“I will be standing at the front, and if you feel afraid, I want you to look at me, and know that you are not alone.”
At first I debated the necessity of writing a review for this book instead of simply writing that these books were going on my favorites list. Both these books are on my favorites list because of each other. Not that they aren't good enough individually but that they complemented each other so well. The first book introduced us to the world, as is the virtue of all first books, and started with a light-hearted story about a girl and her dreams to become a passion. Then the story twisted into a more complicated plot of restoring the rightful queen to the throne and displacing the cruel king.
This book moves on to have a more complicated plot in terms of what must he achieved once the queen has been placed on the throne and to securing her position. Emotionally, this book is a roller coaster compared to the last one. Since the first book introduced us to the characters and have given us the start of their relationships, this one takes off with the bond between the characters being much stronger and with more meaning.
A book like The Queen’s Rising could have been left as a standalone, given the ending, it would have left doubts on the fate of the traitors and their houses, but it wouldn’t have been too big of a crime to stop there. A sequel to such a book has the potential to disappoint but this book was anything but a disappointment. In fact I think it only gets better.
The difficulties with securing Isolde’s position are accompanied by the difficulties of Brienna finding her place in the MacQuinn court with citizens who view her as an Allenach and Aodhan rebuilding the Morgane court which has turned to ruins.
Tensions run high as the supporters of the Lannon rule are yet to be fully unearthed and no one knows if their court is fully secure.
Isolde starts her rule by allowing the citizens to decide the fate of the prisoners by trial.
Aodhan, formerly known as Cartier, also has a perspective in this book which allows us a broader view of the world when the characters are in different places, giving us different opinions on the same situation.
In the first book, the Maevan houses were named and we saw a few members but in this book we get to watch first hand the functioning of the court, the citizens, and the stories of the lords and ladies of Maevana during the war and after it.
There is definitely more depth to this book than the last one because the need to introduce the readers all the new aspects of the world is minimized. We dive head first into the new plot which reminds us that running a country after a revolution might be harder than the revolution itself.
The characters are put in more demanding situations both mentally and physically. They will have to make choices that will test loyalties between houses. The book itself feels more severe than the first one and the therefore the we see a side of the characters we may not have seen or had to have understood before the events that unfurl in this book. Since we now have Cartier’s perspective we see a lot more about his past, his family, the struggles faced by the Morgane house, and we also see the burden he carries on his shoulders to make the best decisions for his house and the people he cares about.
In both books I loved the portrayal of the traditional relationship of Maevan men and women, being that the women were capable fighters to protect themselves, the mutual respect between men and women, how the men accepted the matriarchy, and the simple ideology that any Maevan will kill if it means it will protect their family from a threat.
If you read the first book and liked it don't hesitate to read this one, it only gets better.