This was such a great read that opened up more of the fairy realm created in Sorcerer to the Crown. Focusing on sisters Muna and Sakti and their search for information about the curse that has taken their memories and Muna's magic, Cho has crafted a really tightly woven narrative that drills down into one aspect of the world and explores it in detail. I thought the pacing here was fantastic and I appreciated that paring down of the narrative to one central plot point here. Zacharias becomes very much a peripheral character here and to some extent, so does Prunella, which I thought was a really brave and ultimately very interesting choice, giving other characters their chance to shine in a narrative focused solely on their plight. Overall, I thought this was a great book and I look forward to see what Cho comes up with next.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The True Queen es la secuela de la novela Sorcerer to the Crown, que tuvo muy buena acogida en su momento. El estilo de la segunda entrega es bastante continuista, por lo que sería bastante fácil afirmar que si te gustó el primero te pasará lo mismo con el segundo.

No obstante, Zen Cho también introduce algunas variaciones. En vez de seguir con el camino seguro utilizando como protagonistas a los mismos Zacharias y Prunella desplaza el foco a otro personaje exótico, aprovechando para hablar un poco sobre el colonialismo del Imperio Británico. Quizá lo que más me ha llamado la atención ha sido la descripción de una magia atípica en contraposición con la occidental, probablemente más conocida para alguien versado en la lectura de fantasía basada en la Regencia o en la época Victoriana.
También resulta interesante su reivindicación del papel femenino en la magia y por ende, en la sociedad. A través de la Escuela para Magas (traducción libre) se hace una crítica nada velada a la posición de la mujer como garante de la estabilidad del hogar y poco más. El libro está repleto de personajes femeninos mientras que la aparición de personajes masculinos es prácticamente testimonial.
Sin embargo, la historia tiene poca profundidad. Desde el principio se ve muy claro cuál es el “misterio” que “envuelve” a las hermanas Muna y Sakti, a pesar de que se pasen el libro intentando desvelarlo. El libro puede interesar más por el tránsito que se lleva a cabo que por desvelar la incógnita sobre la que gira la trama, pero no por ello deja de ser bastante previsible.
La comparación con Jonathan Strange y el señor Norrell que resultó inevitable con la publicación de Sorcerer to the Crown aquí se puede desdeñar, ya que Cho ha creado un mundo similar en algunos aspectos al de Susanna Clarke, pero ha conseguido reforzar las diferencias para seguir un trazado distinto.
En resumen, The True Queen es un pasatiempo agradable y poco profundo que convencerá a quienes les gustara la primera entrega.

This book is not exactly a strict sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown, though the events do take place in succession. However, I don't think you have to have read the first book to read this one, it does a pretty good job of explaining all the things you need to know. So, if you were wondering about reading these books but you would rather read more female characters or if the summary of this book sounds more your thing I would say you could start here without too much of a problem. As someone who often ends up reading books out of order, I like when this happens. 

So yes, more female characters! I loved Muna and Henrietta's perspectives (alongside my love for Prunella from the previous book). Obviously, I loved the first book but I definitely felt like this book pushed even further than the first one did. There is a much less Britain-centric feel, with more of the story taking place either in Fairyland or in Asia - giving a much wider sense of the Regency era magical world that Zen Cho has so artfully created. So, for those who really liked the magical/fae aspects of the first book, this book will absolutely satisfy. 

My one problem with this book is that I found it hard, at times, to keep track of exactly what was going on. This is almost always my problem with anything Regency or involving court politics of any kind. I can never remember who is who and who wants what. With the addition of magic, I got even more lost. Some more clarity in some of the more complex sections would have absolutely made this a five star read for me - and people who are better with dealing with books like this would undoubtedly have a great time. 

I loved the plot, once I got my head around it, and I thought that it was very well thought out. I thought that the pacing was great, with the reveals and plot drops happening just at the right time to keep me hooked throughout. Some aspects of the story were pretty predictable, others took me by surprise - it was a pleasant mix - not something I'm used to. 

I have a lot of thoughts about books with fairies in them and they are 99.9% negative. I find that, personally, I don't find the fae very compelling characters and the amount of lore and backlog that comes with them is more of a hindrance than a help to a plot. In this case, I think that Zen Cho does enough to make the idea of Fairyland her own that it doesn't encounter any of those problems, instead feeling incredibly fresh and vibrant. 

I would absolutely recommend this book, and Sorcerer to the Crown for pretty much any fantasy lover, but particularly if you find yourself headed towards a slump - this might be just the thing to kick you back into gear. 

My rating: 4/5 stars

I received a free digital advanced review copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

On the enchanted island of Janda Baik in the Malay Archipelago, sisters Muna and Sakti awake to find their memories have been stolen by a curse. They hope to take refuge in Britain, at the academy for female magicians run by the Sorceress Royal. To get there, they must travel through the perilous realm of the Fairy Queen. Sakti disappears on their short journey and Muna arrives at the academy alone. Wanting only to find and save her sister, Muna accidentally becomes embroiled in a plot involving the Fairy Queen’s contentious succession, along with the Sorceress Royal and her friends.

