/or Roa off the throne, and true change never comes without a price. Roa's sister Essie plays heavily into the story, as does her past lover Theo.
As I said before, I really liked this book. I felt like I was engaged and engrossed throughout the whole thing, and there's something about Kristen's writing style that makes the story fly by without you even noticing it's happening. I was ready for some political intrigue, some hate to love romance, and some general twisty-turnies that would leave me clutching the book and wondering how I didn't see it coming.
I got two of the three.
The reason I take a star off is because everything just felt quite...conventional. Even the "twists" were not twisty; Roa would be thinking one thing and I'd be like "honey, no" and then the big reveal would happen and I just felt like nothing could surprise me. And it didn't.
That didn't necessarily lessen the touching moments, though - that is a strength of this book, for sure. The romance was on point and the development between Roa and Dax was breathtaking and hard to put down when I had to stop reading. And Roa and Essie were also just so heartbreakingly wonderful. The people in Kristen's books feel real enough that even with this mediocre plot, I still invested, and I still felt satisfied at the end of it all.
Basically, this is good YA fantasy that just happens to be Canadian. I fricken love that we finally get a series from a Canadian author that lives up to the standard in the genre, and keeps me invested the entire way through.
I really enjoyed my time back in this brutal, colourful world. This book is a companion to The Last Namsara rather than a straight sequel and I've gotta say, I wish more authors did that. There were enough hints of the last book to keep me satisfied, but the new story was engrossing without having to remember every last detail of the book that came before it, which I really appreciate. But I digress.
The Caged Queen follows Roa, the scrublander queen, and Dax, her dragon king, in their new life as monarchs. Roa is fighting for her people, and Dax appears to be...not, and the tension builds as the pair travel to Firgaard to meet with councils and do monarch-y things. But there is trouble brewing from those who want Dax and/or Roa off the throne, and true change never comes without a price. Roa's sister Essie plays heavily into the story, as does her past lover Theo.
As I said before, I really liked this book. I felt like I was engaged and engrossed throughout the whole thing, and there's something about Kristen's writing style that makes the story fly by without you even noticing it's happening. I was ready for some political intrigue, some hate to love romance, and some general twisty-turnies that would leave me clutching the book and wondering how I didn't see it coming.
I got two of the three.
The reason I take a star off is because everything just felt quite...conventional. Even the "twists" were not twisty; Roa would be thinking one thing and I'd be like "honey, no" and then the big reveal would happen and I just felt like nothing could surprise me. And it didn't.
That didn't necessarily lessen the touching moments, though - that is a strength of this book, for sure. The romance was on point and the development between Roa and Dax was breathtaking and hard to put down when I had to stop reading. And Roa and Essie were also just so heartbreakingly wonderful. The people in Kristen's books feel real enough that even with this mediocre plot, I still invested, and I still felt satisfied at the end of it all.
Basically, this is good YA fantasy that just happens to be Canadian. I fricken love that we finally get a series from a Canadian author that lives up to the standard in the genre, and keeps me invested the entire way through.