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A review by prisoner_of_books
Shadow Queen by Nicola Tyche
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I went back and forth on this one A LOT but in the end it's a 4.5 star rating rounded to 5!
Shadow Queen is a romantic fantasy full of complex and morally grey characters who's kingdoms are constantly threatened by war. It is a book filled to the brim with political intrigue and secrets. The author is just such a talented writer, she was able to create a story about a continent on the brink of another Great War and bring so much detail and imagery into the world and scenes that I felt like a movie was playing out so clearly in my mind. Along with the treacherous court politics Tyche wrote deep characters, each with many flaws, who are just trying to navigate through constantly changing loyalties and complicated love.
The writing was what brought this book so high in my rating, I was just entranced the whole time. From the first chapter the author caught me with her words and I could not escape the amazing world she had created. I mean seriously, there was so many different POVs and I loved them all! Each character had a place in my heart and trust me, there were a lot. Plus she just keeps expanding my knowledge of this world and writes it SO well. I cannot express how great the world was, guess you'll just have to read the series and see!
The characters were just so real. So human. They were slowly changing because of the environment they were thrown into, especially Norah. But her development was refreshing. Mikael is interesting, I don't know how I feel about him but he is under a lot of pressure in this book. Soren just became one of my favourite characters I LOVED seeing him develop and it was so sweet seeing his friendship grow with Norah. Alexander was bordering on obsession for Norah so it hard for me to like him a lot. There is so much I could say about these characters but they just surprised me in so many different ways.
The plot also surprised me a lot! It kept on twisting and taking unexpected turns that kept me engaged and anticipating the next twist. I do remember wanting more action after the first book and I'll be honest it didn't really have that this time either. BUT I still enjoyed it more than the first book because the politics was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat! And the introduction of amazing new characters and the development of old ones. I will say one thing, Nicola Tyche can definitely build up a lot of tension and anticipation, I can already tell I will not be able to put down the third book and cannot wait to see how everything goes down!
Thanks so much to MTMC tours for the copy, this did not affect my review and all thoughts are my own.
Shadow Queen is a romantic fantasy full of complex and morally grey characters who's kingdoms are constantly threatened by war. It is a book filled to the brim with political intrigue and secrets. The author is just such a talented writer, she was able to create a story about a continent on the brink of another Great War and bring so much detail and imagery into the world and scenes that I felt like a movie was playing out so clearly in my mind. Along with the treacherous court politics Tyche wrote deep characters, each with many flaws, who are just trying to navigate through constantly changing loyalties and complicated love.
The writing was what brought this book so high in my rating, I was just entranced the whole time. From the first chapter the author caught me with her words and I could not escape the amazing world she had created. I mean seriously, there was so many different POVs and I loved them all! Each character had a place in my heart and trust me, there were a lot. Plus she just keeps expanding my knowledge of this world and writes it SO well. I cannot express how great the world was, guess you'll just have to read the series and see!
The characters were just so real. So human. They were slowly changing because of the environment they were thrown into, especially Norah. But her development was refreshing. Mikael is interesting, I don't know how I feel about him but he is under a lot of pressure in this book. Soren just became one of my favourite characters I LOVED seeing him develop and it was so sweet seeing his friendship grow with Norah. Alexander was bordering on obsession for Norah so it hard for me to like him a lot. There is so much I could say about these characters but they just surprised me in so many different ways.
The plot also surprised me a lot! It kept on twisting and taking unexpected turns that kept me engaged and anticipating the next twist. I do remember wanting more action after the first book and I'll be honest it didn't really have that this time either. BUT I still enjoyed it more than the first book because the politics was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat! And the introduction of amazing new characters and the development of old ones. I will say one thing, Nicola Tyche can definitely build up a lot of tension and anticipation, I can already tell I will not be able to put down the third book and cannot wait to see how everything goes down!
Thanks so much to MTMC tours for the copy, this did not affect my review and all thoughts are my own.