Kelley Skovron

When Roz’s friend brings her a lead on a case of a missing child of a Lord she doesn’t want to take it but at Lye’s urging at the money and how it will help him she agrees. Roz has hands that can cast fire due to her past in a mage school that she doesn’t want to talk about. She has a attitude towards most people but is loyal to her friends. Clues in the case point to events that happened in her past and she must ask help of a former lover who is a mage of some importance. There isn’t much mystery as to who is behind the case and most of the story is trying to stop what is going on. This is a good first book in a series that introduces the setting and characters to let the reader know that the writer is definitely planning more in the series, and I hope that does happen.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss
… (mais)

One Sentence Summary: Now that Sonya and the Uaine have driven the empire out of Izmoroz, a tapestry of maneuvers and plots are set in motion to change the lives of Sonya, her brother Sebastian, and Sebastian’s former intended Galina.

I really enjoyed the first book in the trilogy, The Ranger of Marzanna, so I was eager to leap back into the world and the lives of two siblings at odds with each other in The Queen of Izmoroz. I love that this series focuses on siblings and that they’re on opposite sides, but, as we see glimmers of it in the first book, they might not be too different from each other. This is turning into a wonderful series not just about a fantasy world and military and political maneuvering, but also of family and siblings. This second installment was a lot of fun to read, and I look forward to seeing how it concludes.

The Plot: The Separate Paths of Siblings

Following the events of The Ranger of Marzanna, a new set of events have been touched off for siblings Sonya and Sebastian and everyone they know.

After her victory alongside the Uaine she recruited, the people have unexpectedly turned from Sonya, forcing her leave with her new friend Jorge. Feeling adrift, especially when the truth of her goddess’s blessings come to light, she willingly goes with him to his home country of Raíz. But the people there, while happy to embrace her, are more interested in what she can do to help liberate them from the empire.

Sebastian has chosen to travel to the Aureumian Empire’s capital alongside his mother, his commander, and a general. But he begins to question his own role and where he belongs. Reassigned by the Queen, he finds himself with a company that’s weary but has no choice but to follow orders in Kante. Meanwhile, his mother has been recruited as something of a spy in the capital while a deadly force is preparing to bear down on them.

Galina has dreams of making Izmoroz greater than it was before. But the men in charge appear to be interested in doing nothing more than yell at each other and take their time rebuilding the country. Frustrated, she takes things into her own hands, especially as she witnesses first hand the desperation of her people.

As with The Ranger of Marzanna, I really enjoyed The Queen of Izmoroz. I love everything about the world and adore the characters. My favorite part is it’s centered around one family, particularly siblings who seem to have nothing in common. It’s not a particularly complex story, but there’s still a ton in it, making it easy to follow and surprisingly easy to read.

The sister-brother dynamic is the whole reason why I wanted to read the first book. I loved it so much that I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to them in the next book. They’re so different, their ideas seemingly oceans apart. But they’re still tied together. The push and pull between sibling love and sibling hate is so present and so well done that I often feel Sonya and Sebastian are the whole reason I’m even reading and loving this series.

Really, the characters make the series for me, but I also really like that there’s so much going on. There’s this empire that’s taken over almost the entire continent and another country that’s so out of the way no one knows much about them, but I get the feeling they’re not too different from the empire. The characters slip and slide all over the place and everyone has different ideas, especially when it comes to how to rule, that I couldn’t help but be sucked into the story. I loved the layers, the intrigue, the switching of sides. I loved the secrets and the distrust that seemed to flower almost everywhere.

The Characters: Full of Personality

As I mentioned, the characters really make the story. They’re all incredible and so unique that I hardly ever mixed any of them up. The Queen of Izmoroz neither has too many nor too few characters. Sometimes I can seem like there are maybe a few too many viewpoints the story is told from, but I could see how every single one of them was necessary and important. Good thing they were easy to tease apart from all the others. But I was most impressed with how all the secondary characters really stood out well. The tertiary ones did blend together a bit, but the more important characters were all incredible.

