Tag Archives: Crescent Queens

Book Review: Queen of Light and Solace by Tricia Meyers

05 Wednesday Jun 2024

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Author: Tricia Meyers
Publisher: Curious Cow Publishing
Series: Crescent Queens; Bk 2
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating: 4 Stars
Medium: eBook
ARC COPY

The blurb from Amazon: 

War is coming…

After the loss of nearly everything she holds most dear, Eve Darrow, Queen of Darkegrove, finds herself taking refuge in Falias. Hidden within the fae kingdom thought lost for centuries, she must find a way to liberate her home from the hands of the mysterious enemies that have invaded.

…and the second queen rises.

Faced with her father’s sudden life-threatening illness, Aurelia Vallyse, Crown Princess of Avellon, finds herself thrust onto the throne much sooner than expected. With the looming threat of an unknown enemy to the north, she must learn how to navigate her newfound role and decide if she can trust a mysterious seer with dire warnings of an ancient evil that threatens all of Aestera.

Review:

Diving into book two of the Crescent Queens was an absolute delight, and I was glad and grateful that I didn’t have to wait long after finishing the first one to continue the story thanks to the ARC I received.

We pick up more or less where we left off in Book One, Darkegrove fell to an invading army and Eve has taken refuge in Falias with the Fae while they plot and plan on how to move forward given circumstances.

Half of this book follows Eve’s point of view as she continues to move forward, now a Fae Queen in charge of a Human Realm, knowing at some point she has to had the throne over to a human but wanting to see it through this coming war as she gives serious thought to that future.

The other half of this book’s point of view follows Aurelia, who has to take the throne of Avellon much sooner than she ever expected, while on the precipice of war with an army the likes of which few have ever seen.

As a whole, this book kept moving, pushing you forward as both of our Queens deal with their powers, navigating a new relationship for our Queen of Light, and dealing with the war that is stretching across their portion of the world. The dual point of view was interesting because it was nice to still check in with Eve as she’s still a major player in the war, though in some ways it did feel like it didn’t allow Lia to fully step into her own, as this is her book.

I loved the story weaved around Lia and Sybella and how the two started to where they ended up by the end of this book – and I love their nicknames Sunshine and Moonlight for each other. It’s very fitting, especially when **Spoiler** is revealed about Sybella. (This is an ARC, sorry, no spoilers for you, wanna know that reveal, read this when it comes out!)

The use of magic has been a constant love of mine for book one, and continues into book two. It’s especially great too because we get to see the hows of the magic as Lia finds her way in using her powers, and we learn some deeper lore about the gods, the god favored, and the new enemy on the horizon that may be more powerful than even the gods.

Part of me wants to say I’d have loved to see a little more of the battle at the end of the book play out, but I’m not sure the book needed to be longer either. I’m not sure if it could have been a little swapped to give more Lia and battle flushed out if we’d had a little less Eve POV chapters. I did say it above, but I think with this being Queen of Light and Solace, it would have been nice to let Lia have a little more of the book, verses splitting it 50/50 with Eve, which Eve did get a full book to herself. While I appreciate getting Eve’s POV to see what’s going on with the Fae and that side of the allies, it doesn’t do Lia a much of a service, so I didn’t get to connect to Lia as much as I did Eve.

As a whole though, I am definitely glad I read this book, and I am even more excited for the third book now.

If you like strong Queens not letting men boss them around or take their power, set in a world rich with lore that you want to create a small flow chart for because it’s that deep (I love when the lore is this well flushed out personally), this is definitely a good series to dive into.

Book Review: Queen of Earth and Stone by Tricia Meyers

29 Wednesday May 2024

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Author: Tricia Meyers
Publisher: Curious Cow Publishing
Series: Crescent Queens; Bk 1
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Medium: eBook

The blurb from Amazon: 

Eve Darrow seeks to take the throne in a kingdom where women aren’t permitted to rule.

Split into three kingdoms, the continent of Aestera is divided by more than just geography. In contrast to her southern neighbors, the kingdom of Darkegrove has not seen a ruling queen in five centuries.

Following her father’s unexpected death, Eve aims to turn a kingdom resistant to change on its head, whether they agree or not. Her path is fraught with danger, and a mysterious warrior is called upon to protect her.

Callan Thorne, answering a plea for aid that he is bound to answer, finds himself protecting a princess determined to make history. Unexpected danger lurks around every corner, challenging even his resilience.

As she finds even people she trusts stand against her solitary revolution and will attempt to deter her by any means necessary, she must rely on the mysterious warrior summoned to keep her safe.

Friendships are made, secrets are revealed and hearts are broken. On her quest to forge her own destiny, Eve will discover that none can stand against fate and that not everything is as it seems.

Review: 

Let me start out by saying, I really loved this story, and will 100% dive into book two.

The beginning of the book is a little slow, as a forewarning if you’re looking to give this book a try. I’m not saying this to put anyone off, but more to curb expectations. For me, it picked up about chapter 8-9 and once I hit that mark, I didn’t want to stop and put the book down. I ended up spending my entire Saturday finishing the book off, not doing anything else because by that point I was that invested in Eve and Callan.

Now, you may be going, why is the book slow to start but still good and worth giving it a chance, right? Let me tell you, it’s because the world building took time. There’s care given to the world building, and the slow is partially, in my option and how I took it, done so in order to let it evolve organically. Because of that care, I think I had a deeper investment to our Princess and what she was going through.

My only mild irritation was that a couple things were repeated over and over again, like the author didn’t want me to forget, this is part of the lore. This is important. Don’t forget this. And for that, I wanted to go, yes! I got it! Please don’t repeat this again! Trust us as a reader, that we’ll remember it. Maybe something important warrants being said a second time, but when we get to fourth, sixth, tenth, my brain wants to remind people that it can retain information. Please don’t treat us like we’ll forget after a hundred pages THIS ONE THING.

But, I mean, it took me four days to read the book, and I spent an entire day consuming the end of it to make sure I didn’t have to deal with work while itching to read it.

If you like fantasy, badass Princesses, a bodyguard with secrets, and an immersive world that’s waiting for you to give right in with a rich lore, definitely give this book a try. You won’t be sorry. I certainly wasn’t.