2599

Awesome, enthralling... Can't wait to read the rest. ( )

Redeemed Reader Review https://redeemedreader.com/2017/03/the-queen-of-attolia-a-beauty-and-the-beast-d...

If you have read the first book in the series, “The Thief”, be warned that this sequel has a completely different mood and structure. The first book had a first person perspective, this one is a third person omniscient narrative. The first book had a medium pace, this one has a fast pace, some time skips and suffers from too much telling instead of showing at times. The first book was a fun quest story, this one is a political gloomy drama.

I tend to prefer first person narratives, a slower pace and I really like quest stories. Even so, I liked this book a bit more than the first one, but I have some complains.

I really wish the pacing was slower.Most of my issues with this book could have been solved that way. I wanted to know more about the politics and I wish the author had gone deeper into the characters’ thoughts and feelings. The plot moved so fast that it didn’t give me enough time to appreciate the character work and political intrigue to their full extent.

I still have questions about this world building and how these kingdoms work, but thankfully that is not something that has a lot of importance to me. What I really like is character work and this book had more characters that I found interesting, while in the first book I only cared for Gen. I really liked Attolia and Eddis is now my favourite in the series so far. That said, some of the characters still felt a bit flat and that can be because the story moved so fast that it didn’t focus enough on them to flesh them out.

There are some really good moments in this book and I like the darker atmosphere of this sequel. However, I don’t know how to feel about the reveal in the last two chapters. That is one of my least favourite things in fantasy and, even though it didn’t bother me in this book, I can’t help wondering how much it will impact the sequels.

I am still interested in continuing the series and I hope to keep enjoying it more with each book, but the tone shift and abrupt change in pace makes it look a bit of a mess. ( )

In Book 2 Eugenides comes up with a truly wild plan to quell the Attolian fever to conquer Eddis -- kidnap the Queen who, conveniently, is not holed up in her capitol city but in a smallish megaron where she can overlook the fighting better. She is still, apparently, under the spell of the handsome ambassador of the Medes Empire, but she sure does hate his oiled beard (as do we)! During the course of implementing the kidnap plan, the Eddisians have to trek in secret down a river to Attolia's location. In some ways this plot is a bit like the trek down the river, at any moment the dam above could fail and overwhelm the soldiers. But in the end it all falls together enjoyably. These novels are great fun and I'm galloping through them! ****1/2 ( )