With “The Queen’s Rising” you can expect everything you’ve come to love with Rebecca Ross’s novels. A journey of self discovery, found family and a beautiful world filled with unique fantasy elements.

The world and this tale is captivating and swept me away. I adore seeing a character find her own found family and herself. The character development is incredible, with our MC going on a journey to discover who she is and what she most wants, and the cost of loyalty and passion.

Rebecca Ross is such a magnificent writer and I love everything she writes. I’m having such a great time exploring her back catalogue and you can really see the way her writing has evolved and informed her future novels, such as the Rivers of Cadence novels and Divine Rivals.

I loved this a lot, in particular I loved the world building and learning about the passions — in some ways I’m sad that part of the book was over with so quickly as I liked seeing Brienna’s journey with that.

I really loved the family aspect of this and that family can be the family that you choose, not always the family that is by blood, I thought that was really special and important.

I’m intrigued to learn more about the magic system, it was touched upon in this but I think there’s a lot more left to be discovered.

In "The Stone of Eventide," Brienna is an Arden student mastering the five passions—art, music, wit, dramatics, and knowledge. On the verge of becoming a mistress of the passion, she faces an uncertain future. Unlike her talented peers, Brienna’s place at the passion house comes from hiding rather than skill.

With her father's identity unknown and her Maevan heritage a mystery, Brienna’s life takes a turn when she begins to experience visions from a long-dead ancestor. These visions reveal the location of the legendary Stone of Eventide, an artefact that could restore Maevana’s rightful queen and end the rule of a tyrannical king.

As Brienna dives into a world of secret alliances, ancient grudges, and dangerous intrigue, she must navigate her emerging powers and unravel deep family secrets. The journey challenges her to discover whether their chosen family or blood ties will define her destiny.

I CAN NOW CRY IN PEACE OR AGONY.
GOD, WHAT A STORY.

UGHHH, I LOVED, LOVED, THE SLOW BURN AND THE STOLEN GLANCES, THE VIVID RAIN AND THE LITTLE GAMES. CARTIER, YOU KINDA STOLE MY HEART. AND BRIENNA, GIRL, YOU ROCKED THAT START.

Full review here: https://witsandtwists.wordpress.com/2...
And thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Honestly, I am writing this review in reverse. I am beginning with the thoughts and then leaving room for the plots. Although the story is rather predictable, I quite enjoyed the slow burn romance (it wasn’t essential to the plot, so this made it even better for me), with all the stolen gazes and small touches, and that scene of tranquility under the moon, or the one with the suppressed emotions and Brienna throwing herself down into the mud when she thought no one would be watching, made me squeal. Master Cartier was a sight to behold too. The man was elusive and restrained, which made me think of Snape (with a blonde wig) for a short second, but I am not complaining; overall, I liked his character.

Actually, what I found the most fascinating about this book was how Ross imagined the two nations, Maevana, which was a sort of Amazonian land, with a magical warrior queen on the throne, and Valenia, a country which preferred the arts and elegance over the barbaric traditions of its neighbors. The fun part was that Valenia traditionally put a man on the throne, which is not exactly the image of delicacy.

The other interesting element was the way the ardens and masters of the arts and knowledge worked. Valenia had a rather intriguing system of cataloging people and their strengths and, to be frank, I wish this was explored a little more, in a more academic sense. There were times when repetitions took center stage. I wished Ross presented the system in more detail and followed young Brienna around more, allowing her readers to experience her struggles and then make the change more gradual.

In terms of the writing, all I can say is it was nice and easy to follow, and that some of the images or lines the writer employed flowed like a river, enabling the reader to get a vivid image in their head.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read but it left me craving more. I ended up thinking how the story would have looked like if the writer allowed us to experience Magnalia more, along with the people inhabiting its grounds. In a way, I feel like it would have been more effective to start on the actual rise and war in a separate book altogether, and end this first volume on a cliffhanger, right when the group was ready to go to war.

Rebecca Ross to me is such an underappreciated author and in this duology, her skill and craft is on full display. Can't recommend it enough!

The debut novel from Rebecca Ross of Divine Rivals fame, intrigue, academia, romance, and twists, this shows all the signs of the kind of writing that has been such a success in the Letters of Enchantment duology.

