In this epic debut fantasy, inspired by Renaissance France, an outcast finds herself bound to a disgraced lord and entangled in his plot to overthrow the king. Perfect for fans of Grave Mercy and Red Queen!Brienna desires only two things: to master her passion and to be chosen by a patron. Growing up in Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her. While some are born with a … have prepared her. While some are born with a talent for one of the five passions—art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge—Brienna struggled to find hers until she chose knowledge. However, Brienna’s greatest fear comes true: she is left without a patron.
Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. Suspicious of his intent, she reluctantly accepts. But there is much more to his story, for there is a dangerous plot to overthrow the king of Maevana—the rival kingdom of Valenia—and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the throne.
With war brewing, Brienna must choose which side she will remain loyal to: passion or blood.
Plus don’t miss the thrilling sequel, The Queen’s Resistance!
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I am in awe. Excellent world-building and characters that you can’t help but love and cheer for. “The Queen’s Rising” has a mix of your favorite tropes, revolution, hidden princess, found family, while being a refreshing and new story. Rebecca writes with care and passion and by the end of the book, I was torn by desperately needing the second book while also just letting the story set and enjoy that taste of a fulling satisfying book. Highly, highly recommend!
The Queens Rising by Rebecca Ross is not the type of book I typically read. It is a YA fantasy and even though I read a ton of YA, I don’t often read fantasy. This book is beautifully written. Ms. Ross has a way of crafting lovely sentences and descriptions. Sometimes a bit too much description for me because I usually read more fast-paced books, but I didn’t get bored.
The main character is a girl named Brienna. In the first section of the book, she wants to master her passion and be chosen by a patron. Brienna’s mother died when she was young and she doesn’t know who her father is. Her grandfather sends her to a prestigious school in Valenia.
While some people are born with a talent for one of the five passions—art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge—Brienna struggled to find hers. At last she chose knowledge.
Several characters are introduced in this part of the book and each one is well-drawn, from the lady who runs the school to Brienna’s handsome young teacher, Cartier. However, her greatest fear comes true and she is left without a patron.
Months later, a disgraced lord offers her patronage. She is suspicious of his intent, but since her choices in life are limited she reluctantly accepts his offer. But there is much more to his story, for there is a dangerous plot to overthrow the king of Maevana—the rival kingdom of Valenia—and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the throne.
This is when the book picks up speed and excitement, so naturally the last half of the book is my favorite. The writing style is still flowing and languid but contains a lot of drama. I enjoyed the world Ms. Ross created, much like renaissance France but steeped in fantasy and magic.
The story contains romance, drama, intrigue and passion. There is a sequel but the book ends with a satisfying conclusion. I appreciated this because some YA books are ending on cliff-hangers lately. As a reader, I don’t like to feel compelled to read the next book.
I give this book five stars for beautiful writing and plot and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a slower paced read. The book doesn’t contain any sensual content or objectionable behavior, though there is a bit of violence.
I loved this book. It kept me on my toes every step of the way, and it kept me up at night reading and pondering. I recommend it to anyone and everyone, for it is truly a wonderful read.
The Queen’s Rising is a fantasy novel that has an old world European feel. Brienne has been at the Marigald estate since she was ten studying for her passion, an affinity for Art, Music, Knowledge, Wit and Dramatics. The trouble is, Brienne didn’t go into this school with an affinity for any of these, she dabbled a bit with each before settling on knowledge with only three years left to study. The opening to this novel felt a little bit like Kiera Cass’s Selection series, however at the end of their schooling, instead of getting picked to marry a prince, they find a patron. A job interview of sorts, where they sign a contract and move on with their life. At least that’s what’s supposed to happen.
Although this novel starts with a bunch of girls at school, it’s actually very political. Brienne may have trouble figuring out her passion, but when memories surface of a past relative that may have implications that could change a monarchy, she doesn’t hesitate to get involved. Brienne learns that her heritage may be the key to making change to a monarchy.
There was quite a lot to love in this novel. I loved the world building. It was easy to enmesh myself as a reader because it was not that dissimilar to our world politically. It was a fantasy novel, so no planes, trains and automobiles, instead there were carriages, castles and candles. I felt like I was reading a historical novel, but more in the vein of King Arthur’s realm. It was easy to like Brienne. She seemed very young and insecure in the beginning but as the story went on she overcame those insecurities and found an inner strength. I liked her Master (teacher) Cartier. They had a forbidden attraction that added some tension to help move the plot forward and added emotion to the story.
This was Rebecca Ross’s debut novel and boy did she deliver! Put The Queen’s Rising on your TBR folks, this one is a winner!
Great idea, actually story was really slow. I don’t think I will read the next one.
It was fairly clean, minus war and violence.
Phenomenal fantasy novel of family bonds, friendship, loyalty & love. Ross magically wove her words around the tips of my tongue as I discovered secrets, traveled back in history & danced with the royal devil.
I highly recommend this one, it’s got all the feels of love, loss, friendship, magic & suspense.
I can’t wait to read the sequel.
The Queen’s Rising was an absolute delight! It’s not often I go into a story on a whim but something called to me about this, I adore the cover and saw it popping up all over social media, So in I went. Whilst to start with it does feel like very familiar YA stomping ground (young girl with a mysterious past and parentage starts to discover there is more to her than meets the eye) it very quickly becomes so much more. Brienna, our protagonist, finds herself at Magnalia House not because of the skills one would normally need to succeed at such an establishment but because of a name, a name she is not to know. Battling to find her place within any of the available passions, she eventually ends up in Knowledge and on the start of her path. I actually found Brienna’s time at Magnalia my favourite within the book. I loved the relationships she had with the other girls, the support network they gave each other and it was refreshing to move away from cattiness that often features. Rebecca Ross managed to completely tangle me up in the story and by the time we reach the solstice I felt like I was there with Brienna and feeling every emotion she was experiencing during the highs and the lows – a rare feat.
The story however, did feel like it wasn’t paced as well as it could be. Whilst I enjoyed every second of her time at Magnalia, it did then feel like what came next was rushed. There was an urgency in how everything began to unfurl, I accept, but I think that a more balanced approach to each section would have been of benefit. I loved the notion of the Passions and how Brienna’s visions at first are inconsequential to the world around her, she has focus and it’s endearing that she still puts others first.
Her travels thrust her into a different world so violently and whilst I found it difficult to accept that she would form such trusting bonds so quickly, it worked within the context of the story and perhaps the fates have more to do with Brienna’s path than she does. There is action in this story as well as a slow burn romance. In regard to the action, this is very well done and fast paced. There are some gory moments, but the depth of the violence is happening whilst the reader is directed elsewhere, I was happy about this as the book indicates a starting reading age of 13. The romance is also mainly feelings based and I have to say I am not to sure of the age gap going on but I’m trying to gloss over that as I think there maybe a slight ick factor if I think about it too much…..
I really did enjoy this book so much though, I enjoyed the strength of the female characters and the rich history and world building. The slow release of information really helped build the crescendo created by the intricately woven plan. I have to say I was surprised to discover that this is going to be a trilogy, I was poised to write a review praising a long awaited standalone. Everything seemed to be wrapped up neatly by the end so I would be interested to see where the next story takes us.
4*
This novel reminded me of the Grave Mercy series which I liked a lot, so I enjoyed it. Was expecting it to be a series, but it seems to be a standalone.