My favorite characterizations are, of course, Sonya and Sebastian. Not only do they lead very different lives, but they also have different values and ideals. Though The Queen of Izmoroz saw them start to realign. I loved how everything there is to know about them was really couched in the way they spoke and behaved. Sonya feels more like a free spirit and has a very common and casual manner of speech. She’s always ready to leap without thinking and is quite the protector. Sebastian, on the other hand, is more thoughtful and, well, better mannered. He acts the way one would expect a noble’s son to act. He has the tact and decorum his sister lacks. It was fun to see them interact, though they were mostly separated throughout the book. They were, though, never too far from each other’s thoughts, which was really sweet.

I can’t not mention Galina or my favorite character, Jorge. Galina comes off as young and innocent, but underneath is a spine of steel. She’s extremely well-read and very intelligent, and isn’t above using manipulation. She seemed a bit softer, a bit more noble, in the first book, but she quickly shook off that mantle in this one. I loved how her character evolved, and why it had to evolve. She was amazing and I’m really starting to love her. Then there’s Jorge, Sonya’s friend from the colorful and warm country of Raíz, a Spanish-influenced world. In the first book, there are hints at his past, but this book dove him head first back into his roots and family. It was so much fun to see him back at home and see just how different and similar he is to his family. But, through it all, he was still the levelheaded young man I really liked. Of all the characters, he was the least likely to engage in guile and intrigue and just seemed to keep it simple. He’s a nice anchor in a world that seems to be going mad.

The Setting: An Earth-Inspired World

While The Ranger of Marzanna was centered on Izmoroz, The Queen of Izmoroz just bursts the world wide open. Not only do we get to explore the entire continent, but we also get glimmers of the world beyond.

The only disappointment with the world is that each country is a thinly veiled one from our world. Izmoroz is clearly Russian/Eastern European, Uaine is Scottish (definitely not the kind of Scotland I’d like to visit, though), Kante is Germanic, Raíz is Spanish, and then there’s the continent across the ocean that seems to be Middle Eastern inspired, though I could be wrong. There were no pains taken to hide any of it. Indeed, Skovron used words from the respective languages to further cement the parallels.

On the other hand, the thinly disguised countries did make it a lot easier to ease into this world and figure it out. It felt comforting and familiar while also adding a layer of unrest and political intrigue that could really shine. I liked that the world building seemed simple and was easy enough to figure out and remember in order to better focus on the story. I really, really loved that this book cracked the world wide open, and can’t wait to see where we go in the last book.

Overall: Many Excellent Threads

I really enjoyed The Queen of Izmoroz. I enjoyed the first book, but I think I loved this one more. There was so much going on, so many intricacies, and even some traitorous deeds. I felt the whole story was handled with a deft hand and I never felt I could really predict what was going to happen. The sibling story continues to be well done and all of the characters were wonderful and quite human. I loved getting to see the wider world and how it helped to paint a bigger picture of people’s feelings about the empire. I can’t wait to see what the last book has in store for readers.

Thank you to Angela Man at Orbit and NetGalley for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.… (mais)

Now that was a fun book. I love the beginning of it. It's rare to read a book where you follow the main characters from childhood into adulthood. The way you see Hope and Red early years affect who they become was very well done. That said, the last few chapters don't stick the landing for me. I felt the book had some characters that were archetypes. I was fine with that. Red is the lovable rogue with a heart of cold behind his mischievous grin. Hope is the honorable warrior out for revenge. Thats all fine but near the end one character goes Mad Max; Fury Road on us. Thats when it becomes Star Wars.

The dark side versus the light side of the force ending doesn't work for me. I enjoyed those movies but I didn't want to see parts of them confiscated for this story. There's also the feeling of pandering when one characters changes themselves to get more power. The change happens but I didn't know or care about the character so the significance of the change was minimal. Plus the feeling that this character will now have a relationship with another character who entered the story late felt obvious. I don't know what the big threat is but hopefully it's not a giant space cloud. Otherwise all the evil that the evil doers do in this book will be for nothing. That said I'm really looking forward to read what happens in the next book. Hopefully that ending won't be so over the top as this one was.

I read this book via NetGalley. I thank them for this book. I will also thank Orbit for fulfilling my wish for this book. It was available to UK members but I wished for it and my wish was granted. Thank You for your kindness Orbit.

#NetGalley #OrbitBooks… (mais)