I came to this straight after binge reading Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows, and loving Rebecca Ross' writing and ability to create atmosphere, tension, and an immersive reading experience, and you can see that in The Queen's Rising.

I didn't read any reviews or spoilers ahead of this, diving straight in, and, despite the pretty long set up in the first half of this book, I was drawn in by the world building, the rules, the magic, the idea of Passions and the history. The end, in comparison, happened extremely quickly, the plans were thinly sketched out, success in parts of the plot seemed very convenient, and tbh I found the romance a bit icky, given the different experience/maturity levels of those involved and the positions of authority/trust they started <spoiler> teacher-student romances just don't sit right with me, for someone to have been placed in a position of trust, but to have authority and superiority to another, and that other being a minor for the majority of the relationship, especially with the title of 'Master' being involved, I dunno just that dynamic being the start of a romance makes me uncomfortable and feels slightly groomy, especially when there was no real need for that to have been the case, Rebecca Ross could have written a different starting dynamic, given who Cartier turns out to be, he could've been the librarian or something</spoiler>

Anyway, despite the slightly mixed bag feelings in how the plot was put together, I still read this super quickly, was carried along with Brienna, cared about the side characters, and loved the found family elements, having since read other reviews, I can see why they're a bit mixed, for the reasons above, but I found a lot to like in this, it stands out from other YA novels, to me personally, and I'm intrigued to see what happens next.

I love Rebecca Ross's writing so much. This book i'll definitely be recommending to friends.

Thank you for letting me read and review this book on Netgalley

As a huge lover of The Letters of Enchantement duology I was very excited to be able to be able to go back and visit the author’s debut. I could definitely see the difference in writing style as the author’s current works come across more refined and mature, however I am still impressed that The Queen’s Rising was a debut publication. I will admit that I am glad to have read Rebecca’s Ross’s newest publication first as seeing her growth helped me better appreciate a debut that ultimately isn’t going to be as strong as future works.

The main character of this story wasn’t particularly easy to connect with for me and I struggled to like her character itself in the beginning. However as the story progressed I found myself slowly understanding Brienna more and she overall became tolerable. I enjoyed the world building and I believe that set up the story well, and by the end I was definitely feeling invested enough to want to pick up the sequel in this duology.

Thank you to the publisher for the NetGalley ARC to read and review.

The story started out a little slow and the protagonist can seem annoyingly perfect at times, but this book came into its own after that slow start.

Brienna is a student of the five passions - music, art, wit etc - in a special school in the country of Valenia, her mother's home. She knows little about her heritage on her father's side of the family who are from a different kingdom, Maevana.

Despite the fact that she is running out of time, Brienna has yet to pick the passion in which she will become an expert, a mistress of passion.

And after meeting the family of a man from the her father's kingdom, she finds herself embroiled in an unexpected adventure - involving romance, rebellion and a role that she is destined for.

This is an entertaining read, but perhaps one that takes longer to get into than some of Rebecca Ross's other books. The world building is quite impressive, and this story will undoubtedly be enjoyed by her many fans.

I had to really stick with this book ,I didn't like the main characters personality and found it all to be a bit hard going but,I am so glad I did,it slowly developed into a fabulously exciting &hard to put downable book!!! Well worth the time and has left me wanting to read the next.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

While I enjoyed the worldbuilding and the political intrigue, I felt that the plot was erratic and I wasn't invested in the characters. I think if I've read this book before reading the newer Rebecca Ross' works, I would have enjoyed it more.

Rebecca Ross's first duology might not be as refined as her later works, but I still found it enjoyable and entertaining.
Brienna is close to graduating from her Passion school- having failed to find an area she excelled in, she's flitted through all of them - Art, Drama, Music, Wit, and finally Knowledge. She knows the headmistress allowed her to stay as a favour for her grandfather, and that her father is an unknown man from the neighbouring country of Maevana. Brienna ends up in the family of a Maevana man and this leads to her to visiting the country of her father as part of a scheme to restore the rightful queen to the throne.
Look, is this objectively a brilliant book? No. But I found it entertaining when I first read it when it came out and I still found it entertaining on this reread. Brienna is a bit too perfect and loved by everyone, everything is little too convenient and easily solved. I also know that some will not like the teacher/student romance. I suspect Rebecca Ross might find a slightly better way of creating the romance now, although some attempt was obviously made to reduce the weirdness- the age gap isn't huge and Brienna flitting between subjects means she was a little older before she would have been before Cartier becomes her teacher.
I think the main problem is that of time - everything happens very quickly and I think the strength of the familial relationships and friendships developed would feel more realistic if they time frame was longer and the scheming and plotting wouldn't feel quite so easy. I also think it's a shame that the school part in the country of Valenia is over so soon.
Ignoring that issue, I really liked the world that Rebecca Ross has created - a sort of historical vaguely French country and a vaguely Scottish country with magic that runs only in women and quite a dark history. I like the characters, their relationships and friendships and I even liked the romance.
An enjoyable read that I pretty much flew through.

