A review by darlingbudsofrae
The Queen's Game by Carla de Guzman

2.0

"All I wanted to do was write a contemporary royal romance with Asian characters and faces,"

You do not understand how much this meant for me, an Asian bookworm, who rarely get to see some Asian representation in books for years. It especially made me excited that this was set in a royal alternate universe in the Philippines- you best expect that the moment I heard of this book, I did everything in my power to get it in my shelves. And I did, and I read it and it did not live up to my hopes and expectations.
While I adore the premise of this story- the way this story unraveled itself before my very eyes, it was pretty much meh. I honestly feel so sad because I know this story has potential, it has this thing in it to bloom into something great, whether it truly bloomed or didn't I am not so sure. The cookie-cutter characters certainly didn't help me like the story either. Don't get me wrong, I liked a few of Nina's snarky and sassy comebacks here, and Felipe is a sweetheart, and while Tito Ernie is such a freaking mood- these characters, all of them- none of them really truly fleshed out.
And maybe it's because this was short, but things escalated way too quickly for me. Like, a lot of things happened here for plot convenience and short-lived excitement, not really containing much substance.
Another thing I never really appreciated was the writing. To each their own but when the author doesn't trust me to understand what's going on and insists on telling rather than relying on her writing and letting the story unfold itself, I don't trust the author too. De Guzman proceeds to describe things in a dull manner and immediately proceeds to back it up with what her intent was instead of letting me understand it on my own. I don't like getting told what certain dialogues and monologues meant. I didn't like getting spoon-fed why the metaphors are the way they are.
The romance between Nina and Felipe were adorable, I'll give the author that- but whether or not there is substance to their romance- nah-uh.