Dnf 28%
What is up with all these unnessesary characters? They did nothing to the story and seemed to cary a side-story in it`s own wich was annoying and quite frankly extremely boring. The magic system seeemed a little interesting, but i quickly fell of that wagon. I will not be continuing with this series; wich is a total shame because it had so much potential.

I got this eARC from netgalley.

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley. Opinions expressed are my own.

It's not very often I finish a book and think "yeeeeeesh" and can't even begin to think of what I'd say in a review. But this one did that.

The cover is gorgeous. The cover is 100% what drew me to the book. I didn't notice the very odd (hopefully) pseudonym. I didn't expect the completely unnecessary events that transpired in this book. (Why does everyone insist on having female leads raped?

It seems like one of those stories like The Princess Bride or Labyrinth where it's a piece of fiction inside another world, if that makes sense?

Personally, I found it really hard to get through, didn't care for the "adult themes," and would not recommend it or be reading it again.

REALLY gorgeous cover, though!

While Queens Kings and Monsters was at times entertaining, I found the overarching story nothing unique and the relationships (whether romantic or friendly) slightly underdeveloped.

This is a fairly short instalment for the beginning of a fantasy series, and it’s partially evident in how things play out. For example: in depth explanations were presented regarding varying locations in this world, yet none were actually present in the book. There wasn’t enough background on the things that really did unfold.

My biggest problem in the book would have to be how there is so much more telling than showing in the writing. This plays into all the other problems I’ve had in the book (no tension, detachment from characters, awkward action scenes). Overall, a bit of a disappointing one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for this ARC

Never judge a book buy its cover! I did and have learnt my lesson. This book was not for me at all it was far too crass and an uncomfortable read. Such a shame because this was my first ever request.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley and the publisher.

This book started so promising, the (humorous) trigger warning at the beginning (something I really appreciate and what should be standard in every book) made me so exciting to dive into the story: magic, blood, sex, assault, murder, gore - the perfect adult fantasy novel.
And it started very promising but already after the first 15%, the story slowed down and I had to fight to continue. At 20% I was determined to DNF but the book had all the ingredients for a good story (remember: magic, violence, sex) so I forced myself to go on, at 50% things got interesting again, but not for long. At 70% I eventually gave up cause life is too short to spend days on a book I don't enjoy.

The two main characters, Rana and Victor, seemed very interesting but on the one hand their age gap made it difficult to follow, on the other hand we don't learn more about them after the beginning. Instead the book introduces more and more characters and I found myself unable to bond with them. Plus, we get a lot of secrets but barley any answers, what made the story line very dull for me.

For the sexual content, we get an intense and intriguing third chapter with some intense hate sex but the rest is just annoying. We got it, in this world young women and especially those without magic don't have many opportunities but sex work. Okay. And I understand that in such a world a 13 y/o girl isn't spared but was it really necessary to load every dialogue with molestation and disgusting comments? In my opinion, the story dealt more with sex work and human trafficking than magic.

I was annoyed by the slow pace, how women and young girls were treated continuously throughout the story (even by the characters who were supposed to be "good"), the shallow characters and the sometimes long and dull dialogues. I wish I had listened to my instincts and given up after the first 20%.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc!

I was drawn to this book because of it’s beautiful cover and the description looked interesting. Unfortunately I ended up DNFing due to it being too crass and uncomfortable for my tastes and I didn’t jibe with the writing style.
I encourage those interested giving it a try though!

Arc provided kindly by Netgalley, thank you!!

CW/TW: rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and many more.

Unfortunately this wasn’t for me. It had all the elements that should appeal to me but due to the contents and how women (and young girls) are treated by the men in this book I cannot in good conscience rate this highly. Rape, sexual assault, harassment... that is not what I expected from this book.

This book had its appeal. Girl discovering herself, magic, war, a little bit of smutty scenes, but it fell really short for me. I dnf at about 70% and really felt like I was pushing myself through to finish the novel. I didn’t really like the writing either. I felt like the tone of writing seemed a bit young and lacked depth.

This book has an interesting premise that I thought I would enjoy. However, the execution of the book just doesn't really work. Homeless girl, taken in, gets a job she doesn't like, learns to defend herself. Boy, doing a job he doesn't like, has to go find the girl. I never really connected with the main characters and the way the story was written, sometimes things went really slowly and sometimes they were really fast. I'd be interested to see the finished edition of this book now that it has been published.

A thank you to the publishers and netgalley for an arc in exchange of an honest review.

I started this with high hopes that were very quickly dashed on some rocks. Although the writing itself isn’t wrong...it’s overwritten. Everything has added unnecessary words like the man squinted his eyes. Yes, I assumed he squinted his eyes because that’s what you use to squint. That’s pretty much every three seconds of this book. The opening is super boring and has no speed or interest to it. I just can’t read something that over-explains everything like how you nod. It’s painful and takes me out of the book. So basically this was a huge nope from me.

A dark adult fantasy novel

The book follwos two main characters, a young girl named Rana who has to deal with the new situation she is thrown into, and Vincent a man trying to retire from a job he hates. Rana finds herself far from home with no way to get back. She is taken in by a brothel owner and trained to be a maid for nobles but she is not satisfied with that path, so she finds someone to teach her how to defend herself.
Victor is tasked with travelling to a far away kingdom to negotiate the aid in a waging war. He runs into some problems during his travels. The king then sends him out again to find a mysterious girl.

There was a war ever-present in the story and everybody was talking about it but aside from the constant mantioning we see little and know little about the war. I don't even know who was fighting who. Some of the details confused me,

*spoiler ahead*

because I kept thinking that the abduction of the princess was going to become relevant, or that the murderer who escaped was going to come back. There were a lot of loose ends which I hope are going to be cleared up in the next novel?

