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A review by potatochipswhat
The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine
4.0
Mixed feelings about this one, I had gone a long while without reading any YA fantasy, or any leisure books for that matter, and this was the first I had settled on.
Things I loved about the book were the references to Snow White, and the Draconi, I thought their kind and their world was a pretty slick idea. At the start I really liked Lorelai, Leo was cute, but his need for flair and fashion had me cringing a little. I found it really funny how Lorelai could WALK UP WALLS, I am going insane. I found Irina super intricate, with the guilt perhaps about her sister and her wild conflict and craze for power. I really enjoyed the clever connections throughout the novel and a nice epic fight scene at the end. Lorelai's magic was pretty cool, and Kol was decent, but it dulls me to realise that I don't have a favourite character in the book, and if I had to choose, it would probably be Viktor.
Anyways, I was shipping Lorelai and Kol when they were first met, but after Kol became batsh*t crazy things just kind of went incredulous? It was like, you're cute I guess but forget you saw me, I have to kill you but I won't, I must kill you because I have lost humanity, I'll offer you momentary salvation and we can get inside each other's heads, but I still want to kill you then bam! I FREAKING LOVE YOU. The romance between the two was really strange and in my opinion, as the novel progressed, I realised it was probably not really necessary for the novel to be complete. If they had become friends of strong allies, I would have been decently satisfied. Sometimes the phrases and sentenced got a bit repetitive, e.g "I was fire, blood, death etc..." I started rolling my eyes as they were repeated over and over. I get the emphasis lol. Kol's character change from playful prankster to devoted king was somewhat abrupt and I didn't quite believe he was a fun (and not obnoxious) prankster other than that I was told he was.
I reckon Irina had a lot of character potential to explore, and in terms of character development, Lorelai barely had any. She started off on a badass, brave foot, and was already super skilled at magic which I was happy with, but only changed to become more angry, arrogant, stubborn and vengeful perhaps? The only internal conflicts she suffered was grief, and even that got kind of repetitive and coppy outy.
I still enjoyed the book enough to finish it in about 3-4 days, although I deduce that mostly because of my deprivation of YA beforehand. Not bad at all, reading back I think I'm being too picky icky but 3.5/5 would read the next installment!
Things I loved about the book were the references to Snow White, and the Draconi, I thought their kind and their world was a pretty slick idea. At the start I really liked Lorelai, Leo was cute, but his need for flair and fashion had me cringing a little. I found it really funny how Lorelai could WALK UP WALLS, I am going insane. I found Irina super intricate, with the guilt perhaps about her sister and her wild conflict and craze for power. I really enjoyed the clever connections throughout the novel and a nice epic fight scene at the end. Lorelai's magic was pretty cool, and Kol was decent, but it dulls me to realise that I don't have a favourite character in the book, and if I had to choose, it would probably be Viktor.
Anyways, I was shipping Lorelai and Kol when they were first met, but after Kol became batsh*t crazy things just kind of went incredulous? It was like, you're cute I guess but forget you saw me, I have to kill you but I won't, I must kill you because I have lost humanity, I'll offer you momentary salvation and we can get inside each other's heads, but I still want to kill you then bam! I FREAKING LOVE YOU. The romance between the two was really strange and in my opinion, as the novel progressed, I realised it was probably not really necessary for the novel to be complete. If they had become friends of strong allies, I would have been decently satisfied. Sometimes the phrases and sentenced got a bit repetitive, e.g "I was fire, blood, death etc..." I started rolling my eyes as they were repeated over and over. I get the emphasis lol. Kol's character change from playful prankster to devoted king was somewhat abrupt and I didn't quite believe he was a fun (and not obnoxious) prankster other than that I was told he was.
I reckon Irina had a lot of character potential to explore, and in terms of character development, Lorelai barely had any. She started off on a badass, brave foot, and was already super skilled at magic which I was happy with, but only changed to become more angry, arrogant, stubborn and vengeful perhaps? The only internal conflicts she suffered was grief, and even that got kind of repetitive and coppy outy.
I still enjoyed the book enough to finish it in about 3-4 days, although I deduce that mostly because of my deprivation of YA beforehand. Not bad at all, reading back I think I'm being too picky icky but 3.5/5 would read the next installment!