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A review by klindtvedt
Vengeful Queen by Lili St. Germain
5.0
A Ferocious Story that will Irrevocably Alter Your Soul...
As I wrote in my Sadt Cookie 2020 Year in Review article, I had been impatiently waiting for this book. Had been ever so surely, bit by tiny bit losing my mind waiting day after day for this second installment of Lili St. Germain’s “Violent Kingdom” series; the sadistically bent re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet complete with twists and turns worthy of a horror movie. And FINALLY “Vengeful Queen” is here! And good Gods does she NOT disappoint in this next chapter of her captivating take on the story of Avery Capulet and Rome Montague.
As with the first book, “Vicious Prince”, you are immediately plunged into a story so ferocious it will cut your soul slowly and deeply. Beginning almost immediately where the first installment left off, Germain instantly reminds you of the life and death dilemma both Avery and Rome find themselves in. Then she torturously proceeds for the first ten chapters to remind you of the deranged madness that is Avery’s existence. How she is surrounded by enemies at every turn. Enemies that mean to bring her to heel using her love for Rome as a weapon against her, casting him as the villain despite him being just as much a victim as Avery. Forcing her to witness him being bent into unfathomable positions of violence designed to lead others to the false belief that he is the man behind the devil’s mask, when in fact the truth is so much darker, darker than even she could foresee despite being a Capulet and bottle fed treachery from birth.
You will be unable to stifle the gasp that breaks from your lips as you realize no single individual in Avery’s life, outside of Rome, is as they appear to be; not her father, not her aunt or uncle, not her cousin, her friends, the police, priests, and everyday citizens around her, not, one, single, person. She is trapped on all sides by enemies moving in, crushing her under the weight of their greed, their delusions of grandeur, of false senses of duty and propriety, by their very psychopathy. It is a horror you will be plunged into deeply, sinking deeper and deeper until you almost suffocate from the emotional depravity of it all.
This is a story so ominous, violent and unhinged in nature it will wrap around you like a serpent and grip you in its steely hold from start to finish. And just when you think you can bear no more and may need to look away, the author will break open a vein of sweetness between Rome and Avery so pure, a life line of love so fierce it will not bend, will not bow to the evil bombarding it, and because of it you will push on despite your unease. As here again, Germain provides a tiny seed of hope throughout, one that although badly battered and bruised, perseveres and continues to flicker a dim but constant light. But even with this bit of light this book will challenge your senses. It is this not for the faint of heart; this story will twist your gut violently and make you writhe uncomfortably in your seat. Here, once again, Germain writes something so emotionally complex, so brilliantly alarming; it will be your undoing if you are at all weak of mind or heart. Here she once again thrusts you into a plot so alarming, so ghastly, you will find yourself gazing mindlessly off into the darkness asking aloud how the main characters could possibly survive all that is around them. And just when you think you can endure no more, this one will push you even further emotionally.
Avery's plight will challenge you to the very edge of reason as you try and understand how something so twisted and irrevocably life altering could even come into being. It will alter the very fabric of how you view family, what it means to be family, and whether or not it is ever really safe to trust anyone beyond yourself…
And so begins the maddening wait for the third and final book! A wait I am unsure I can endure as I am desperate to know how it all ends; filled to bursting with the uninhibited need to know the who's, the how's, and the why's of it all.
As I wrote in my Sadt Cookie 2020 Year in Review article, I had been impatiently waiting for this book. Had been ever so surely, bit by tiny bit losing my mind waiting day after day for this second installment of Lili St. Germain’s “Violent Kingdom” series; the sadistically bent re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet complete with twists and turns worthy of a horror movie. And FINALLY “Vengeful Queen” is here! And good Gods does she NOT disappoint in this next chapter of her captivating take on the story of Avery Capulet and Rome Montague.
As with the first book, “Vicious Prince”, you are immediately plunged into a story so ferocious it will cut your soul slowly and deeply. Beginning almost immediately where the first installment left off, Germain instantly reminds you of the life and death dilemma both Avery and Rome find themselves in. Then she torturously proceeds for the first ten chapters to remind you of the deranged madness that is Avery’s existence. How she is surrounded by enemies at every turn. Enemies that mean to bring her to heel using her love for Rome as a weapon against her, casting him as the villain despite him being just as much a victim as Avery. Forcing her to witness him being bent into unfathomable positions of violence designed to lead others to the false belief that he is the man behind the devil’s mask, when in fact the truth is so much darker, darker than even she could foresee despite being a Capulet and bottle fed treachery from birth.
You will be unable to stifle the gasp that breaks from your lips as you realize no single individual in Avery’s life, outside of Rome, is as they appear to be; not her father, not her aunt or uncle, not her cousin, her friends, the police, priests, and everyday citizens around her, not, one, single, person. She is trapped on all sides by enemies moving in, crushing her under the weight of their greed, their delusions of grandeur, of false senses of duty and propriety, by their very psychopathy. It is a horror you will be plunged into deeply, sinking deeper and deeper until you almost suffocate from the emotional depravity of it all.
This is a story so ominous, violent and unhinged in nature it will wrap around you like a serpent and grip you in its steely hold from start to finish. And just when you think you can bear no more and may need to look away, the author will break open a vein of sweetness between Rome and Avery so pure, a life line of love so fierce it will not bend, will not bow to the evil bombarding it, and because of it you will push on despite your unease. As here again, Germain provides a tiny seed of hope throughout, one that although badly battered and bruised, perseveres and continues to flicker a dim but constant light. But even with this bit of light this book will challenge your senses. It is this not for the faint of heart; this story will twist your gut violently and make you writhe uncomfortably in your seat. Here, once again, Germain writes something so emotionally complex, so brilliantly alarming; it will be your undoing if you are at all weak of mind or heart. Here she once again thrusts you into a plot so alarming, so ghastly, you will find yourself gazing mindlessly off into the darkness asking aloud how the main characters could possibly survive all that is around them. And just when you think you can endure no more, this one will push you even further emotionally.
Avery's plight will challenge you to the very edge of reason as you try and understand how something so twisted and irrevocably life altering could even come into being. It will alter the very fabric of how you view family, what it means to be family, and whether or not it is ever really safe to trust anyone beyond yourself…
And so begins the maddening wait for the third and final book! A wait I am unsure I can endure as I am desperate to know how it all ends; filled to bursting with the uninhibited need to know the who's, the how's, and the why's of it all.