I'm afraid this book just really wasn't for me. It's possibly just that I'm not familiar with the play it's based on and therefore missed a lot of the references and connections but I couldn't get into it and ended up giving up around the 20% mark. I think it was maybe a little too heavy on descriptions for me and I didn't feel the connection to the characters that would have made sticking with it worthwhile.

I requested this book because I knew I was going to Ireland on holiday and the title suggested that it might be set there. I have always lived fairy tale inspired books so this seemed to be just my "thing"

However the repeated refrains in the first chapter or so although characteristic of the fairy tale genre I found irritating. I stuck with it a while longer as I guessed that it was a retelling of King Lear which I had always loved too.

However I could persevere no further as it felt too much effort to continue. I am sorry as I can only guess at the amount of time the author spent pouring their soul into writing this book. However as a Bookseller with limited time and many books competing for this I felt I could no longer invest this time in a book which I wasn't enjoying

Enjoyed this novel, although the writing style on this occasion was awfully difficult to make me want to pick up the book; felt really dense like a classic. It was intriguing and a good retelling, however I did struggle to read it so lost some stars with that.

I received an advanced reading copy on Netgalley in exchange for a free review.
So I am your classic English nerd who has spent years studying Shakespeare and loving most of his works. So when I heard there was going to be a fantasy reimagining of one of my favourite of his tragedies I was beyond excited. I have to say that Tessa Gratton did not disappoint.
The Queens of Innis Lear is a truly beautiful reworking of King Lear and does Shakespeare’s ionic play justice. Her prose is just as lush, the characters beautifully complex and the narrative woven just as masterfully. What I love and enjoyed most about this adaptation, is how Gratton takes control of the source material, of its characters and shapes them into something wholly new and unique. She fleshes out already complex characters and it’s a joy to read scenes that play of the clashes and interactions of its fiercely strong characters. This is a story that is driven by its characters and you can’t help but love all of them, even the supposedly villainous ones. Gratton is able to make you connect and sympathise with characters that would have been easy to simply call evil and leave it at that. Gratton doesn’t even have to stray too far from the original qualities of characters like Regan, Gaela and Ban but rather gives them more depth and reframes their motivations. I didn’t want to part with these characters and throughout the book, I kept hoping that everyone could get what they want while knowing it could never end that way.
The magic of this world was wonderfully crafted and I loved how the battling forces of root magic and start prophecy reflected the central conflict of the story. It felt organic, magic woven by the roots of this world and guided by the stars. It showed how ultimately the struggle for power in this world came down to how characters balanced these two powerful forces of Innis Lear, how the Island itself shaped its ruler’s strength, for better or worse.
So if you enjoy fantasy books filled with political intrigue, complex characters and a rich world to embrace then you need to read The Queens of Innis Lear.

Anyone tackling an adaption of Shakespeare deserves the kudos. In ‘The Queen of Innis Lear’ Tessa Grafton adapts the classic King Lear with fantasy aplomb. If you’re a ‘Game of Thrones’ fan then this book will appeal. The three sisters are heroines for a new generation, they know what they want and how to get it. The book has staggering depth of characterization and is often blood soaked and visceral in its delivery. The landscapes, the environments that these characters inhabit are incredibly detailed you can almost touch and taste them. This is a standalone, must read for 2019.

Wow. The Queens of Innis Lear is a beautiful, haunting, and evocative retelling of the Shakespearean play, King Lear — but to limit it as simply this would be to do it, and the author, a grave disservice. This is a tale that uses King Lear as its basis but then goes on to be completely unconstrained in its world building, characterisation, and narrative voice.

The world is richly imagined and deeply detailed, and the magic systems have been given much care and attention. I found myself completely immersed by the sense of place, and I really connected with the magic of the trees and land. The characters are a varied mix but all are well-drawn and, while I favoured some over others, each was interesting and compelling. The author has a beautiful and lyrical way of writing which I appreciated and it all made my wordsmith-heart incredibly happy.

While the size of this book may be off-putting to some, I really enjoyed diving deep into this world of these three sisters grappling with destiny, loyalty, ambition, trust, love, and rivalry. It is an epic read which will delight fantasy readers everywhere, and which will give an added dimension to Shakespearean fans.

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

I found this one to be well written however felt like there were parts that felt a little bit drawn out and sometimes I found myself drifting from the story a bit. I liked the basic premise immensely however and did like the style of the author.

Unfortunately, this didn't quite meet expectations. In fact, I spent my time reading and just couldn't get into the story until I eventually had to place it to one side. I still firmly believe it was an original and excellent idea, but sadly it isn't a book which caught my attention. I tried hard but I am sure many others will fall in love with it all.

This is like Game of Thrones but with more magic and less incest. This should be everything I want in a book - fantasy, a good chunk of betrayal which is all encompassed in a magical world, but (and it's a pretty big but) I could not get into it for love nor money.

