A New York Times bestselling dark epic fantasy inspired by the tale of Snow White, from C. J. Redwine, the author of the Defiance series. This breathtakingly romantic, action-packed fantasy is perfect for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses and Cinder. Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life … both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.
In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic of his own—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman—and bring her Lorelai’s heart.
But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.
more
This is an exciting retelling of the Snow White story. Loreli is a princess who has to fight her way back to the kingdom that’s been taken from her by her evil aunt. With a warriors heart, she faces many trials on the way to the final showdown. Great read!
OMG. This was so, so good. Beautiful prose, a kick ass shero, and one of the more interesting twists on Snow White I’ve read. I LOVED IT–even the parts where she made me ugly cry.
So this was predictable and repetitive. A lot of the same phrasing was used over and over again – we get it, Lorelai smells of evergreen, snow and sweet burning wood. It seemed to be going so well, with Lorelai being a strong MC, supported by her lifelong guard Gabril and brother Leo, as well as her gyrfalcon Sasha. BUT she meets King Kol, who’s from Eldr, who was a slacker before both his parents and eldest brother were killed in their ogre wars. So he’s come to Ravenspire to seek help from Irina (the usurper to Lorelai’s throne). They meet and everything goes out the window, as far as logic and sense. There were facts that went unexplained and some that weren’t acknowledged by Lorelai, like how she came by her immense powers as a half breed Morcant. Also what the hell happened to Trugg and Jyn? They were excommunicated from the book about halfway through by Irina and not heard from again til they reappeared at the perfect time to save Lorelai’s life. And the sister that meant so much to Kol wasn’t mentioned again. And what does Lorelai actually look like? Yeah yeah she’s got red lips, pale skin and dark hair, but is she tall? Is she muscular, does she have big feet, a long nose, wide ears??? And Kol has, what, adorable reddish brown hair and Gabril has white teeth and dark skin? THESE DESCRIPTIONS DON’T DO IT FOR ME.
This book took me several chapters to get into, but I think that’s more because I’ve been in a bit of a book funk than because of the writing.
I really enjoyed the characters, Redwine’s take on the retelling, and how not every plan worked for the main character. I’m not doing a great job at explains how well I enjoyed the book. I’m not good with words.
This whole series was FUN.
Each of the four books takes a fairy tale/story we all know and whips it into something totally new. You never reach a point where you think, “and blah blah blah happens yeah I know this story” because it’s not even the skeleton of the tales that she builds on; she plucks familiar bones from those tales, lines them up in a different order, and surrounds them with fresh meat that builds a new beast.
Every story has a struggle, a darkness, a romance, and a tie-in to the other places in this world she build for all the books to take place in.
I’d say that #4 is the darkest/goriest, but even that one I’d let a 7th/8th grader read. These books are solid for teens, but some middle schoolers would genuinely enjoy them.
This story really had a lot of potential but WE GET IT….magic burns her palms and Kol is hurt, blood, and death (among other repetitive phrases, these were just to most annoying to me). I do not think there was a paragraph in the first half of the book without the mention of magic palms or veins. The same for the second half of the book with Kol. I really, REALLY wanted to like this book but after the 50 millionth repetition of about four different phrases I was basically forcing my way through it with lots of eye rolls and gritting teeth.
This was such a great book from start to finish! While you can see little pieces of inspiration from the “classic” Snow White tale, it is a completely new, imaginative and dark story.
Queen Irina’s magic touches nearly everything and everyone in the kingdom of Ravenspire. In order to take it back, Lorelai must hone the magic inside of her. But with the queen’s magic running through nearly everything she must be careful of what she does so she doesn’t alert the queen to the fact that she’s still alive. Lorelai must survive life on the run, devastating heart break and a horde of angry dragons and villagers if she’s even going to have a chance at getting close enough to the Shadow Queen to take her on.
CJs writing is action-packed and fast-paced! And her characters really come to life.
George R.R. Martin wrote, “A reader lives a thousands lives before he dies…” That being the case, you really want to make The Shadow Queen by C. J. Redwine one of your thousand lives. This is a beautifully written, incredible adventure. It is a retelling of Snow White with it’s own unique signature. From dragon-shifters to a wicked queen to a princess seeking to save her kingdom, it is non-stop action. I especially like how magic is used in the story. This is not hocus-pocus magic rather it is magic with heart, magic that has it’s own energy, magic that is a character in its own right. When you are finished (and sadly I must report that it does end as all good things do), you will feel like you were part of this world, that you have lived, if only for a short time, another life.
I really wanted to like this book because it ticked off a lot of my boxes: fairytale retelling with a strong heroine, a complex magic system, and a wickedly evil villain with a plot for vengeance. Unfortunately I wasn’t super compelled by Lorelei’s character, and I just couldn’t get into the world building. Snow White meets dragon shifters is a great concept, though, so I definitely had fun reading the romance!
Very different, but excellent read.
So much fun. Serious, but such a different world.
A fantasy tale only roughly similar to Snow White, except maybe for the huntsman’s part and Lorelei’s appearance. With lots more magic. It was nice to see Lorelei had talents and skills beyond her magic, too. There were some good twists in the plot. I did feel a bit distant throughout, like I was watching the characters in a movie (it actually would make a good movie), and I think that’s partly cuz it’s 3rd person and I’m used to reading in first person. It was awfully bloody and grisly in some places. Bad, bad queen!
Near the beginning when Lorelei was doing a diversion and counting down from thirteen minutes…how did she know how many minutes had gone by? The characters live with magic, horses, stables, castles, etc—surely they don’t have watches (clocks maybe, but not watches out in the middle of rural fantasy land). I was SO afraid it would end on a cliffhanger and things wouldn’t be resolved, so thanks to the author for wrapping things up so nicely (though a bit syrupy romance-wise).
Great premise
Mediocre writing and execution