Hey guys, it's Nat and today I'm going to be doing a review of The Queen's Rising
by Rebecca Ross. So, this book is a YA high fantasy book and it follows a
young girl named Brienna and she is studying to be a passion and you can be
a passion in one of five categories: art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge. Now
most people are naturally inclined toward one passion over the others, but
Brienna struggles to find hers until she finally decides on knowledge. Once she
finishes her studies she needs to be chosen by a patron in order to become
impassioned and when that time comes she's left without a patron. It isn't
until a few months later that a disgraced lord ends up offering her
patronage and she ends up getting involved with his political maneuverings
and the story kind of takes off from there. So, I really enjoyed this book I
gave it a four out of five stars on Goodreads. Towards the end of the spoiler
free section of this review I will be kind of rating it on my own scale 'cause
I'm not a huge fan of the 5 star rating system that Goodreads uses even though
I'm kind of stuck with it on Goodreads. Usually when I rate books on Goodreads
I'm rating them solely based on how much I enjoyed it sometimes relative to
the other book that I've read and rated on Goodreads but yeah it's not usually
based on any criticisms that I may have of the book, just how much I enjoyed it.
Also my Goodreads ratings are more likely to change over time, but anyways
back to the review. So this book is a high fantasy book and the first thing
I'm going to say about it is that it's not as action-packed as most high
fantasy books are there are only like a few action sequences in this book and
they're over pretty quickly. This book focuses more so on politics and world
building and I really loved that. World building is one of my favorite aspects
of sci-fi/fantasy storytelling and so I was okay with this book not being as
action-packed as most of the sci-fi/fantasy books that I read. If it had
been I probably wouldn't be complaining about it but at the time that I was
reading this book I didn't really need it, so–in fact I found it kind of
refreshing that it wasn't super action-packed. However, if you're in the
mood for some action something more fast-paced, then this is not the book for
you, at least not right now. I do still highly recommend this book, but maybe
wait until you're in the mood for something like this in terms of plot it
could be a little bit predictable at times I'm not super mad about it because
I was trying to predict like what was gonna happen and I'm not gonna hold that
against the author when I was putting in the effort and I'm very rarely annoyed
by predictability I'll only be annoyed by it if it's like–if I predicted
something that I didn't want to happen. However, if you find that you're good at
predicting things without even trying and that bothers you
be aware that there are some things that you might see coming. There are
definitely things that did shock me and I never would have guessed, so it's not
entirely predictable just be aware that it might be a bit of an issue for you.
Also, the ending felt a little bit too easy, a little bit too quick. I think that
that's because the second book in this duology was originally supposed to be a
companion and not a direct sequel, so the author had a lot to wrap up in like ... what?
Four hundred and fifty pages? Maybe? And I knew that going into the book, so it
didn't bother me too much–it did a little bit but I kind of
expected it, you know? But yeah, this book definitely gives you a sense of closure
there's no big cliffhanger at the end that's not to say that I'm not super
excited for the second book. I do think that there's more story to tell and I
can't wait to see where it goes. So, let's talk about world-building for a
little bit. The world-building was probably my favorite part of this book.
Surprise, surprise. I keep going on and on about how much I love world building, but
yeah, there are two different kingdoms in this book with two different cultures
and histories to be explored and it's really really interesting
I don't want to say too much about it in the spoiler free section, but the world
building is really strong and it never felt like info-dumpy or anything to me.
So yeah, A-plus on the world building. So now let's talk about characters, starting
with the main character, Brienna. I really loved her. I was worried that I wouldn't
like her at first. Like, in the beginning she starts off not very confident in
herself, but she really comes into her own throughout the book and in a way
that I haven't seen recently. Again, I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll get
more into that in the spoiler section of this video, but yeah, I really loved her
and I'm glad that I did. There's also only one love interest in this book. No
love triangle which is also really refreshing I'm a shipper. I really do
enjoy love triangles, but it was nice to not have to root for one person over
another to be with a main character for once. Also the love story really takes
a back seat in this book. Like, for most of the book, the romance isn't even on
your radar until like you suddenly realize that you're really invested in
that relationship and it kind of sneaks up on you, which again, is just really
refreshing and I enjoyed it. Moving on to the main antagonist. Now, he
does pose an actual threat but he's not incredibly interesting. I found some of
his lackeys to be more interesting than he was, which is fine. I mean, I got
enough enjoyment out of some of the other characters and the world-building
for it not to be a huge problem for me. I know I've mentioned before how much I love
a good villain, but I don't always need it in a book and this is one of those
cases where other aspects of the book outshined the villain for me and that's
perfectly fine. Obviously, I still gave this book a pretty good rating and not
to mention, I mean, this book had a lot going on without the villain being super
complex so it wasn't really necessary. So overall I would give the world building
a 100%, the main protagonist a 95%, the side characters are 97%, villains an
80%, and plot 90%. Which brings us to a total grade of 93.4, which is
like, an A? Maybe an A-minus? I'd say it's an A, I really enjoyed it.
