In Emily R. King’s thrilling fantasy debut, an orphan girl blossoms into a warrior, summoning courage and confidence in her fearless quest to upend tradition, overthrow an empire, and reclaim her life as her own.As an orphan ward of the Sisterhood in the ancient Tarachand Empire, eighteen-year-old Kalinda is destined for nothing more than a life of seclusion and prayer. Plagued by fevers, she’s … by fevers, she’s an unlikely candidate for even a servant’s position, let alone a courtesan or wife. Her sole dream is to continue living in peace in the Sisterhood’s mountain temple.
But a visit from the tyrant Rajah Tarek disrupts Kalinda’s life. Within hours, she is ripped from the comfort of her home, set on a desert trek, and ordered to fight for her place among the rajah’s ninety-nine wives and numerous courtesans. Her only solace comes in the company of her guard, the stoic but kind Captain Deven Naik.
Faced with the danger of a tournament to the death—and her growing affection for Deven—Kalinda has only one hope for escape, and it lies in an arcane, forbidden power buried within her.
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This is a page-turning, highly recommended read! I just finished book 2, The Fire Queen, which had me on the edge of my seat – gotta know what happens next. Love the unique landscape and characters. Nice to see a series with a unique cultural feel outside of the usual American or European story setting.
I’m shocked to see some of these ratings. If I read this in high school, I know I would’ve been going to class with only a few hours of sleep. The younger version of me that loved Hunger Games and Twilight would have LOVED this book.
This story has everything I enjoy. A strong heroine. Unbreakable sisterhood. Magical encounters. I couldn’t put this down!
Yes, there is an insta-love chemistry, but I didn’t find anything wrong with it. It’s well written and extremely creative.
Hopefully the next books in the series keep up with this incredible momentum!
One of the most powerful and thought-provoking YA fantasies I’ve read in years, The Hundredth Queen is the first in a riveting series perfect for fans of Graceling and YA fantasy with meaningful friendships and strong female characters.
Not quite what I was expecting, but a great read!
This book introduced a full cast of unique characters.
Great characters that I was drawn to, interesting story. Didn’t realize it was the beginning of a series.
I liked the unlikely heroes who helped the 100th Queen. The mystery of the importence of the 100th queen kept me guessing.
This is a great piece of world building with some Hunger Games gone Bachelorette with some fairly interesting real world parallels that would make George Orwell proud. A unique and vibrant fantasy world perfect for anyone who loves a series!
A great introduction to the series. Will definitely continue reading.
Actual Rating: 3.80
What a solid start to a series. I was grabbed right away by this story and it never dissipated not once while I was reading. It was very entertaining and sit on the edge of your seat suspense. I was so scared for Kalinda throughout this book as she must fight to be the next courtesans wife. Her life was in constant danger as she was clearly the favorite of the courtesan putting a target on her back. At the same time she is falling for Captain Deven Naik. This is a game Kalinda does not want to play as she finds out so many things about herself she never knew and being a pawn in a scheme to kill the courtesan.
The Hundredth Queen was very entertaining with some nice action and fight scenes between the woman. I liked the writing a lot and the romance was sweet. I can’t wait to read the rest of the books in this series.
I have been wanting to read this book for a while now, since it first came across my radar a couple years ago (the cover is stunning), and I’m so glad I finally bought a copy. It hooked me from the first page, and I couldn’t put it down until the last. That’s not to say the book is without flaws. I would’ve loved to have had more depth to a few key secondary characters and some of the relationships between them were a bit rushed or forced, but that is a minor complaint. Overall, the book is inventive and highly engaging. I just ordered the other three books in the series and can’t wait to read them.
This started off feeling like a combination of The Selection meets Hunger Games, especially at the beginning when she’s chosen for the highest spot in the land as the ruler’s wife. But she’ll have to fight his courtesans to keep it, even though she doesn’t want it, in order to save the friend she left behind.
But that’s where the similarities end. Kalinda has a dangerous power that has been kept hidden from her and for good reason – she’d be executed if she’s discovered with it. At this point, the story shifts into more of a coming of age tale where she has to come to terms with this secret and make a choice to learn about it and use it or die. She’s also not a great fighter and has to use her wits in order to survive the challenges. I really liked the unexpected turns this took.
The enemies are pretty intelligent as well. Nothing stands out as being dumb simply to advance the plot. Both sides scheme fairly well. Though I would say it was fairly predictable when the good side was going to lose, but you didn’t know exactly how they were going to get out of the scrape. I do feel like the ‘bad guys’ could have used a bit more three dimensional fleshing out. There were a couple of moments, but the rest of the time they lacked any redeeming qualities. Fortunately, the story was good enough that this was only a minor nit.
The only other nit I had was the lack of any negative feelings by the lead male character when he finds out about Kal’s power. He basically shrugged it off when I was hoping he’d have to undergo some development. It seems like the main character was the only one who got any quality development and that was mainly her learning about her powers and coming up with clever ways to succeed.
So overall, I really enjoyed the story. The book sample did a good job of getting me to read it and once I started, I didn’t really stop until it was done.
The Hundredth Queen is an action driven story of an orphaned child & a tyrant king. There is plenty of action for most action junkies and just enough romantic heat to keep many romantics reading. The author does a nice job with painting just the right amount of scenery without getting lost in the details. The story is a bit unpolished in that some things just suddenly happen as if there was a ast forward button used. The story also is more of an older teen/YA book.
Sometimes slow, overall worth it if you like mythology.
This was the first in a series and I loved it and each of the others. I highly recommend it to everyone.
Fascinating, gritty fantasy world with distinct characters.
It was an okay book and an easy read. The romance seemed forced upon the characters (love at first sight type thing) and there was little character development that I could tell. Everything seemed to tie itself into a nice bow whenever conflict was presented. The main character was a terrible fighter and a weak person, then suddenly she can beat the people put before her. Plus, she doesn’t make many choices to effect the outcome. A lot is done by outside forces. The premise was interesting and parts of the storyline intrigued me, but not enough to interest me in the 2nd book.
A fun fantasy, if your looking for realism, this ones not for you, but if you want a fun, take me away book, this is a fun read.
Loved it!! Excellent writing & wonderful imagery!! Can’t wait to read the whole series!!
Great stakes in this novel, and I love Kali’s hidden burning bhuta talent. The story reminded me of a fascinating cross between Gladiator, The Hunger Games, and The Girl of Fire and Thorns. I kept reading along to find out what would happen. It was a bit too bloody-violent in places (and creepy “ew” with Rajah Tarek) for me—and I kept shaking my head at how foolish Kali and Deven were being (really? making out in PUBLIC when you could lose your life for doing so?)—but the story was still fascinating and compelling. I did figure out a big plot twist ahead of time. There are well-placed clues to hint at it. Near the end I saw I was running out of pages and was SO afraid things were going to be left hanging to be continued in a sequel book. I was relieved to find it did include the final tournament and a satisfying conclusion (with enough open threads left for a sequel).