A review by pagepixie
The Queen of Quintessence by Tessa Hale

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I read the Dragons of Ember Hollow trilogy first and honestly I had a blast. It was so fun and while a little repetitive, it got me out a reading slump. So naturally I thought, let me keep going with this author! 

Unfortunately, this fell a little flat for me compared to Dragons of Ember. 

To start, this is a single POV book. We only get the FMC’s perspective. Which is from my experience, uncommon in the RH genre. Since you have so many love interests to develop, it helps their character growth to get their perspectives too. Still I’m usually totally fine with the narrative preference of the author but considering the FMC is unconscious a lot, it kind of felt like we missed… A LOT. 

And with this trilogy I also realized that the author has a formula. By that I mean, this was almost identical to Dragons of Ember except everyone has elemental magic instead of dragon magic. Still, I could have looked past it if even the minor details differed. Spoiler they honestly didn’t.

The FMC had no idea about her magic at the start of the story (as usual) or that she was basically the “chosen one” (again) and is totally bamboozled as to why all these hot men want her (me too girl). Again, the chosen one trope doesn’t particularly bother me, but the way the author did it almost exactly the same as in Embers just deflated me. 

Of course, if you aren’t her fated mate, everyone wants to kill or steal the FMC. At least twice every book (in both trilogies) she’s on her death bed to the point that it had no impact on me at all anymore. 

Then we have the “mean girls” thing. This was something I overlooked in Dragons of Ember. Basically when the FMC starts her new school she makes basically no female friends, but not only that there is the “mean girl” who hates her and wants to steal her men. Mean Girl gets to the point where her jealousy consumers to the point of obsession and wants kill the FMC because she’s just so “obsessed” and “pathetic”. This just feels so icky to me. Don’t get me wrong, girls can be cruel and you can have a female villain, but this is just so underdeveloped as a plot and even the character, specifically Drue in this book (and Delaney in Dragons of Ember). I overlooked it in Dragons because it was (kind of) part of the over arching plot, but this book showed me it’s a cliché stereotype the author uses as a plot crutch. 

I will say I DID enjoy the men in this book. There was a SLIGHT difference between them and the MMCs in Dragons. With regards to spice? I was over it. Why did the FMC just want to jump them EVERY SINGLE TIME after something BRUTALLY TRAUMATIC happened? I get everyone responds to trauma differently, but girl come on? By the end I was bored and skipping these scenes. 

Honestly, I still liked Dragons of Ember. I stand by it being fun. And if I hadn’t read both of these series back to back maybe I would have liked this trilogy mor and it wouldn’t bother me so much. 

I would say, if you like RH and fantasy you could give this author a shot, but pick one series. Personally, I recommend Dragons of Ember over this one.