Your destinations are mapped in the stars and they'll guide your life whether you like it or not. Got a rubbish collection of stars on the day you were born? You are in for a rough time. Got the best bunch around? Your life is going to be excellent. Lear was a firm believer in these star prophecies as he was once told his wife you pass away when their eldest daughter turned 16. And she did. If you don't think that'll put some pressure on a relationship, well... uh, you're most likely wrong.

The Queens of Innis Lear follows his three daughters and their quest for the throne; power dominated Gaela, the-one-who's-really-into-forrests-and-pretty-cunning Raegan and daddy's favourite little correct star girl, Elia.

When it comes to making a choice, Innis Lear makes a choice which sets his family against each other leaving chaos in their wake.

A beautifully told retelling of King Lear set in a fantasy world. I haven't read/seen King Lear but did give in and read the wiki page halfway through.

In this story, the King of Innis Lear is old and half mad and must choose his heir from his eldest, fighter Gaela, manipulative Reagan and meek Elia. He is beyond reason, however and when he demands each woman tells him how much they love him, in order than he can choose, the daughter who loves him most - Elia - refuses to comply - and the story begins in earnest.

There are countless agendas at play, and many point-of-view characters but they all claim their own voices pretty quickly so that you know exactly who you're with at any given time. I enjoyed the world-building and found it convincing.

As mentioned earlier the writing is great, often stunning, but the book is also very very very very very long, hence my score. As much as I was enjoying it, I often found myself thinking 'do we really need this flashback', 'do we need to spend this long in this beautiful wood with the captivating writing', 'do we really need much of the middle?' 'what else could I've read in this time?' And of course those questions are probably very unfair to the author, but nevertheless I did end up skimreading somewhat just to get through it. It proves the author's skill that I didn't lose my place by doing so.

As for the end... no spoilers but it is a retelling of King Lear. Not exactly the same, no, but it's not exactly a story of joy and happiness. I'm glad I read it, but if it was one of three the same length I'm not sure I'd go back for more.

I think this book was very interesting and quite unique, I would actually give it 3.5 stars rather than just 3 but for me it wasn’t quite a 4. It is based quite strongly on King Lear which is a Shakespeare play but it focuses more on the female characters and the journey to becoming queen.
The thing I loved most about this book was the many different points of view, I love getting the story from different peoples perceptions as it helps everything link together and you really get the whole story this way. Another thing I really loved about this book was the use of flashbacks, this way we got glimpses at important events that had a huge impact on the present. Now as this is based off of a Shakespeare play you know from the start that it won’t be a happy story and that the characters will make awful decisions and ruin their lives. And they do exactly that.
Overall this was a story of lots of politics and power grabbing. Which of course does not end well for the characters. Power isn’t everything and human emotions can be unpredictable and people can’t always be used for your own gain. It also shows how much society can change and turn people into uglier versions of themselves, Ban and Gaela are good examples of this. I feel like I could write a lot more about each character and their flaws but then this review would be more like an English essay! There is a lot to this book and it is rather large. It is based off Shakespeare and he was rather good at writing tragedies with some amazing characters and Tessa Gratton has done a rather good job of taking his work and making it her own!

Received a free copy from NetGalley

This book was not my cup of tea, the plot sounded promising enough and caught my attention but i felt the book didn't deliver

This is a DNF for now, but one I'll definitely come back to. I'm just not in the mood of Tolkienesque fantasy and this is definitely Tolkienesque. It's very wordy.

I just couldn't finish The Queens of Innis Lear, despite several sustained attempts.

It was really frustrating, because there was a lot I really enjoyed about the book.

The magic system is excellent. The contrast between the magic of the wells and the roots and the magic of the stars was wonderful, and it made such a great change to the often seen elemental magic. I loved how it was woven into the story too, with the king turning against the magic of the earth and the land hurting because of it.

I also really liked the character of Ban, who was interesting, and powerful and clever but in a very unconventional way. Elia made an interesting counterpoint to him too, brought up on star prophecy. The other sisters were interestingly drawn, with strong motivations and complex needs.

But it's a very long book and it was very, very slow going. There was very little happening for long periods of time, and with all of the characters seemingly stubbornly set on paths to their own destruction it was very hard to decide who I should be rooting for, as I gradually lost sympathy for most of the sympathetic characters.

There was a lot to like about this book, but in the end I just lost the will to keep reading it.

I loved the language used and the descriptions - you were easily taken away to Innis Lear, the people and the magic. As a re-telling of King Lear, it was very effective, with enough changes to make it interesting. However, I found the book overly long and there were too many flashbacks, which really detracted from the story. I also felt that too many characters' perspectives were used. It's a useful tool to bring new angles to the story, but it made it harder to keep the flow of the story, especially combined with the flashbacks.

