The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross
- Pub. Date: February 6, 2018
- Publisher: Harper Teen
- Pages: 464
- Series: The Queen's Rising #1
- Rating:4/5
- Goodreads/Amazon/ Book Depository
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?
Review: I read this book well over a month ago and I still remember every bit of it in great detail and I'm sure that has something to do with the exceptionally beautiful writing done by Rebecca Ross. It's been a while since I've come across something original in the YA Fantasy genre and Ross managed to do just that, she has created a unique plot with some really interesting characters.
Brienna was a fantastic MC, she was flawed, she faced hardships and she overcame through perseverance, hard not to love someone so relatable and the whole time I was rooting for her, she had heart and a bravery that was something to be admired of. I loved seeing her grow as a character and really come into her own.
I really enjoyed the first half of the book which concentrated on Brienna at school with her passion sisters learning her passion but I truly didn't fall in love until the book takes a turn and Brienna has to separate from her passion sisters, that's when things get very interesting and the book turns into a full-blown page turner that I did not want to put down. There was danger, secrets, rebels and just one hell of a storyline.
The way it ended I thought it would be a standalone but I see that on goodreads this is a series, so I'm really hoping the next books instead of focusing on Brienna since it seemed like her story wrapped up rather nicely that maybe each book will be about one of her passion sisters, I am rather curious about the rest of the girls and their story.
Overall The Queen's Rising was an amazing debut novel and I can't wait to see what Ross has in store for us in future books.
