Thursday, February 18, 2016

Thursday Thoughts: The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine!!!

Hey there guys!

Given my failure this week at blogging so far, I needed to add another extra Thursday Thoughts to the so far empty week!

I had a fairly good reason for the radio silence since I've been reading multiple books at once (not that it is new) but most have been re-reads or readalongs and also, FINALLY my living room furniture arrive!!



And because I'm crazy excited about them, I'm just gonna share a pic of them just as they had been finally assembled, will have to share pics of them filling up with stuff next time!




Now, onto today's review!! I think those of you who know me a bit are aware that I love fantasy books, but at the same time I'm not usually a fan of retellings, but one of my auto-buy authors go and write one, I have to check it and thankfully, trusting the author pays off!!



The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire, #1)The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


First things first, I'm not the biggest fan of retelling stories there is, and when I see a book is a retelling of something else I'm usually a little wary of it. BUT C.J. Redwine became an auto-buy author since the very first book of her Defiance trilogy, so when she announced this one, a retelling of Snow White, I knew I'd read it!

And I'm really quite happy that I kept my trust on the author, because The Shadow Queen was a fantastic retelling! It mixed the fairy tale feel & also made it more regular fantasy-like if that makes sense! The prologue was very much done in a more typical fairy tale story format & style, but then when we move forward in time to meet Lorelai again, the narrative is less typical and much more engaging!

We have two main POV characters, Kol and Lorelai, but Lorelai IS our main character, our Snow White! I feel like the story is a bit inspired by both the classical story and the Snow White & the Huntsman movie, at least given that our Snow White is a fighter and not like the Disney version! ;) And no, there are no dwarves in this one, we get something way cooler, since we get DRAGONS!!

Lorelai has magic and is determined to defeat the evil queen, Irina, and is simply an amazing main character! Driven, brave, capable and compassionate. She's an absolute warrior and ready to do the right thing at any personal cost but not at the cost of those around her. I simply adored having a princess that didn't need rescuing, although she welcomed allies of course! She dealt with grief but didn't let it paralize her turn her cold, didn't let a pretty boy make her loose the view of what's the most important and has been for the past 9 years, but still allows herself to be open to connections and to love!

Kol is the other POV character and he is so much more than a prince that kisses our girl to wake her up, although weeeell, nope, not saying anything else. Kol is a reluctant prince that finds himself in a position that he never thought he'd be in and never wanted, but that raises to the occasion and that like Lorelai, is fighting to do what's right for others more than for himself.

The relationship between those two was quite fantastic, and slowly developed from "casual meeting where the girl save his life and his friends" to "I'm going to kill you but I don't want to" to allies and much more!

I must also talk about the Evil Queen in this story... Irina is evil but not because of her magic but for her own twisted reasons that you sort of can understand. You really don't because she's just blinded about her sense of entitlement and what she thinks she's been robbed of, but it's not random evil, it's rooted on a sense of loss and it twists her to forgo love for power. A very intriguing character and a well developed villain!

All in all, I really loved this one! It's very much its own story although you can see the nods here and there to the original story and the roots of it. I cannot wait to read the next book in this series and see what fairy tale will be retold, C.J. Redwine style! Well deserved 5 stars!!

View all my reviews

15 comments:

  1. EEEEEEP I'm so glad you loved this book too! I feel like we should all bow down to C.J. Redwine for writing this gem of a book, and it's only the first kingdom in the series that she has yet written a book for! Also, isn't Irina a perfect villain? I'm kind of glad that there were no dwarves (I was always too creeped out by them) and obviously dragon beats everything! I never thought of the book as being a crossover between the original book and the movie, but you're absolutely right!
    Great job on the review :D

    Rhea @ Rhea's Neon Journal

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    1. YESSS!! I'm so excited to see what comes next in this series!! And dragons make EVERYTHING better!
      Thank you so much for stopping around Rhea!

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  2. LOVE the new furniture Pili! The decorative detail on the doors is so pretty!

    And YAY! I'm so glad you loved this one too! Lorelai and Kol forever! Plus, DRAGONS! The original would have been even better if there were dragons in it as well:) I can't wait for book 2!

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    1. Isn't it gorgeous?? I'm so so in love with them! That's why I waited 8 months for them to be delivered!!

      And YES!! Dragons make everything better!!

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  3. I loveeeeee the tv shelf! It's gorgeous! Can't wait for you to share more pictures :D

    I haven't seen a lot of talks about The Shadow Queen so I'm excited you loved it! The relationship development is definitely one I know I'll love. Thanks for the review Pili!

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    1. Thank you Eileen!! I'm in love with the whole set!
      And I do hope you'll give this one a try because I so loved it, Eileen!

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  4. Wow love that furniture. The pattern is gorgeous, bet your so pleased. :)

    I've heard so rave reviews about this book and I'm so glad you've enjoyed it. I saw it on EW but it wasn't my sort of book at the time. So maybe I should change that! Great review, Pili.

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    1. Thank you, Em! I'm proper chuffed about how lovely the living room looks now!

      And I'd suggest you give a try to TSQ, I'm not a fan of retellings and loved it!

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  5. OOOh nice! I find myself again totally anxious for this one! Even though it's in mount TBR! Lol! As I said in my previous comment, I really love fairy tale retellings! My paranormal obsession stemmed from fairy tales in a way as I love reading them growing up! SO I am super excited for this one. And ironically, I couldn't get into C.J.'s first series though I tried reading book 1. It just didn't mesh well with me. But this one sounds totally my style! Great review!

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    1. Thank you Jessica! I do hope that you'll check this one because it was awesome!!

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  6. Yaay :D Your living room looks awesome. <3 I love that picture. Cannot wait for you to post pictures of everything, hih :) I wish to see. <3 And yaay for gorgeous review :D SO hapy that you loved this book Pili. <3 I did too. So much. It was just awesome.

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    1. Thank you dear! I'm so excited about how lovely my house is looking finally! =D
      And YES! This book was indeed awesome!

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  7. This book has a really intriguing cover and I was wondering if it was a Snow White retelling, and I was right! Thanks for another informative review, Pili. :)

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    1. Always happy to help! And this one was an awesome Snow White retelling!

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  8. I'm really looking forward to picking this up, especially after your glowing review Pili! I've heard good things about the twisted evil Queen and the romance and characters sound really fantastic. Lovely review!

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¡Muchas gracias por vuestros comentarios, leerlos me alegra el día!/ Thanks a lot for all your comments, reading them brightens my day!!