<i><b>“One day, a queen will rise”</b></i>


<u>Tropes</u>
• Slow burn Romance
• Historical
• Rebellion
• Deception
• Betrayal
• Secrets

<i><b>“But know that one day, a daughter will rise from your line, a daughter who shall be two in one, passion and stone.”</b></i>


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was different to books I normally read and it definitely helped to get out of my comfort zone and try to journey into the world that Rebecca Ross written. This is the first book I’ve read from Rebecca Ross and heard many good things about her books!

I was Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the first book in this series. Yes, it does start off a bit slow and I usually get bored with slow-paced books but I was surprised when I was so intrigued of Brienna and hoping she could passion in knowledge. I definitely related to her with figuring out what I wanted to after my years in secondary school and unsure of it. Along the way I did figure my joy in life like Brienna.

I saw the connection between Brienna and Cartier and was hopeful that they were possibly end up together. To both my surprise when they both went their separate and was so happy that they found each other again even though they both had secrets of their own.

I can’t wait to get into the next book to see what happens next!

<b>Thank you so much NetGalley, Rebecca Ross, and Harper Collins for the chance to read and review this e-arc in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts and opinions remain my own.</b>

As a prolific lover of both the Divine Rivals Duology and the River Enchanted duology as soon as I saw this come up to request it was an immediate yes. However, I'm not sure if I was the best audience for this book. As a teacher myself, the fact that the romance in this book surrounds a student and her teacher who she refers to as 'Master' at points just soured the whole book to me. Yes, while she is over 18 and no longer their student when they finally 'get together', the fact there is even a caveat is off putting to me. I decided to finish the book as I am not one to DNF a story and I give this an additional star as enjoy some of the other external relationships such as between the 'Passion' sisters but a lot of the story felt underdeveloped in places. You can definitely tell this is a debut novel, especially as Brienne as a character feels unfinished with no real personality besides liking books and history.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity.

Brienna is such an amazing character to follow, being a student of the five passions and wanting to become a Mistress of a passion. Much of her life is unknown to her and she is now getting these visions \ memories that are trying to tell her more. This book took me on a very twisty path and I loved every second. Everything was unexpected and I loved every moment!

This book is told in the first-person perspective of the main character Brienna. From the first page, I was truly captivated by this story. I found the narrative style so engaging and easy to understand.
I've come to love all these characters so much. Brienna is a girl who was raised by her grandfather without knowing who her father was. Her mother died early. Throughout the story, Brienna is portrayed as very ambitious yet sympathetic. She has her flaws, but she balances them out well with her loving nature and perseverance. I liked her from the start. She's very pleasant, and I could understand her decisions throughout. Even though she's not an extremely extroverted character - nor an introverted one for me - she handles being in the center of events well. I liked her way of dealing with problems and how she kept a cool head - which is rare for many female main characters.
Cartier is truly a great character. Unlike the common image that many male characters portray, he is a very calm and composed person who approaches things thoughtfully and skillfully. Cartier doesn't rush into anything, and I found the way he treated Brienna so loving and mature.
Secondary characters, like Brienna's friend, have been really well integrated. They're not overly described, but they don't remain as empty shells in the story either. Each supporting character has their own story and appearances that are important in the book. Intrigue, a kingdom with the wrong king on the throne and families coming together to restore the kingdom to what it was. I had to keep looking at the map and the family trees because of the character connections and the locations. That's not a bad thing, though, because that always happens to me with good, complex books. On the one hand we have Brienna, who doesn't know who her father is and who at the same time begins to have visions that are from the past. On the other hand, we have Cartier, who knows quite a bit about the location of the kingdom where Brienna's father comes from. Some families will approach the reader, but that shouldn't put you off because everything is explained really well and comprehensibly. A big aspect that I really like is that there is a kingdom in which women are supposed to take the throne. Women's bodies are more receptive to magic, making women stronger than men. This kingdom has women who go to war. You can like it or hate it, but I find it very rare in books that women play such a strong role. So this detail alone convinced me. I really liked the book.

