August Read: Mortal Queens

Today’s post is on Mortal Queens by Victoria McCombs, and the first book I’ve read featuring fae. As some may know from past posts, I’m not huge fan of fantasy creatures, but fae did intrigue me and the concept of this book interested me, so I decided to give it a try.

The Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads)

They vanish without a trace, disappear into the night . . .

Each year on the center island, one girl is chosen to be the next Mortal Queen of the idolized fae. The mortals praise these lucky girls, but their daughters are never seen again. 

The fae realm is eternal night, where disputes are settled by chess matches, power is acquired through the most devious kinds of trickery, and seven illusive kings roam. The fae hide their faces behind masks and guard their glass hearts to keep them from shattering. But beyond the veil of this luxurious paradise, a dark secret simmers, for their Queens have disappeared.

When aspiring artist Althea is selected, she is desperate to avoid the same mysterious fate. With no one to trust, she conceals messages in paintings and receives anonymous replies from a stranger who slowly reveals the tale of a girl who outwitted the fae. Only if she is clever enough will Althea survive the fate of the Mortal Queens. As long as the king who cannot love does not claim her first.

My Review:

Mortal Queens tells the story of Althea Brenheda, a motherless girl living in somewhat unfortunate conditions with a dream of being an artist and providing for and protecting her brothers from their gambling-addict and distant father. When she’s chosen as the fae realm’s next Mortal Queen, Althea eventually discovers the beauty of the fae realm is a guise covering its rule of deception, including the fact that she is to die within two years, like all Mortal Queens. Desperate to survive and help the future Mortal Queens escape the same fate, Althea starts on a journey to survive, discovering trickery is everywhere, and those who seem the most trustworthy might not be.

At first, I was a bit thrown off by the fact that Althea wanted to be chosen as a Mortal Queen. For some reason, I was under the impression via the synopsis that she didn’t want to be one. Also the beginning with her thievery was random in light of the rest of the story–I never got to see her use those skills again, unlike the opening of, say, The Hunger Games, where Katniss’s hunting skills were useful later in the book. If it had opened with a chess game or even just her preparing for the choosing ceremony, it would have made more sense in my opinion.

But the book smoothed out as I went along. All the major characters seemed well developed–Althea of course was relatable and likable, and I especially enjoyed her care for her siblings. Her brothers, for their brief part in the story, were also well developed and contributed to much of her motivation towards living and wanting to return home. And the partial plot twist with her father towards the end was one of my favorites.

In the fae realm, Odette and Talen were great–I especially liked Talen and almost wished he was the love interest at the beginning. Odette too was such a great female sidekick. Gaia, the other Mortal Queen present in the book, served as a good foil for Althea, but I liked how she still wanted to live and tried to in her own way. The six fae kings were also developed well according to their amount of book time, with the ones given actual book time having families and hobbies. Thorn and Bastian were the two most developed and I loved how they were essentially opposite one another personality-wise, yet seemed equally as ambitious. Bastian, as the love interest, of course, had the most development but still managed to retain some level of mystery and uncertainty even at the end of the book, leaving room for a sequel to further explore his character.

The dialogue was strong. I never felt myself pulled out of the story because of overuse of dialogue tags or odd ways of speaking. Most of the book fit this as well, sucking me into the story and world with twists and turns (such as the way the kings/queen roles work being different from traditional marriage uniting the king and queen). However, like I mentioned above, the beginning threw me off, as well as something mentioned later. Althea says she’s never experienced a romantic relationship, yet in the very first paragraph of the book, it says she’s been kissed by a boy (who never even gets a cameo in the book?). That continues to confuse me.

Besides that, though, the rest of the book was quite good. The romance was compelling for a just-met-and-now-we’re-in-love-six-months-later one, supplying reasons for such an occurrence, and, *spoilers* we’re also still left wondering if it really is love at the end, or just another fae trick. The worldbuilding is also impressive. As I mentioned above, the king and queen roles are unique and the way in which things are done in the fae world were consistent and neat. Little elements of backstory were also sprinkled in, answering some questions and bringing up more in a wonderfully compelling way.

Because of the amount of mysteries and questions which kept popping up, this kept me reading to the end! The pacing went well for the most part as well–the only time I felt pulled out of the story was due to a plot device used to speed time up eight months. I didn’t care for that, and it felt a little like a cheap way to employ a time skip and move time along faster to reach the end of the story. I mean, if we’re already not going to have a resolution of the main plot at the end of the book, why not just let time go normally? Or employ some other time-skip method, like the book also used in a three-month time-skip which felt more real and less jolting.

I also am not a huge fan of first books in a series relying on a sequel to finish the story. As I explained in my June’s book review on Dust (which you can find here), I don’t care to read a book that I feel like is only setting things up for a sequel. I feel a little ripped off and like I wasted my time. Unfortunately, I felt this book acted in much the same way as Dust did in that I can’t really think of much plot which was wrapped up. I essentially only got more questions at the end of the book requiring me to read on in the series to find out. (Mind you, I don’t mind other books in a series ending on cliffhangers with little of the main plot resolved, just the first book.)

Overall, though, I enjoyed Mortal Queens enough to continue on in the series at some point. I think it’s my favorite of the Enclave Publishing books I’ve read thus far, which is also saying something, and it has made me enjoy the concept of fae slightly more than before. In all, I’d recommend this high fantasy with unique worldbuilding, romantic tension, and, of course, a good dosage of fae trickery and mystery.

Rating: 4.25 Stars

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Thank you for reading my review. Have you read this book, or do you plan to? What did you think of it, if you have? What is your favorite fantastical creature, and why do you like them? Do you have any Christian or clean YA Fantasy recommendations for me to try? Let me know in the comments below. God bless! ~ Kay Adelin