The Queen’s Rising

It started off pretty fun. The world-building was interesting, and I liked the writing style and the fast-pace. Throughout the book I had my questions and my dislikes, but in the half of the book everything got worse, and I couldn’t finish it.

 In the first two or three chapters you meet all of the friends of Brienna (the main character) and some teachers of her. That’s a lot. It was hard to keep up with all the character and I got very confused with who was which etc. There were too many at once. I don’t even know the main character that well, can I first get used to her please?

I liked the world-building, but I didn’t like how the writer Ross immediately dived into the world. Where am I? There were sadly no subtle explanations of the world. There was, in my opinion, also a lot of info dump about the history of Maevana and that information all got told through the lessons at Magnalia. Couldn’t the history be told in other ways? Sounds very easy to me to let it be told through some teacher or through some questions/conversation to the students during class. 

By the way, the relationship between Brienna and Cartier? It’s a teacher and student lovers’ trope! It made me feel so uncomfortable. Cartier is like ten years older than Brienna. She is not even an adult; she is merely a seventeen-year-old girl who is still growing; mentally and physically. Cartier has been her teacher since her fourteenth, don’t tell me his feelings developed at that age! Let’s assume that his feelings did not develop at her fourteenth but at her seventeenth.. that is still so young and wrong. It’s not about a grown-up man who likes his student, it’s not solely about the ten years difference, it’s mainly about the ages. It just doesn’t sit right with me that he has feelings for someone he has been a teacher with since her fourteenth. Disgusting.

Lastly, the plot was boring. Brienna had to find some sort of stone so the rightful queen could take her throne again. That was all. There was no danger, no tension, nothing. There was also not side plot next to it to make the book a story. Yes, I do not find this book having a story. It’s a very lame. I am also just so tired of queens and kings fighting and lands fighting with each other. I mean, if you’re going to do it, make it exciting, make it different, make it special, but don’t make it boring and cliché with none other plots or events.