Also, bonus points for the amazingly gorgeous cover and there's this really
awesome map, there is a cast of characters and a list of the 14 houses
of Maevana and some family trees, which is really really cool. I kept referencing
these throughout the book. They were really awesome and useful, so yeah. So,
that's it for my spoiler free review of the Queen's rising at least I hope it
was spoiler free if you feel that some spoilers managed to, like, slip in, then let
me know down in the comments so that I can try to avoid that for future reviews.
But if you haven't read this book, go read it, come back, listen to my spoilery
thoughts and we can have a discussion down in the comments. If you have read
this book then keep on watching for more thoughts and feelings about this book so
the first thing that I want to mention in the spoiler-filled section of this
review is that, I loved the passion cloaks. I thought they were so cool. I really
want one, but like I want one for every passion. Also, how cool is it that they
incorporated four of the designs of the passion cloaks onto the cover? I thought
that was awesome and apparently the cover of the sequel has like four of the
house sigils in the corners, which is also really cool. I think these
covers are just awesome. Okay, so back to my review. So, again I loved the history
in this book and I loved that Brienna inherited her ancestor's memories. I
thought that was a really cool concept, especially because she's a passion of
knowledge and her ancestor played a big role in Maevana's history and a big
role in a part of history that was lost to most of the people, which was really
really cool. Although, those memories had really
terrible timing. I also love how she inherited her memories because of a
prophecy. I did not see that coming. Like, that's how you do the chosen one
trope. I thought that was really well done. Brienna's friendship with Merei is
so sweet and so pure and I loved it so much. I really hope to see them back
together again in the second book and even some of the other passion sisters
as well. That whole friend group at Magnalia house was just so great–minus the
drama with Ciri obviously. The king is a terrible king and he absolutely should
be taken off the throne, but like, I was never really all that afraid of him, like
to me it was just always obvious that he'd easily be defeated, like he didn't
seem to pose that much of a threat to the protagonist. Like, he definitely poses
a threat to the kingdom as a whole, just not Brienna and you know the people
that she's working with. And the only time I really felt apprehensive about
him was when Brienna first goes to meet him because all the other characters
have hyped up how vicious and ruthless he was but, after that first meeting I
wasn't all that worried about him, you know? Like, I feel like part of that might
have been because he didn't seem to feel all that threatened by the fact that the
Kavanaghs, the MacQuinns, and the Morganes were still alive. I don't know if
it was revealed to him at that point that all of them were alive, maybe it was
just the McQuinn's, but he didn't seem to feel threatened by that. He seemed to
want to kill them more so out of spite, um, than out of real fear for his position
and his power. At least, that's the impression that I got from that scene in
the throne room. I feel like if he felt that he had something to fear then he
would have had something to fight for and that would have raised the stakes a
little bit and made him a little bit of a better villain. Again, I didn't
absolutely need it from this book, but if– if I were to change something that's
what I would change. Allenach was a bit better
than the king as an antagonist that is, but I still wanted a bit more from him.
Like, there were a few times where I expected him to just like flip a switch
and do something monstrous and terrible, but he didn't and he was really trusting
of Brienna and that's where the resolution was a bit too easy for me
like it was a little too easy for her to trick him. His son Rian though. I was kind
of terrified of him, like, the most suspenseful scenes in this book were the
ones with him in it 'cause he's like–he's scary. I'm both kind
of disappointed and relieved that he was killed off so quickly. On the one hand I
would have liked to have seen more of him as a villain, but on the other I'm–he–
I was scared of him and I'm glad that I don't have to worry about him anymore. I
also love that the dog was the one to save Brienna from him. That dog is my
favorite. I want to see more of the dog in the sequel. Cartier is a precious bean
and I love him so much. And the funny thing is that if there had been a love
triangle, he would not have been the guy that I rooted for to be with Brianna.
Like, I usually root for the love interest with a little bit more edge to
them and yeah, I would have found Cartier to be, like, boring but since that wasn't
an issue I absolutely adored him. His relationship with Brienna is just the
sweetest thing and I can't wait to see more of them in the sequel. I can't wait
to get Cartier's point of view because the sequel is a dual narrative, so that's
exciting. I also loved Jourdain and Luc and Isolde as Brienna's, like, adoptive
family and I can't wait to see more of them in the sequel as well. And I can't
wait to see how Isolde handles the responsibility of ruling a kingdom, so
that'll be interesting, I think. I also really love Sean. I'm so glad that one of
Brienna's relatives–besides her grandfather–is not, like,
a terrible human being. And I'm glad that he's alive and I hope
that he and Brienna get to know each other better in the sequel. I know that
he's on thin ice Allenach's son, but I really hope he gets
a chance to prove that he's not his father. So, those are my thoughts on the
Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross. Let me know what you guys thought of this book
down in the comments, if you've read it–I hope you've read it, if you've made it
this far into the video and listened to all my spoilery thoughts, but yeah, I would
love to discuss this book with you guys, and that's it for today's video. I hope
you guys enjoyed, if you did please give it a thumbs up and if you'd like to see
more videos from me, make sure to click that subscribe button as well thank you
guys for watching and I'll see y'all soon! Bye!
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