REVIEW // THE SHADOW QUEEN

SPOILER FREE REVIEW // THE SHADOW QUEEN

The Shadow Queen followed Lorelai as she was the crown princess of Ravenspire. After her father's death, her wicked stepmother, Irina ruled the kingdom and Lorelai escaped along with her brother, Leo. Years later, she knew she had to get the throne back, and the only way to do that was to kill Irina. And then there's Kol, the king of Eldr after his father died in a war against ogres. He knew he had to seek alliance with Irina if he wanted to destroy the ogres in , and Irina wanted him to bring her Lorelai's heart, Kol knew he had to try.

I rated this book a 4.5/5 stars! This book was written following different POVs, Lorelai's, Kol's and occasionally Irina's. I didn't really enjoy this type of writing style but surprisingly it's an exception for this book! It was so capturing and its description was so vividly presented. The writing just kept me on the edge of my seat and the last thing I knew was that I finished the book in two sittings!

The storyline was well-plotted and everything was unexpected. I really liked how the story was retold, not entirely different but you could see bits and pieces of the tale Snow White throughout the book. It wasn't exactly like the fairy tale but you could totally see the parallels between the two stories. In the book, the world has a magic system and I really enjoyed how the magic was played out in the book. The magic system was really one of the things that captured me in the book and it was easily understood. It was really fascinating to see how different the magic system was compared to other systems in other books!

Unfortunately, this is a high-fantasy novel which means the world was a work of fiction. Throughout the book, there was not really any world building which made me wonder where was the protagonist all the time and it really could be improved to make the world better. Although there was a map on the front, the map didn't really do the job of portraying the places mentioned in the book as it was labeled vaguely. If the world building was slightly better, I'd have given the book a 5/5 stars as to me, the world building in books is one of the important elements in a good novel.

Now now, the romance in the book was just nice and sweet! The book was a fantasy novel and luckily it was more focused on the adventures than the romance. I found the romance just right, not too little and not too much and I really adored both of them and how they figured it all out and kind of unfolded their relationship. The romance was pretty obvious if you were aware of the characters, they were pretty much in love at first sight but trust me, it's not like those typical love at first sights story but it was well developed and i liked how it was, slow and steady and working its way towards the end.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book as it is C.J Redwine's debut retelling novel if I'm not mistaken, it has a pretty unique and fascinating concept and I highly recommend it to anyone of you who enjoys fantasy and fairy tale retellings out there!