This was such a lovely, evocative read. It started a little slowly but that’s not the books fault. The world building and character building are exceptional and need the time to be developed. The writing is so lyrical and well thought out. I was immensely impressed.
I loved the story (based loosely around Shakespeare’s King Lear, but it is so, so much more) and the characters. Each with their good and bad. The magic felt large. I fell in love with the wild earth and tree magic and even a little with the star magic.

It was a privilege to read this book and I have a feeling it will last with me for a long while.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC for which I am giving an honest review.

This was good, but it was so long and tiring. I listened to the audio, I'm not sure this was worth to spend 24h😕

It was interesting to read the stars, magic system, politics and power dynamics.
This story was written with multiple POVs and I liked reading Regan and The fox's stories, but I didn't care about other characters at all.
Gaela and Regan are against their father and don't trust Elia, they were mean and bully, but I quite like Regan's strength. Contrary, I couldn't quite grasp Elia, she was the weakest younger sister of them and she was kind and trusting. She was supposed to be a likeable character I guess, I didn't like her not seeing wrong in abusive behaviour and didn't have her own voice like older sisters. As the story progressed, instead her character shone, I felt she faded.

The story was really slow, too many descriptions and not many things were happening in this monstrous 500 pages book. I was hoping something dramatic would happen at the end. It was abruptly done and …it was ok, but I was expecting more and something different.

Overall, I enjoyed the setting, but had problems with the pace and length of the story. I wanted something more that would stand this book out.

Omg talk about a roller coaster read wow this book kept me on the edge of my seat threw out I just couldn't put it down this writer keeps you hooked and once your hooked your not letting go I found this book thrilling the characters were fantastic and well thought out and the little clues all the way threw keep you guessing until the end this book stays with you long after you close the book this book is well worth the read I promise you wont be disappointed

I was looking forward to reading this book, the premise immediately hooked me; however, I couldn't connect with the story or the characters at this time even though I enjoyed the writing.

The Queens of Innis Lear is a retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear, which I haven’t read, so I can’t even begin to compare this frankly wonderful book to the original.

I’m not even going to write a synopsis, however short, because this is a 500+ page book, and it would be impossible. What I WILL say, is that this book really did deliver on the strong female character front. That alone would make this a book I’d want to read. The descriptions of the anthropomorphised island (that’s my big word for the day), the magic, the trees, was entrancing. Where is this place? I need to go there! It’s OK, I know it’s fictitious, but, y’know…

There are so many twists and turns, double crosses, misunderstandings - there’s never a dull moment on this island. Handsome men and Kings who are passed over because the women, the potential Queens, know that to have their own autonomy they must remain single.

Ok, this book could have been shorter, but I really believe that this would have affected the world building - and what a world Innis Lear and the countries near and far from it’s borders are!

If you like fantasy with Kings, Queens, magic and strife, then this may well be the book for you. I adored it.

I liked the characters in this book and the plot line was interesting. However I found myself wanting to put it down at times because of how slow it was. A good read, but not great

The biggest problem for me was there just appeared to be so many pages with nothing happening.

The characters were marvelous but I really did struggle to finish this.

Shakespeare's works should be left alone as really nothing compares to the Master.

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

I was really interested in the synopsis of this book, but I struggled to read it and found it quite boring in places.

I did not finish this book but I could see why others would find it enjoyable. This is a Shakespeare retelling that just didn't hook me in.

Twice I have started reading this book now, and still haven't finished.
Not because it's boring, or a drag, but the opposite - the writing is so rich, it pulses in each paragraph and I want to savour every vivid, emotive description.
I had to stop reading the book because I didn't have the time I would have liked to give this book. I can tell the story and characters would hook me in and I could sail through the book, but I don't want to do that. I want to give this book time, and consideration, so I can pause and mull over the scenes that are painted so clearly with every word (whoever would have thought that a spontaneous abortion could read so beautifully??).
I will re-visit this book when I can give it the appropriate time and attention.

