A review by twentycharm
The Caged Queen by Kristen Ciccarelli

4.0

4.5 stars. Having read her other books, I’ve started to take a liking to Kristen Ciccarelli’s writing style. The storyline is always very complex and builds up slowly, but the ending unravels rather quickly. However, besides the writing style, I am also quite fond of the plot. I have been interested in Dax and Roa since learning about them in The Last Namsara, but did not expect their story to be this interesting. Continuing the story from someone else’s perspective helped me understand how little we actually know about the people around us. Like its prequel, The Caged Queen has taught me many morals and I loved the complexity of the situations in the book. I will fully admit that I love Roa’s character so much, maybe even more than Asha’s. Sure, she was annoying when refusing to let her sister pass, but other than that, all she wanted was to help her people. She sacrificed her life to do so, and when she found out Dax wasn’t the man she needed him to be, she thought of new solutions. Roa didn’t let anything stop her, because she was so righteous that she would go to great lengths to fulfil her promises. Essie’s backstory definitely made Dax’s and Roa’s relationship more complicated. At times, I was also unsure what I would do if I were Roa, considering I had to face the man who was responsible for my beloved sister’s death and incompetent in every other way. Nonetheless, their love story made my heart happy and it turns out that men are not that terrible! // S/N: gosh this book took me so long to read.. If we count based on the day I bought it, it’s been almost a month. I will try my best to read more frequently because I’m just so lazy ugh. Also I find it so difficult to write formal book reviews because 1. I enjoy just about anything I read (otherwise I wouldn’t finish it) 2. I need to give an unbiased opinion sigh 3. The word choice should be specific… instead of just saying things are “nice” or “good”, I need to elaborate and my brain is just so tired LMAO //