The Queen’s Rising, by Rebecca Ross | Book Review #354

When her seventeenth summer solstice arrives, Brienna desires only two things: to master her passion and to be chosen by a patron.

Growing up in the southern Kingdom of Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her for such a life. While some are born with an innate talent for one of the five passions—art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge—Brienna struggled to find hers until she belatedly chose to study knowledge. However, despite all her preparations, Brienna’s greatest fear comes true—the solstice does not go according to plan and she is left without a patron.

Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. Suspicious of his intent, and with no other choices, she accepts. But there is much more to his story, and Brienna soon discovers that he has sought her out for his own vengeful gain. For there is a dangerous plot being planned to overthrow the king of Maevana—the archrival kingdom of Valenia—and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the northern throne. And others are involved—some closer to Brienna than she realizes.

With war brewing between the two lands, Brienna must choose whose side she will remain loyal to—passion or blood. Because a queen is destined to rise and lead the battle to reclaim the crown. The ultimate decision Brienna must determine is: Who will be that queen?

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Have you ever read a book, where you’re like “This side-character is so interesting! They should have their own book!” That’s what Brienna’s character in The Queen’s Rising felt like to me. I can only hope that this changes, and that Brienna becomes the main character of her own story, in the sequel.

When you open this book, you know right away that you’re in for the long-haul when you begin reading The Queen’s Rising. Honestly I felt a little overwhelmed with all of this knowledge that is pushed on us at the beginning. However! I like that the knowledge we’re given isn’t thrown at the reader in the beginning making the reader read it. Instead, it’s given to us after the dedications, but before the prologue. So you could skip it if you wanted to! I did, but would go back and reference it if I needed to. We’re given a detailed map of this world along with a cast of characters, Family Houses, and a few Family Tree’s.

While I read the book, I had a sense of free-falling, while I was at the 50% mark.. We were given so much story, and nothing was happening. I felt like a bird trying to find an up-wind so I could fly. If that makes sense. I don’t know. I talking jibberish.

What I didn’t like about The Queen’s Rising was that I ended up panicking about this book whenever I put it down. There is a sense of a lot of things that are happening — both behind the scenes, and what we read about via Brienna, and that made of panic a little since there so much that is left unfocused on in the story.

It’s easy for me to forget how many pages this book actually has. And while there were bits and pieces in the first half of the story that hinted at the latter half of this book as well as the sequel, I can’t help but be a little irked. The slow build up of the action (in my opinion) took way too long, yet while I was reading the actiony bits, I couldn’t help but be satisfied.

Another thing that I didn’t like was that my predictions for this novel came true, 3-for-3.

What I liked about The Queen’s Rising was that even though it was slow to start (like 200+pages slow), there were some sprinkles of magic here and there that would leave me hoping for more. So I would read more, and then like 60 pages later, we get another sprinkle of magic. Be that as it may, in the meantime, before the pace of the story picked up and then Brienna’s story pretty much swept me off my feet.

Honestly, the story kept me interested enough, but I can’t help but feel like a good majority of this book was all just a filler for what happens in the sequel, The Queen’s Resistance.

My overall thoughts of The Queen’s Rising are that I do like the story, but there were a few too many faults that I personally had within the book. I wish the story didn’t take so long to actually progress.

I give The Queen’s Rising, 3 stars.

Have you read The Queen’s Rising?
If you have, what did you think of the story?

Happy Reading!
— Adele