Although this isn’t a book I would usually pick straight up from the shelf, I was very surprised how much I enjoyed reading it, had me hooked

A kingdom at risk, a crown divided, a family drenched in blood.


What else do you need to read to be intrigued? This is a retelling of King Lear and it is beautiful! The only downside of this for me was that I couldn't read a lot of this at once because of the language however I also think that that is possibly sort of my fault because this book is so clever and this book just really makes you think. It is so emotional and just such a good quality retelling of Shakespeare.

I was really interested in this book until i realised it was a King Lear retelling. But i thought I should give it a chance. Unfortunately, I feel like it stuck too much to the King Lear storyline. I really enjoyed the magic and how the island had become cut off, but I wish we had more of that.

The Queens of Innis Lear is a very nicely written evocative tale of Shakespeare's King Lear! It was totally different to what I expected and although I could see the similarities, this unique spin was engaging and captivating. And I am going to throw this out there, but (don't lynch me) I enjoyed this version far more...

Tessa Gratton has an amazing power of retelling a tried and tested story and making it her own. I'm shocked that this was her debut book! It was a long read, one of the thickest books I own, but made an impact! Especially when it came to such a complex world and love reared it's ugly head...along with the court politics and family melodrama that added to the magic and intrigue. When it comes to heroes and villains, who truly is the evil one?

I received an e-ARC from the publisher, HarperVoyager, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

a complex tale of family strife that rewards the determined. I found it slow going to start with but was drawn into the magic and politics of the story.

The Queens if inns Lear was a real surprise, I was expecting a classic fantasy novel along the lines of an Oddyssey. Instead, this as a minor feminist vision of Games of Thrones, more historical fiction in a fantastic land than fantasy.
Three very different sisters, with very different motivations, characters and outside influences, manipulating and being manipulated towards taking the throne of the senile king, their father.
Well written, well plotted and the princesses' characters well developed and played against each other. Even the men, are well developed and interesting.

This is a beautifully written fantasy featuring three sisters. Full of wonderful ancient, elemental magic and with a fair old dollop of blood too, this is a wonderful read to escape in to for a few hours.

I really liked this retelling of King Lear in a fantasy setting. The three sisters were well developed and each of their stories were told well. There were a couple of chapters that could have been much shorter and did not feel as good as the rest of the book. I'd really like this to extend to a longer series as the whole world was adapted really well.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I somehow wound up with three Netgalley e-arcs – one was a sample I got by mistake. One approval from the US site which I never expected to be approved for and one from the UK site (I have both UK and US residences so I use both sites).

Reading this book reminded me of the Charlie Brown episode “Happy New Year, Charlie Brown”. In the episode Charlie Brown’s class are assigned to read “War and Peace” over the Christmas holidays. A daunting task as it’s such a big book and throughout the episode poor Charlie Brown is trying his best but only ever seems to be on page 5 of the book. At the end of the episode his best friend Linus asks did he like the book? Charlie Brown replies he finished the book at 3a.m. and doesn’t remember a thing about it.

Which pretty much summons up my experience reading the Queens of Innis Lear. No matter how much I read, I barely seemed to make a dent in (it felt like I hadn’t got past page 5!) which I actually did. That being said – I absolutely completely fell in love with this book. I loved it so much I bought a finished US hardcover, a finished UK paperback and an audio version. It did take me well over a year to actually finish it.

The book is a fantasy themed retelling of King Lear – the mad king and the ungrateful daughters and a kingdom poised on the brink of war. King Lear is not a play I’m that familiar with and did have to read the Spark Notes a few times to familiarize myself with the original story. The novel is full to bursting, it’s richly written with the most excellent word building. It’s so lush in its details. It has the most wonderful history and magic woven into the story. There are a hell of a lot of characters to get to grips with, lots of different points of view. Emotional and romantic and violent and a myriad of other emotions.

I remember very little of the plot the characters, just that I loved it to pieces.