The True Queen can be read as a standalone and is set in the magical version of Regency London developed in Zen Cho’s first novel, Sorcerer to the Crown. Having thoroughly enjoyed the first novel, I loved this follow up even more. It was lovely to see the return of characters from the previous books, this time playing smaller parts alongside the interesting and enchanting new characters.

The worlds of the story, London and Fairy, are richly brought to life, with their own quirks and incomprehensible rules and traditions. The clashing of fairy and human characters and worlds often leads to humorous, but potentially deadly, situations. I really enjoyed this portrayal of Fairy and hope to read much more of it. While the alternative version of London is full of magical practitioners, discrimination of female magicians is rife. The main characters of the story have to contend with this prejudice in addition to their other battles. The regency setting also effectively highlights issues of colonialism and racial prejudice, issues often ignored by period novels.

The heart of the story is the characters and the complex and wonderful relationships between them and I am glad to have shared their journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review this title.

In the Malaysian village of Janda Baik, two girls awake with no memories of who they were, just their names; Muna and Sakti. Sakti possesses magic but Muna does, yet the witch Mak Genggang takes them both in. When they become desperate to learn the truth, the girls go against their mentor's wishes and are sent off to England to make amends at the Sorceress Royale's academy for female magicians.

It's been a long wait since we last saw Prunella and Zacharias I loved the different direction The Last Queen took, whilst still revisiting beloved characters from the first book. I instantly warmed to Muna, her love for her sister and her willingness to march into danger to save her.

The English magiciennes are still battling with the prejudice of the patriarchy. Among the upper class, ladies doing magic is pure scandal. Harriet plays a bigger part in this story, resigned to marriage in order to help her family, she can go on one last adventure. When the Queen of Fairy accuses England of stealing a powerful artefact, someone needs to venture into the Fairy Court to sort things out.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable sequel and Zen Cho's storytelling has only got better. I did work it all out well before the characters but it was still a delight. I hope there won't be too long until the next one!

I am saddened to report that I struggled with this book, finding myself unable to get attached to the characters or deeply involved in the story, and had to resign myself to abandon it at the halfway mark.

The story itself has a great deal of potential, especially since it blends a “traditional” form of magic with a more exotic one represented by young Muna, whose point of view as a stranger in a strange land held all the promise to be interesting, but what ultimately did not meet my tastes was the lingering impression that I’m not the book’s intended audience.

There is what I perceived as a definite Young Adult flavor in the character portrayal and in the dialogues, so that I could not find the kind of depth that I look for in a story, which kept me at a distance from both the narrative and the characters.

The True Queen is a good book, I want to make that clear, but it’s not - sadly - the book for me.

My thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity i was given, even though it did not work out as I hoped.

The True Queen by Zen Cho is set after the events of Sorcerer to the Crown, but is not a direct sequel since it follows a different group of characters. I enjoyed Sorcerer to the Crown and generally recommend starting there to get a delightful introduction to the world, but if you can't get your hands on it, I don't see a problem with starting with The True Queen (especially if you don't mind being spoiled for the end state of Sorcerer to the Crown).

Fairyland’s future lies in doubt

The enchanted island of Janda Baik, in the Malay Archipelago, has long been home to witches. And Muna and her sister Sakti wake on its shores under a curse, which has quite stolen away their memories. Their only hope of salvation lies in distant Britain, where the Sorceress Royal runs a controversial academy for female magicians. But the pair travel via the formidable Fairy Queen’s realm, where Sakti simply disappears.

To save her sister, Muna must learn to navigate Regency London’s high society and trick the English into believing she’s a magical prodigy. But when the Sorceress Royal’s friends become accidentally embroiled in a plot – involving the Fairy Queen’s contentious succession – Muna is drawn right in. She must also find Sakti, break their curse and somehow stay out of trouble. But if fairyland’s true queen does finally return, trouble may find her first . . .

This was an excellent read. I had put off starting it for a little while because I wanted to finish other books I was part way through first. But (eventually) putting them aside and starting The True Queen was an excellent decision. I remember enjoying Sorcerer to the Crown very much when I read it, but that was a few years ago and in audiobook form, so my memory of it was hazier than I would have liked. I need not have worried, though since The True Queen follows a new character and gives us a good grounding in the world — and the Malaysian side of the world, at that — before introducing us to most of the recurring characters.

Muna starts off the book with no memory of who she is or why she washed up on a beach. She and her sister are taken in by a powerful local witch and, when little progress is made in curing them of the mysterious curse, they are sent to England to find out more. That's where things go wrong and also where the main connection to the earlier book lies.

I really enjoyed The True Queen. It made me laugh with its incidental humour and told an intriguing story which was captivating even though we, the reader, were given more than enough information to make connections that the protagonist overlooked for perfectly understandable reasons. And through the second most prominent character, Henrietta, we got a closer look at English society, the ways in which Prunella — the first Sorceress Royal — had changed society and the ways in which she hadn't.

