I won a signed copy of K. Webster‘s Cold Queen over at Sadie’s Spotlight. Heck yeah, since I have nothing to do with picking winners, I absolutely enter the giveaways. Give all the bookish giveaways!
In a cold, empty castle, a young queen is dying.
Weak. Fragile. Disgraced.
But Queen Whitestone is not alone in her final days.
She has her beloved sister.
Until a wicked king rides onto her land.
Arrogant. Insufferable. Demanding.
King Bloodsun has come with an offer…peace in trade for a bride.
He wants the princess.
The fiery king won’t take no for an answer.
He vows to keep the cold queen captive until she gives in to his demands.
A queen bows for no one, though.
Not even when she’s frail and fading away.
She’ll tap into her strength, protecting the only family she has left.
The king is about to learn why they call her the cruel one…
I generally enjoyed the first 3/4 of this and then it just went completely off the rails for the last quarter. And, while I liked most of what it was well enough, it isn’t true to the blurb. The blurb says things like, “A queen bows for no one, though. Not even when she’s frail and fading away. She’ll tap into her strength, protecting the only family she has left. The king is about to learn why they call her the cruel one…” But the actual book is full of things like, “I don’t understand his power over me, but I’d gladly yield to him over and over again. I crave to be at his will.” And she starts to yield within less than an hour of meeting him. It’s not like she held out for a long time or anything. Plus, by the end a reader truly has to question if she’s protecting her family.
Now, let’s address that last 25% of the book. It felt very much like the author brought the whole book to a satisfying stopping place and then went, “Welp, I need another 50 or so pages to make my word count, sooooo it’s a hard left into pointless rape and child cannibalism for me.” I have long complained that authors include unnecessary references to rape in their books. And many do it without any critical thought about why it’s the go to, low-hanging fruit of plot points. But this was particularly grievous. There just wasn’t ANY REASON the book needed to include an entire culture of rapists. None. It wasn’t tied into the previous plot. It wasn’t explained. It didn’t even feel like it was for shock value. It just felt like lazy plotting. Like, “I need to give the characters something to do, so I’ll just let them go kill some rapists.” Really, that’s about it. I couldn’t even muster anger, I just rolled my eyes at the disappointing predictability of it.
Before that last few chapters, I’d have said the writing was perfectly fine and, though the plot was pretty shallow (really just something to hang the sex scenes on), it was there and the characters were likeable enough. The book is certainly readable and enjoyable in a fluffy sort of way. I’d just suggest stopping at the end of chapter 16.
Other Reviews:
http://www.beckiebookworm.com/2019/11/15/arc-review-cold-queen-sinister-fairy-tales-k-webster/#.YR6B_O1OlpQ
