A review by jo_cbooks
The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

First of all, this definitely shouldn’t be YA lol it is a bit too explicit and graphic, much better suited as New Adult or Adult but💁🏻‍♀️

I really enjoyed this book. I expected it to be 100% high fantasy but I liked the more dystopian aspect to it since I love history and we get to see a lot of that explored throughout the book. I did find that it was unclear for most of the book why exactly the crossing happened outside of the desire for a utopia but then I wondered how William Tear could’ve convinced people to come with me? I think answering that question should have happened earlier in the book rather than 3/4 of the way through. 

Kelsea (I found the name a bit distracting cuz it was the only super modern sounding one out of all the characters) is a great MC. I appreciated being able to watch her grow into the queen and being able to see her internal processing of balancing who she is a person and how she as a queen needs to be. I loved seeing the relationship between  her and Mace develop; it may not be friendship but I think it is far more important than that
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