The Fire Queen
By Emily R. King
YA Fantasy
Release Date: 09/26/2017
n the second book in The Hundredth Queen Series, Emily R. King once again follows a young warrior queen’s rise to meet her destiny in a richly imagined world of sorcery and forbidden powers.
Though the tyrant rajah she was forced to marry is dead, Kalinda’s troubles are far from over. A warlord has invaded the imperial city, and now she’s in exile. But she isn’t alone. Kalinda has the allegiance of Captain Deven Naik, her guard and beloved, imprisoned for treason and stripped of command. With the empire at war, their best hope is to find Prince Ashwin, the rajah’s son, who has promised Deven’s freedom on one condition: that Kalinda will fight and defeat three formidable opponents.
But as Kalinda’s tournament strengths are once again challenged, so too is her relationship with Deven. While Deven fears her powers, Ashwin reveres them—as well as the courageous woman who wields them. Kalinda comes to regard Ashwin as the only man who can repair a warring world and finds herself torn between her allegiance to Deven and a newly found respect for the young prince.
With both the responsibility to protect her people and the fate of those she loves weighing heavily upon her, Kalinda is forced again to compete. She must test the limits of her fire powers and her hard-won wisdom. But will that be enough to unite the empire without sacrificing all she holds dear?
Gabrielle's 4.5**** Review:
I TRIED TO MAKE THIS REVIEW *SPOILER FREE* SO IF SOME OF IT SOUNDS VAGUE IT'S BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO GIVE AWAY THE GOOOOD STUFF!
This is the second installment in The Hundredth Queen series. Kalinda is on the run with Deven, Natesa, Yatin, Brac, who all escaped with her. Two people (sent from an ally) come to retrieve them to bring them to the kingdom next door in order to reunite them with Prince Ashwin, the heir to the throne. When they arrive, Kali finds out that she can't escape her role as kindred and has to compete in a tournament AGAIN to win kindred for Prince Ashwin. All throughout the book, she struggles with trying to figure out if she really wants to be kindred and help her people or if she just wants to be free from her shackles.
This book shows a lot of depth into Kali's mind as a girl who was taken out of her childhood/teenaged life and thrown into a den full of wolves where she had to learn to fight and defend herself or die. She grew so much during this second book, she didn't come out the same in the end. I also enjoyed her new friendship with one of the other competitors. It was nice to see female bonding instead of them just being enemies like in the first book.
Deven, on the other hand, went in reverse. He was thrown into a soldier camp (where they were practically prisoners) and no one respected him because he "betrayed" the throne. All the while, he only thought about was his feelings for Kali and how she was the kindred and that he couldn't have her. HE KNEW FROM THE BEGINNING OF BOOK 1 WHAT HER ROLE WAS. But toward the end of the book, he finally started to become useful and think about his kingdom and his soldiers again other than just Kali.
I normally hate second books in a series but this one was amazing. I enjoyed every second of it. Fast paced, burning romance, warrior sisters who learn to only rely on themselves... All equal a fantastic YA Fantasy!
ABOUT EMILY R. KING:
Emily R. King is a reader of everything and a writer of fantasy. Born in Canada and raised in the USA, she has perfected the use of “eh” and “y’all” and uses both interchangeably. Shark advocate, consumer of gummy bears, and islander at heart, Emily’s greatest interests are her four children. She’s a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and an active participant in her local writers’ community. She lives in Northern Utah with her family and their cantankerous cat.