THE QUEEN’S RISING is an engaging read, with a fascinating world. I loved the contrasts between the two countries, and how their flaws were so clearly laid out. Warrior vs arts, but with both praised and picked clean. There was a tug between these two for Brienna and the other characters who were either natives of both or grew up in a country other than their own. That tension of home, nation and self was so well done and it meant that Brienna’s final choice for her future was so satisfying.

This is a much slower paced book than most YAs. I liked that, as it meant there was more time for world-building and developing the relationships. It also drew out the different loyalties the characters had, giving the reader time to understand the complex characters.

The found family dynamics take centre stage of the second half of the book. I loved watching Brienna with Jourdain and Luc, they interacted so easily and so friendly, immediately accepting and loving one another.

I loved the friendship between the passions. The way the six girls were supporting each other through the stress of the final weeks at their school, then the interviews with patrons, reminded me of the way my best friends and I supported one another. I appreciated the way that one of the girls was brought back for the second half, to maintain the connection to the school.

The romance is not a pivotal part of the book, but it is a teacher-student relationship. Yes, she’s graduated, but she’s only just and that relationship dynamic always makes me uncomfortable. Teachers are in a position of trust and authority, which a romantic relationship breaks.

This book reads like a standalone, but it’s the first in a duology. There’s no big cliffhanger, which was a nice surprise. I’m excited to see where the next book goes, as there was no hint in this book.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

When I first heard about this book, I was immediately intrigued, because I'm always on the lookout for new fantasy series, especially from debut, or new to me, authors. I preordered it as soon as I could - thank you Christmas money, and discount codes - and when my copy came around my birthday, I dove straight in.

The Queen's Rising tells the story of Brienna, who when she was a young girl was sent to the exclusive Magnalia House school, in order to master a passion in one of the five main arts. Her only problem, she doesn't have any particular affinity to one in particular, instead she can master a bit of each. When she finally decides to pursue the passion of Knowledge, with only 3 years left to master it, rather than the usual 7, she's in a for a bit of a struggle. Her main hope is her master, Cartier, who's life before the school is very mysterious. They have a connection with their love of folklore and history in particular, and when they discuss the legendary queens of Maevana, something clicks in Bri, and she begins to have visions that are so realistic, it's as if she actually lived in the past, rather than a simple memory.

This is the least of Bri's current problems, though, as she has had no-one to become her patron, and ends up jumping at the opportunity to travel to Maevana with a man called Jourdain, who masquerades as her father, in order to protect both her, and himself. Brienna knows her grandfather always told her never to go to Maevana, for her safety, but she can't help wanting to know just why she needs to stay away. As she learns more about herself, and her family history in Maevana, she finds herself entangled in a coup to restore the Kavanagh family to their rightful throne.

Every single thing about this book was outstanding, from the plot, to the characters, to the sublime world building. For a lover of fantasy, I couldn't believe how much I loved the book, and how different it seemed from others. And, for a history lover, it has the perfect amount of historical reference that intrigue my own knowledge, and made me think so much of Scottish history. Obviously, Ross has done her research in order to make the book as genuine as possible, and I can't wait to see where she goes with the rest of the story in subsequent books.

The romance in the novel was slow burning, and at times I was questioning whether they would be able to be together, but it had all the feels, and was perfect for what the story needed. Unlike some other fantasy books you read where the relationships ends up taking over from the plot, this was more of an added bonus, and when the plot needed precedence over any sort of romance drawing away attention, it took a back seat - really, the plot never suffered, and I loved that. As much as I adore reading relationships in books, I hate if that takes away from the whole story line, and, luckily, The Queen's Rising didn't suffer from this.

All in all, I'm so happy I bought this book, and can't wait to get my hands on book two, because the ending of this one was perfect, but left enough there for me to question what would happen to all my favourites, and just how everyone would react and recover from all the revelations.