Publishers Weekly
04/29/2019
Estep’s follow-up to 2018’s Kill the Queen is lots of fun, but it doesn’t truly distinguish itself in the crowded fantasy adventure field. It’s been nine months since the massacre that claimed the lives of the Bellonen queen and much of the royal family. Now Everleigh Blair is queen, and the magic-wielding assassins from neighboring Morta just keep on coming. Evie heads to Andvari to negotiate a treaty and soothe relations with King Heinrich while showing solidarity against Morta; when she discovers that Heinrich’s son, Dominic, is also in the crosshairs, she’ll need her magic and the help of her friends to keep him safe and stay alive. Evie struggles to come to terms with her abilities (including an immunity to magic and a preternatural sense of smell), her new responsibilities as queen, and her bittersweet romance with mage Lucas Sullivan. These challenges add heft, but so many fight scenes don’t allow for much of what made the first book enduring, such as Evie’s friendships. Perhaps in the next book, readers will get to see more of fun characters such as Sullivan’s charming niece, Gemma, and her gargoyle, Grimley. Nonetheless, a satisfying finale neatly sets up Queen Evie’s next chapter. (July)
Booklist
An exciting new fantasy series full of magic, fierce women, and revenge.
Jeffe Kennedy
Kill the Queen rocked my world! With court intrigue, a cast of fantastic characters, epic political sweep, and a slow-burn romance to die for, this book had me rapt. I only regret I devoured it so fast. And that I didn’t write it. More please!”
Amanda Bouchet
Jennifer Estep takes the world of high fantasy by storm with a book so perfectly plotted and executed that I gasped out loud at each new reveal and unexpected turn. Evie is the heroine we all want to read about: as compassionate as she is ruthless, as cunning as she is kind, and as fierce and focused as anyone must be in order to KILL THE QUEEN.
Ilona Andrews
KILL THE QUEEN is the definition of epic fantasy: exciting, original, and filled with characters who jump off the page. Jennifer Estep enters the arena and takes no prisoners. Long live the Winter Queen.
Kirkus Reviews
2019-04-14
Estep returns to the fantasy setting established in Kill the Queen (2018) to follow the new queen as she embarks on a reign complicated by treachery and duty alike.
Previously, Evie claimed the crown of Bellona after she killed her cousin Vasilia in vengeance for Vasilia's orchestrated butchery of most of the royal family. But keeping the crown will be the hard part. Evie and the nobles of Bellona struggle to get along—Evie certainly remembers every insult she ever received as a girl who was 17th in line to the throne and had only meager magical abilities. Now, she must earn the nobles' respect and keep them from outmaneuvering her—especially into a marriage with one of their families. That's in addition to making peace with neighboring Andvari, which lost a prince to Vasilia's attack; fighting off more assassins from the evil kingdom of Morta; and daydreaming about handsome, brooding Lucas Sullivan, her friend...and the bastard son of Andvari's king. It's a lot to handle; sadly, the plot doesn't always manage it. A sham betrothal to the other prince of Andvari does nothing but drive a gratuitous rift between Lucas and Evie—it's not clear why Evie feels it's necessary to use her betrothal to lure out assassins when they've already tried to kill her several times by then. Of course, the best way to fight magic-using assassins is just to be immune to magic: Evie's secret gift, which grows only stronger in this book. The thin plot is somewhat redeemed by a genuinely poignant twist, but it's fighting uphill against monotonous setting descriptions, a clichéd romance, and the notion that high-stakes courtly intrigue is best shown by peppering dialogue with f-bombs.
The second book of the trilogy struggles with its own expectations, just like the heroine herself.
