The Queen’s Wing – Jessica Thorne

[…] the Anthaese will never want a Vairian Queen. But like it or not, that’s what they are getting.
Like it or not. That is what I’ll be.

 

Summary
The most important thing in Bel’s life is flying. She was born to do it. Or so she had thought. Because a series of tragic events has led to her having to give up everything she ever wanted. Now she has to abandon the love of her life and marry a man she hasn’t even met. And she will never be able to fly again.

Writing
I love Thorne’s writing. It’s simple and very easy to read. It reminds me a lot of Sarah J Mass’ style, only it’s much less repetitive. And with significantly smaller amount of ellipses.

Characters
Bel has a very strong personality. She’s fierce, determined and brave. She’s a great heroine. However, I feel like her love interest didn’t complement her character very well. Around them (especially Shae) she turns into someone completely different, and while I can understand the charm of a teenage girl being all mushy around her crush, I think that at this point we are all a little bit tired of that.

When it comes to her love interests, I never really liked Shae. He’s not a bad character by any means. I was just annoyed by how different Bel’s perception of him was from what we were actually seeing. And at this point I don’t really know if that was done intentionally by the author, to show that girls tent to idealize their crushes, or was it just an accident.

On the third side of the love triangle is Con and I actually really liked him. Yeah, he is a little bit too perfect. But it’s okay. I can forgive him for that. I think he is completely adorable and I liked the chemistry between him and Bel.

The native Anthaese were my favourites and I can’t wait to see more of them. I think they were created in a very interesting and clever way. It was a really unique concept, though I would like to find out a little bit more about them.

Plot
Okay, I will admit that the first half of this book reminded me a lot of Selection, with all of those half-assed assassination attempts. But later on it actually got really good. Yeah, the romance is a big part of the story, but it’s not overwhelming. And the actual plot is really well thought out. I enjoyed it a lot. Especially since there is absolutely no boring moments and I love nothing more than a fast paced book.

Overall
I flew through this book (no pun intended). It is a true YA trope cocktail, but I mean that in the best way possible. It’s a fast-paced, addicting story that turned out to have much more substance than I expected (I actually think that this cover, even though it’s pretty, does this book a big disservice. I saw it and I immediately thought “The Selection”. And even though The Selection is plenty of fun, this book is on a completely different level). I can’t believe I don’t see more people talking about The Queen’s Wing. It could easily compete with some of the most popular YA romance fantasy out there.

 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

You can find this book on Goodreads and Book Depository