There were a lot of things I liked about this novel and a lot of things I disliked.
I had a hard time getting used to the two main characters but after a while I really liked them. Rana reminded me of a young Celena Sardothien (from the Throne of glass series) and although I could not understand some of the decisions she made I really liked her in the end. I loved the sortyline of Victor as the detective, uncovering the thruth about the murder on the ship although it did not feel relevant to the plot at all.

My biggest dislike in the story were the black jewels mercenaries. I get that they were supposed to be Ranas found family but asside from Dessi I hated them all. Especially Oscar. He is supposed to be a father figure for her and she likes him but all he does to her is force her to do things she doesn't want to and being mean to her. Another big problem I had was the sheer abundance of side characters. I could not keep track of all of them and got a little confused sometimes.
All in all there were four out of about 24 chracters I really liked.

The writing style sometimes feels a little hastened and the story could have used a lot more details and to really flesh out the adventures of the two main chatacters. But on the other hand the hastened writing creates an urgency and a fast pace.

All in all I enjoyed the story but it feels more like a series of short stories or events strung togehter than a connected story. A sort of overture before the real adventure begins.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for providing an ARC.

I am a sucker for dark fantasy books, however this one was not for me.

The fantasy world held promise but the world building could use improvement. The characters were great, however didn't really connect with me. The writing style was good but not enticing.

First off I have to say that I loved everything about this book from the cover to the story itself. Secondly, I need more. We start by seeing a young girl escape what appears to be a raid on her home but as we find out there's so much more to her story. We follow young Rana through-out several adventures from getting taken in by a whore house, sold off as a maid and potential whore to the magistrate's son, rescued by a mercenary group, and a twist at the end where we get a glimpse of the power that she didn't even know she had. Along the way, we meet many interesting characters like General Victor Krill, Dessi, Uncle Jasper, Oscar, and many others. I'm curious about the relationship between Victor and his queen as it's only briefly touched on before the sex scene between them and it's occasionally mentioned that the queen has a hold over him. I'm hoping that we get to see more of Victor's story in the second book, or even better maybe a prequel story to explain it. I loved that this story had a bit of a steampunk vibe with the airships and a few other elements. I thought the story was well written and flowed quite nicely even with the multiple POV. I can't wait to see what happens to Rana and all of the other characters in the next book.

Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me.

The synopsis suggested that this book would be one that I would enjoy being a dark adult fantasy.
I thought the basic storyline was interesting with a kingdom being fought over & a young girl trying to find her way in the world. I also loved the cover.

I enjoy dark fantasy & do not shy away from violence or unpleasant behaviour if these things are a part of the plot / character development. The problem I had with this book is that a lot of these elements seemed to be included for ‘shock value’ and didn’t really feel important to the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Carlos Woods for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This sounded really good from the synopsis, but I found my initial interest quickly waning, it started off well, but I just found myself quickly losing it with the story and the constant misogyny/old men being into young girls, references of sexual assault and rape, not for me at all.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This one seemed to have ingredients that I'm into - magic, war, girl discovering she's more than what she believed, different kingdoms, found family... But nope, nope, nope, not for me. There were so many characters introduced that it was hard to keep them all straight, some parts had absolutely nothing to do with the overall plot and seemed like they were just in there for shock factor or for smutty appeal, and it was quite a rapey book. Seriously - you can't get through a chapter without some older guy making a pass at a younger girl, some cock or whore talk, or some actual rape.

There were also a lot of things that weren't explained - she goes by Rana and doesn't seem to remember much of what's happened to her but she also somehow knows that her real name is Fairline and that she's hiding because of bandits? I'm so confused. Also, what was up with the scene between the queen and Victor at the very beginning of the book? Was that supposed to mean something? Because we never saw her again and that incident was never brought up. Again - something there just for shock or smutty value. And what about Rana's friends living with the doctor?! Ahhh there are so many loose ends and unexplained things that I feel like my head is going to explode.

I started out writing this review at 2 stars but I just decreased it to 1 star because the confusion really is that enraging. And also, what is up with fantasy writers thinking that the way to increase the appeal of their books is to make young girls into sex objects? Can we please retire that trope? I can sympathize with a young girl that's been separated from her family and plunged into a world of creepers without the addition of men that want to "break her in." Yuck.

Ok. I'll stop now. I clearly didn't like this one. The end.

Overall, the writing was very good. I found it just descriptive enough without going too far into massive amounts of exposition. However, I also felt that the world itself lacked cohesion between the different character perspectives. Since there is such a separation between the character POVs, it would have been good to see some likeness in the world echoed between them. Things like the characters observing similar architecture or armor, or mention of the queen earlier with Rana. There was just too much of a disconnect, especially in the first 1/4 of the novel.

this had what I looked forward to in a fantasy novel, the characters were great and I loved the plot. It was a great read and I hope there is more in this universe.

I really enjoyed this book I couldn’t put it down. There are definitely parts of this book that were very hard to read.. Rana is definitely an awesome girl I can’t wait to find out what happens to her next. I love victor I hope he gets to retire and I hope he never has to deal with the queen again. The powers people have in this book are cool I am so interested in the red crystals and what they mean. Overall I would definitely recommend this book but if assaults are something you can’t read then this book might not be for you.

Where to start?

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The cover of the book was what caught my attention, however, I didn’t really like the art after actually looking at it. I believe covers are just as important as the stories execution because (while you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover) they can be the reason a person doesn’t give it a second glance. The summary of the book was what had me interested though.

As for the story itself... I had a hard time getting into this world myself. It was definitely missing something.