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[katara]

Once a Queen by Sarah Arthur

Series:
Once a Queen #1

Genre:
Fantasy, Young Adult, Fairytales, Netgalley

Publication Date:
January 30, 2024

Pages Numbers:
384

Read Date:
October 5th, 2023

Date Finished:
October 6th, 2023

Rating:
4.4/5

Blurb:

An American teenager discovers that her estranged English grandmother was once a queen in another world in the debut novel from bestselling author and speaker Sarah Arthur.

When fourteen-year-old Eva Joyce unexpectedly finds herself spending the summer at the mysterious manor house of the English grandmother she's never met, troubling questions arise. Why the estrangement? What's with the house's employees and their guarded secrets? Why must Eva never mention trains, her father, or her favorite childhood fairy tales?

After strange things start happening in the gardens at night, Eva turns to the elderly housekeeper, gardener, and the gardener's great-grandson, Frankie, for answers. Astonishingly, they all seem to believe the fairy tales are true--that portals to other worlds still exist, though hidden and steadily disappearing. They suspect that Eva's grandmother was once a queen in one of those worlds.

But Eva's grandmother denies it all. After a horrific family tragedy when she was young, her heart is closed to the beauty and pain of her past. It's up to Eva, with Frankie's help, to discover what really happened, whether family relationships can be restored, and if the portals are closed forever. As she unravels generational secrets, Eva wrestles with the grief of a vanishing childhood--and the fear that growing up means giving up fairy tales forever.

Review:

Fourteen-year-old American Eva has come to England for summer vacation with a grandmother she has never met. While there, she sees something happening in the garden of the old English manor house that leaves her deeply unsettled. Eva is determined to uncover the truth, but the mystery only deepens as she begins to piece together the secrets of her grandmother's past and the reasoning behind the estrangement between her mother and grandmother.

While it took me a while to get into the novel, it seemed a bit slow in the beginning but once it started picking up I really started to enjoy the novel. Eva has come to England never knowing the grandmother or the reasoning behind the estrangement even her mother doesn't seem to be willing to divulge the information. In fact, it even seems like she has no desire to be there. As Eva begins to bond with the people around her, she starts to learn that everything is not all fairytale.

This book was a really fun read. I enjoyed the characters and the plotline, but I would have loved more of the other world. Short glimpses were really not enough for me to form an opinion about the world itself. Still, it worked I suppose for a first book. The main character was relatable and well-developed, and I appreciated that the secondary characters weren't just mere background people who blended into the tapestry of the storyline. No, they had personalities and stories to tell which is what I like about many secondary characters.

The pacing was also on point, keeping me engaged and wanting to know what would happen next. However, I couldn't help but feel like the book was missing something. Perhaps it was a certain depth in the world-building or more exploration of the magic system. I am going to surmise we will learn more with the next book so this gives us a lot to look forward to.

Final Thought:

Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of YA fantasy looking for a fun and easy read. While it may not be a groundbreaking novel in the world of "falling into another world", but it does set itself apart from the others.

Similar Books:

To Kill a Shadow by Katherine Quinn
A Glamour of Blood by L.E. Sterling
Heart of Night and Fire by Nisha J. Tuli


*Disclaimer: Thank you to the author, her publishers, and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this book. The opinions of this review are mine and mine alone.