The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine was an unenthusiastic buy
for me. I was flipping through the Kobo store on my phone and I was looking for
a book to buy. But nothing was popping out at me like normal, nothing was catching
my eye. I kept coming across this novel probably every time I went to buy a new
book for the last month. I had read the synopsis, it seemed ok, but not to the
point that I was inclined to purchase it. But, this time I seriously couldn’t find
any other book that I was interested in, so I bought it. I read it mostly on my
lunches at college, and on the drive home (I get a ride with my dad who works
in that area). Overall I think it took me about a week and a half to read the
thing. That screams how unenthusiastic I was to read it. Now don’t get me
wrong, C.J. Redwine is an amazing writer. She has skills and I think some people
will like this book. Here is the synopsis: “Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.
In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.
But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.”
I kind of feel this synopsis is missing some important
elements. Like the fact that it’s a Snow-White remake really. There’s the
wicked queen stepmom, beautiful princess that was treated unfair, huntsmen who doesn’t
want to bring the queen the princesses heart, the mirror, apples etc. Though I do
like how the princess Lorelai is a lot more badass that any Snow White I know. The
book is missing some explanations or at least needed a little more attention to
the explanations so you could recognize that it was an explanation. It was
explained where the magic came from but it wasn’t explained why its all dark
magic. Why the hell can’t it be light magic? It just isn’t explained. The
dragons, which would be Kol and his friends, aren’t explained. There is a
chapter or two in the beginning of the novel that explains his reasoning on why
he goes to the queen. But there is nothing else about why they can shapeshift,
why they have the two hearts, or the origin of the dragons. There are a few
more chapters in the novel that have Kol’s POV. And the Ogres, where the hell
do they even come from?
It is possible that I missed some of those things just from
my lack of enthusiasm in reading it. But I don’t think that’s the case. I kind
of feel like this book was just thrown together haphazardly. There is no
character development, poor plot-development that is quite frankly cliché. You
know where the book is going when you start it. I literally had the end of the
book guessed by the time I was halfway through. There was no twist and turns to
keep me guessing. The characters are skin deep. You don’t get to know who they
are. All you know is that Lorelai is brave and serious. She is as dull as a
spoon. Gabriel, her caregiver? I’m not real sure what he is there for. All he
does is threaten Kol and complain that Lorelai shouldn’t use her magic so
freely. There is no plot development for him, he is flat, as paper.
I didn’t hate the book, but I would never read it again. Ever.
Maybe it was because I didn’t really want to buy it. But it is lacking so much.
Maybe you’ll like it? Who knows. Everyone has different tastes, right? I’ve had
some people tell me they absolutely loved it. Leave your thoughts below, did
you like it? Was there something you hated? Let me know.
CheersXX
EsquireCat
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