The world needs more books like Tessa Gratton's The Queens of Innis Lear (review copy from Harper Voyager). It's a retelling of Shakespeare's classic play, King Lear, but updated with a very 21st Century take on the story.

All the elements you would expect are here - the mad king (in this case, suffering from dementia as he grows older), three very different daughters competing to inherit the crown, treachery and true love. You know the basic plot, right down to the test of which daughter loves the old king best. But Tessa Gratton takes it in some very interesting directions.

The thing I loved most about this book was its treatment of the three daughters. They are mixed-race. It is heavily implied that one of them is actually a transgender man (Gaela styles herself 'King', dresses in a masculine fashion and suffers extreme gender dysphoria). The book is sex-positive. But crucially, the book places a strong emphasis on the agency of the daughters. Elia (the youngest daughter) goes on a journey that is about becoming an independent woman of power in her own right. She rejects the easy and safe options when they are presented to her. Exiled from Innis Lear, she is offered marriage by the King of Aremoria, but turns him down because of the power imbalance between them and because she knows it would be used as an excuse to invade her homeland.

There is also a strong theme about the relationship between parents and children. Whether it is the central relationship between Lear and his three daughters, or Ban the Fox's feeling of rejection by his father for being illegitimate and the way he has found acceptance and a place overseas by his own deeds rather than his heredity. The novel shows how easy it is for family relationships to be soured, and how the professions of love and affection can sometimes be only so much lip service.

And the novel also places great weight on the need for balance in all things. Only in Elia does that come together, and only when she learns to balance the astronomy of her father with the Earth-magic of Innis Lear. And Innis Lear will not thrive without both being in balance in their ruler - under Lear himself the land has been slowly fading. Gaela rejects all forms of magic and prophecy, focusing only on the power that military prowess gives her. Regan focuses on Earth-magic, but hers is a selfish focus, and she is in too co-dependent a relationship with her husband to survive.

All of this is wrapped up in lush prose from Gratton that provides a strong sense of place, whether it is the wind-swept cliffs or deep forest of Innis Lear.

Goodreads rating: 4*

DNF @19%

The island of Innis Lear is ruled by a king who is obsessed with the prophecies of the stars.
Lear summons his three daughters, intending to name his heir.
The eldest, Gaela, has no love for her father and is hungry for war. Reagan supports Gaela who intends to name Reagan's future children as her own heirs. They both dislike their youngest sister, Elia, who Lear loves best. Elia has no intention of becoming Queen, content to watch the stars instead.
Who will Lear name as his heir?

I was so looking forward to reading this - the cover is gorgeous and the blurb intrigued me.
However, I struggled to get into The Queens of Innis Lear from the start. The main problem for me was that there was a lot of description and not much action. I can read slow books with lots of description, but the writing style just didn't hold my attention. It got to the point where I was skim-reading and I couldn't read any more.
I might revisit this at some point in the future.
I'm disappointed that I didn't like this more.

DNF @ 34%

I have been excited to read The Queens of Innis Lear since that one day in a bookstore when I found a beautiful - but expensive - hardcover copy of it. The story sounded amazing, the cover is gorgeous, and it's high fantasy - perfect. You can imagine then that I was beyond excited when I received an arc copy of Queens of Innis Lear.

Yet here I am. DNF:ing it.
By the 200 page-mark I had struggled with this book for what seemed like a long time. Tessa Gratton's writing is beautiful in small doses. As a nearly 600 page book, however, the writing style was way too heavy and flowery. I found that I couldn't stand to read this book for more than 15minutes at once or I would start nodding off. This is very out of character for me as I very rarely fall asleep when reading a book.

My biggest problem with it was the lack of plot and the excessive repetition of things. Basically nothing had happened yet and I was constantly given irrelevant and uninteresting flashbacks. In fact, as soon as the events started to get even a tiny bit interesting, the author decided to transport us back 11 years in the middle of an uninteresting scene instead. Such fun.

I might have enjoyed this more if I had read King Lear. I know the main pointers of its synopsis but I'm not well versed in Shakespeare overall. Nevertheless, I think a retelling has to be able to stand on its own, separate from the original story.

After reading 25% of the book I have decided not to continue on for the time being. I'm finding the plot really slow and overly drawn out. I just don't think now is the right time for me to read this. I may return to it in the future because I do feel like it will be a book that I will enjoy at some point, I just need to be in the right head space for it. It is a very complex well written tale, and so far what I have read has been great, just not enjoyable enough for me to continue at this current time.

A beautifully written retelling of King Lear which I enjoyed very much.

The characters are vividly drawn and, while some might be put off by the slow pace I thought it was an ideal opportunity to savour each page.

I will definitely keep an eye out for more by this writer.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.