The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

“A young princess must reclaim her dead mother’s throne, learn to be a ruler—and defeat the Red Queen, a powerful and malevolent sorceress determined to destroy her.”

Ok so I was wary of this book the second the woman described it as “accessible fantasy”. It is an adult fairy tale, which is a huge difference in my book. That said, I enjoyed it. It was a quick read. Much more interesting than I thought it would be after the first 2 chapters.

The thing I enjoyed the most, and I hope they dig deeper in book 2 and 3, is this story happens after “America’s Crossing”. The story takes place in “New Europe” and there are references to red heads being extremely rare even though they once were the majority in that area. I’m assuming Ireland or Scotland. Also, books are extremely rare and there’s mention of the “7 Rowling books”. Since the queen was kept in hiding until she was of age, the history of her world is a mystery to her as well. But for all that, this is not a post apocalyptic book. It’s set in some future in which the people had to revert to feudalism because of this event.

I would put this book in the summer reading/beach book category. It doesn’t take a lot of time or concentration and it moves quickly.

Side note: Throughout this book, the Queen is referred to as homely, plain with a large build. How they decided Emma Watson was going to play her in the movie, is beyond me.