Review: The Rogue Queen

Ｔｉｔｌｅ：The Rogue Queen

Ａｕｔｈｏｒ：Emily R. King

Ｓｅｒｉｅｓ：Book 3

Ｒａｔｉｎｇ：★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

＊Ｎｏｔｅ：I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. You can find the reviews for Book 1 and Book 2 here.

Despite the odds, Kalinda has survived it all: Marriage to a tyrant. Tournaments to the death. The forbidden power to rule fire. The icy touch of a demon.

That same demon now disguises itself as Rajah Tarek, Kalinda’s late husband and a man who has never stopped haunting her. Upon taking control of the palace and the army, the demon brands Kalinda and her companions as traitors to the empire. They flee across the sea, seeking haven in the Southern Isles.

In Lestari, Kalinda’s powers are not condemned, as they are in her land. Now free to use them to protect those she loves, Kalinda soon realizes that the demon has tainted her with a cold poison, rendering her fire uncontrollable. But the lack of control may be just what she needs to send the demon back to the darkest depths of the Void.

To take back the empire, Kalinda will ally with those she distrusts—and risk losing those most loyal to her—to defeat the demon and bring peace to a divided nation.

✩ Kalinda was more complex in this book, she was troubled, and very brave. I liked that we got to see her character grow.

✩ Devin was more understanding, a little jealous, and still loyal to the end. I still had some issues with him, but he did improve.

✩ Ashwin was still a total romantic and pretty stubborn. But he was overall a decent person who respected Kalinda’s feelings.

❝ “Dutiful men are all the same– martyrs. You want for everything but take nothing for yourself. You sacrifice your own happiness for others and validate your ensuing misery with your magnanimous loyalty.” ❞

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book!

The Rogue Queen was another great continuation of the Hundredth Queen series. After surviving yet another tournament and facing one of her greatest enemies, Kalinda still isn’t done. Not only does she have to deal with demon’s effects on her powers, but she has to figure out what her heart wants: Devin or Ashwin, love or her throne. I also want to say that the book did a fantastic job of summarizing up the previous events in the beginning, which I could really appreciate since I can sometimes forget what happened if it’s been a while.

As usual, I wasn’t thrilled about the romance in this book. I haven’t cared for it since the first book because it’s all felt like insta-love for me (sorry Devin). And although we still had the love triangle with Kalinda, Devin, and Ashwin in this book I understood it better in The Rogue Queen. At first, it was very annoying reading from Kalinda’s perspective because she was always swooning over Ashwin and wondering if her being attracted to him was the same as loving him. She was just very naive and lovestruck. I thought it was silly/annoying, but I was glad we were given an explanation later in the book where this all makes sense. I thought it was an interesting and logical approach to it, and I could accept it.

In book two it felt like Devin was being really petty and self-pitying so I wasn’t a fan of his period and that didn’t change with this book either. I still felt like Devin was prideful and too concerned with his rank. It’s understandable that he felt lost for a while because that had been his whole life, but I felt it was time he showed some growth and started to move past it. To his credit, I guess you can say he did start moving past his rank in this book. I respected him more when he fought his jealousy and tried to understand that Kalinda was doing what was necessary to save her people/friends.

Ashwin was pretty much the same story. I didn’t like him at first, but I did respect him more towards the end. My big problem with his character (which started in book two) was that he instantly fell in love with Kalinda. Seriously, it was love at first sight for him and he was super obvious. I have a problem with characters that instantly fall in love (which is why I don’t care for any of the romances in this book) because it doesn’t feel organic. If you don’t care much about that then this book will be even more fun; it’s still fun with the romance, but since I don’t enjoy it that always knocks off a star for me.

Aside from that, my only other issue was that he tended to keep Kalinda out of the loop for big decisions (to be fair, Kalinda did the same thing sometimes). I think that was just due to his inexperience being a ruler, and he did better later on.

❝ Healer Baka once told me that peace is a choice. A decision not to be at odds with the world. I have been at odds with Tarek for so long, I know no other way. But we are not the same. I have to make a better choice than he did. I must let go, or I will earn a place with him. ❞

And the last character I’ll talk about is Kalinda–because how could I not talk about her, haha! But yeah, Kalinda was still a great character in this book. She fought for those that couldn’t defend themselves. Although, she did have some rough moments. Without spoiling anything, Kalinda’s powers take a hit because of the events in the last book and she finds a temporary solution (a bad one) that she takes up a couple times in the book. I wasn’t happy that she did it–and yes, she felt bad afterward. But still.

I think we saw a more vulnerable Kalinda in this book because she actually fell into temptation and made some bad/harmful decisions. She was also a bit childish when she went back to the temple and tried to do away with the whole Claiming aspect. She acted irrationally. It felt like “I’m the Queen so I can do whatever I want”. I just think she could’ve been more tactful about it and that she should’ve told Ashwin her intentions since they were supposed to be working together.

And the last thing I’ll say about Kalinda is that I enjoyed the character growth that came with her facing Rajah Tarek. I liked that this came back into play and that she was able to face her feelings and move past this. It felt too wrapped up in the first book and I’m glad that she actually addressed this.

Now, let’s talk plot and pacing. Did I enjoy the plot of this book? Yes! But, it wasn’t perfect. I felt like the whole series was building up to this big bad enemy and then… it was all over in a flash. This is actually an issue I had with every book. It’s nice to have things move along but it’s kind of right on the edge of being too fast? I just expected our big enemy to take more than one book to defeat is all. It’s not terrible enough to say that I didn’t like it, and maybe we’ll still get to see more of him in the next book considering how this one ended.

And that ending! Intense and gripping! I was so worried about our characters, I wanted to see how everything would play out and when the big battle happened I was not disappointed. As always, I won’t spoil things, but when the characters went underwater… nail-biting. Admittedly, I wasn’t too surprised with the “reveal” at the end regarding that. And it totally left me eager to read the next book. I can’t wait to see how Kalinda’s journey progresses and how this series wraps up.

Overall, another great hit in the series! One that I recommend for fantasy lovers!

The Rogue Queen was released on February 13th so go check it out, it’s a great book/series! ❤