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.