Kill the Queen: A Novel

Utter tosh. I intensely dislike heroines who constantly whine and moan about what a hard lot they have been given in life. This is one of those books. I got through about 50% of the book hoping it would improve and we wouldn’t get YET another example of or reference to how horrible people had been to the poor widdle heroine BUT it just had to keep popping up. Page after page after page.I also dislike books where the main character suddenly develops amazing powers and suddenly can take on and beat, in combat, seasoned soldiers and gladiators with no effort or ounce of training. It’s super lazy writing.Im even more disapointed that this book got good reviews.

I have been a fan of Jennifer Estep’s work for some time now and I have been looking forward to this book since it was first publicised. I am so happy that I was not disappointed in any way. This book takes all of the very best things from previous series and none of the slightly niggly things.The world building as always is superb and I love how the magic is softly woven into the every day existence without great fan fare during the introduction to the main character Everleigh, or Evie as she prefers to be known. Evie is a minor royal with supposedly little magic, whose parents were assassinated when she was 12. After being shunted round the kingdom she ended up at the main court, with her cousin the Queen. With no money, power, position or magic she was treated little better than a servant, who had to work for her living by apprenticing to the Royal Jeweller and attending all the annoying functions that no one else in the royal family could be bothered with. She is educated, but not particularly talented with a sword. She becomes very good at surviving the cut throat politics of the court.At age 28, she thought she was close to reaching her dream of going back to her parent’s estate and opening up the house again, after saving nearly every penny she had ever earned from jewellery commissions, when she attends a function. The events of this function change her life it ways she never thought possible.We see Evie as she makes new friends and learns new skills, as she tries to survive betrayal and loss.Evie is a fantastic character, she is smart and determined, she can be cold, calculating and ruthless, but she has a heart. She cares for people even when she tells herself that she is allowing herself to be vulnerable. She battles and struggles with her weaknesses, working hard to overcome them. I liked the other characters in the book as they had depth and you know that future books in the series will flesh them out further.I loved every page of this book and I cannot wait for the next one, even if I it won’t be coming out until 2019!

Kill the Queen is a super enjoyable fantasy adventure filled with plotting, scheming, politics, loss, vengeance and strength.The book is set in the fantasy kingdom of Bellona. The characters are human but most - if not all - wield magic to varying degrees. Lady Everleigh Saffira Winter Blair (aka Evie) is a distant relative of the monarch. She was orphaned as a child so has been raised at court, she doesn’t have the magical abilities or strength of her relatives and generally, she has a hard time of it. Initially, she seems perfectly pleasant but mousey and unremarkable. Certainly not the fierce fighter I assumed she was from the blurb and cover.The book drags on a fair bit in the beginning and I’m not going to lie in that I was getting super worried that the book would be one of the super-hyped reads that I just did not see the fascination with but then it hits the fan in a spectacular way and it changed my mind!Now, a massacre is hardly a good thing to get excited about but it marked the moment that this book landed for me. From the moment the blood started to flow - around 15-20% into the book - the story seized me by the throat and wouldn’t let me go until the end.The massacre was both the end and the beginning for Evie. It marked the end of her life as she knew it and set her on the journey to becoming a gladiator and gave her the tools to rise up, avenge her relatives, and rise to become the Winter Queen.Evie grows so much throughout this book and I quickly grew to love her! I have so many questions as to what being a Winter Queen means, what the full extent of her hidden power is and lots of pent up romantic frustrations regarding her and a certain someone that I could burst!The friends and allies she makes throughout the book are noteworthy, memorable and truly loyal. I loved them so much!The villains of the story are truly villainous and I hated them and am super nervous to see what they have in store next.Kill The Queen is my first novel by Estep and it won't be my last! I can’t wait to get stuck into Protect The Prince!If you’ve been on the fence about reading this get yourself off the fence and do it! It’s worth it.

This is the first book in a brand new series by Jennifer Estep which is aimed at an adult audience with an older protagonist. As I read the book, there were definite similarities to the Throne of Glass and Red Queen series. So if you enjoyed either of the two there is a good chance you will enjoy this book too.Evie is no more than a lesser royal, she lacks the magic that makes her cousin Vasilisa formidable. She may not be magically gifted, but she can make a mean pie. Her character is one who has a surprisingly strong will underneath the acceptance of her role in the Palace. What will come as no surprise to a reader who had read the blurb is that something isn’t quite right in the palace on this day. Evie’s voice is engaging and makes the reader route for her, even through some of her more… stupid decisions. This says a lot about Jennifer’s prose that she is able to create an engaging character – and character arc – for what may seem as initially a fairly dull person.World-building is sparse but elements are foreshadowed and built around the immediate area around Evie’s location at the time. This makes the epic-fantasy accessible to those who struggle with complicated worlds built around magic. I hope in book two that the mechanics behind the world are explored more, but the lack of this allows for the plot to flow at a reasonable pace.I felt that the romantic element isn’t thrown down the readers throat. It is built organically through a mutual respect for both parties. In the third arc is does build much faster than expected but personally I didn’t mind it too much as the circumstances were growing more fraught. It is definitely on the slow-burn side with book two promising more interactions between Evie and Lucas as his past catches up with him.Overall the plot and pace of this book keeps the reader entertained and engaged. The genre isn’t the most accessible to every reader but in this case Jennifer has streamlined the fantasy elements to make it enjoyable and easy to read. There are tropes that are sprinkled throughout which are obvious but the story is enjoyable enough that these, although factoring into the overarching plot, are easily read over rather than being fixated on.

Lady Everleigh Saffira Winter Blair is 17th in line to the throne, but, as an orphan after the assassination of her parents, she is barely tolerated at the royal palace. Then the heir assassinates the entire royal family, in order to become the new Queen, and Evie barely escapes with her life. Now she has to hide with a troupe of gladiators, the only witness to her cousin’s treachery, and the only hope for her country’s future.This is an engaging first-person fantasy: most people have magic, but Evie is hiding hers until it is needed. We see her move from being a put-upon almost-servant, to a gladiator, to the saviour of her realm. All this done in an interesting way: Evie is a most reluctant but nevertheless dutiful hero. And it’s nice to see how some of her earlier performance of her duties helps when things get tough.This has a satisfying conclusion, but there are obviously more problems in Evie’s future. I enjoyed this enough that I went and ordered the sequel.