ebookreview | Entries tagged with author: emily r. king

Title: The Fire Queen (The Hundredth Queen #2)
Author: Emily R. King
Format: Epub
Rating: 1.5/5
Status: Didn't Finish
Reading Date: February 19, 2018 to February 24, 2018
Book Summary: In the second book in The Hundredth Queen Series, Emily R. King once again follows a young warrior queen’s rise to meet her destiny in a richly imagined world of sorcery and forbidden powers.

Though the tyrant rajah she was forced to marry is dead, Kalinda’s troubles are far from over. A warlord has invaded the imperial city, and now she’s in exile. But she isn’t alone. Kalinda has the allegiance of Captain Deven Naik, her guard and beloved, imprisoned for treason and stripped of command. With the empire at war, their best hope is to find Prince Ashwin, the rajah’s son, who has promised Deven’s freedom on one condition: that Kalinda will fight and defeat three formidable opponents.

But as Kalinda’s tournament strengths are once again challenged, so too is her relationship with Deven. While Deven fears her powers, Ashwin reveres them—as well as the courageous woman who wields them. Kalinda comes to regard Ashwin as the only man who can repair a warring world and finds herself torn between her allegiance to Deven and a newly found respect for the young prince.

With both the responsibility to protect her people and the fate of those she loves weighing heavily upon her, Kalinda is forced again to compete. She must test the limits of her fire powers and her hard-won wisdom. But will that be enough to unite the empire without sacrificing all she holds dear?
Book Review: I tried, I really tried to find something about this series that I could enjoy about it and the only thing I really liked was the whole world building. It was a beautiful and interesting world weaved with mythology and a world I could have enjoyed immensely. Unfortunately the characters lacked anything I could remotely connect to. Kali and Deven seemed more one dimension than they should have and their romance seemed to be more of a burned out match than what it was looking like in the first book. Then again with these insta-loves in the first book, there is always something that seems to make the romance feel a bit fake(?) when it comes to the second book in the series.

Maybe later on I may try this series once again. For now, I am going to leave it completely unfinished and go away a bit disappointed in a series that I had been told was worth reading.

Title: The Hundredth Queen (The Hundredth Queen #1)
Author: Emily R. King
Format: Epub
Rating: 3/5
Status: Finished
Reading Date: February 16, 2018 to February 18, 2018
Book Summary: He wanted a warrior queen. He got a revolutionary.

As an orphan ward of the Sisterhood, eighteen-year-old Kalinda is destined for nothing more than a life of seclusion and prayer. Plagued by fevers, she’s an unlikely candidate for even a servant’s position, let alone a courtesan or wife. Her sole dream is to continue living in peace in the Sisterhood’s mountain temple.

But a visit from the tyrant Rajah Tarek disrupts Kalinda’s life. Within hours, she is ripped from the comfort of her home, set on a desert trek, and ordered to fight for her place among the rajah’s ninety-nine wives and numerous courtesans. Her only solace comes in the company of her guard, the stoic but kind Captain Deven Naik.

Faced with the danger of a tournament to the death—and her growing affection for Deven—Kalinda has only one hope for escape, and it lies in an arcane, forbidden power buried within her.
Book Review: Kalinda has been sick most of her life with fevers and has had to take tonics to keep them away. One day while she and her best friend are practicing, they find a carvan has entered the Temple. Both girls are curious as to why a carvan of men have come and it isn't until later on that the learn that Rajah has come to do a Claiming for his Hundredth Queen. Kalinda wants no part of it and will do anything to lose. Unfortunately when another girl harms her best friend during a tournament, Kalinda steps in to lay swift justice upon the girl. This, however, has consequences and Kalinda is Claimed by the Rajah. She will journey to the Emerald Palace and face the other wives in a tournament to find her place as his Hundredth Queen.

Why are all YAs lately have insta-love? I mean this is all I have seen in recent books that I have managed to skip them for the time being but it has now become a trend within the ya world. What is so hard about building a romance? I would think with these being a series that such romance would not happen so quickly within the first book.

Okay maybe a small attraction that I had hoped would be the foundation to a romance that would slowly come about. I see I was wrong. Suddenly our heroine and hero are "OMG TRU LUV!!111" the moment they see each other.

Also there seemed to be some world-building and yet that seemed to be it? I love the idea of India's mythology weaved into the story but this new world of India had little world-building. I would have loved to have known more about this world. Maybe in book two?

People keep telling me that this story is about smashing the patriarchy and empowering young women to step up to take their own destiny into their hands. This is not always easy and there is always going to be things thrown your way in order to halt progress but if keep fighting, you will break through the patriarchy.

I love the premises of this book but not how it was entirely carried out. The mythology was great weaved in but the world-building lacked where it should have been stronger. The insta-love really turned me off. I wanted to see the romance build and I was disappointed that it didn't go that route. I am hoping book two will be better.