I highly recommend The True Queen to anyone who enjoys fantasy with a dollop of humour or regcency-ish settings or Malaysian settings, for that matter. I continue to adore Zen Cho's writing (have you read her short stories?) and I will avidly read anything else of hers that I come across.

5 / 5 stars

First published: March 2019, Macmillan
Series: Sorcerer Royal, book 2 of 2 (so far)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

The True Queen is the sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown, in which heroine Prunella, a humble young woman of who is mixed race, overcomes many hurdles to become the first ever Sorceress Royal, official magician to the Crown of the United Kingdom and head of the Academy of Unnatural Arts. That a woman, and a woman of native ancestry (as Cho has it) should rise to such a position in Regency London is a great scandal, and the opposition has not died down when this book opens, with intermittent attacks, insults and barbs aimed at Prunella and her supporters. That book was great fun, in a kind of Becky Sharp with magic kind of way and I was really pleased to see Cho return to this world again.

Unlike the first book, this is not Prunella's story and understandably, with the duties of the Sorceress Royal to manage, she stays very much in the background - the focus instead being on two sisters, Sakti and Muna, who have arrived from the island of Janda Baik in the Malacca Strait to seek help in having a curse lifted. The viewpoint is thus definitely not that of white Englishpeople and there is a certain inherent distrust of the English who are felt to have their greedy eyes on Janda Baik. It has been politic for Sakti and Muna to come to London to seek help, but there is actually a great deal more going on than they or anyone else realise (...perhaps with once exception...) and the book soon spirals into a complex imbroglio involving fairies, a stolen amulet (the 'Virtu'), a dragon aunt, a family with mountains of debt who wish to marry a daughter off to bring in some money - and much much more. I thought I detected traces of Wodehouse, but as I said, I can also see Thackary as well as Austen and the whole genre of Regency romances. It's a wonderful mixture, and often very funny - that lost 'Virtu' giving scope for a great deal of mild innuendo sparking off 18th century novels such as Pamela. ("Do you mean to tell me that the Duke gambled away the Queen's Virtu?") There's even a character here called Clarissa...

The book is great fun, though the seemingly light tone generally used actually makes it deceptive in places because Muna, the more sensible of the sisters, is trying to solve a very serious puzzle: the mystery of who she is and where she belongs, and to find Sakti, who has gone missing. As if that wasn't enough, there are other real issues addressed here: the place of young women in society, colonialism ('"another favour!" said the polling. "You are like the Dutch asking for land."'), mysogyny (to get away from her family and practice magic, one character deploys a simulacrum, an enchanted thing made from cloth and stuffing, to take her place - but her suitor does not actually realise it's not here), a glorious diversity of sexuality (if that term isn't anachronistic - think: young man and dragon in a relationship that also permits marriage to a woman who will be in a relationship with another woman), religious differences and the duties of rulers to those they govern. And that's really only the start.

Muna herself is a redoubtable heroine, going through great torments of fear and uncertainty, unfazed by a foreign society (and a cold, sooty city) but formidable whether dealing with patronising Englishpeople, sly spirits or indeed, dragons. She may feel in turmoil, but she knows what she wants to achieve and is determined to get on with it. And if that takes her to some awful situations - as happens a few times here - she doesn't waste time in self recrimination but gets on and finds a way out. Even though she herself has no magic, she finds ways to command it in order to get her way (including ingenious use of a pantun, a form of poetry used in Janda Baik, to shape a spell) and she takes no nonsense from anyone. As I said, shades of Becky Sharp here.

It was good to see a fantasy novel in which pretty all the main characters are women: the two sisters, Prunella herself, her best friend Henrietta, the Fairy Queen, Aunt Georgina, the famous witch Mak Genggang who is the sisters' guardian (as well as being the ruler and protectress of Janda Baik) and several more. The males are by and large secondary in this story, if still able to meddle and cause trouble ('Relations are a terrible burden to a girl with magical ability').

It's a story artfully told, with lots of zest and fast moving plot. If I had one criticism it would be that in places things move a little too fast - fairly crucial bits of plot such as journeys or the retrieval of objects happen off stage, as it were, courtesy of a helpful bit of magic or support character. But that's hardly unique to this book, and doesn't really diminish the action we do see or what the characters, Muna especially, achieve through their determination, guile and courage.

I'm now looking forward to a further instalment, confident that Cho will shake things up again in a third book!

The True Queen is the second book in The Sorcerer to the Crown series, but in my opinion, it is not absolutely necessary to have read the previous novel to appreciate and understand this one. The combination of Regency historical period, Far East culture and superbly constructed fantasy made this a compelling read. It reads a lot like the fairytales of old, and although it takes place in both England and the Far East I wished it could be even based solely on the island of Janda Baik.

Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Malay Witches in Regency England? Yup, I hit the request button at the speed of light when I saw this was available for request. This kind of book is right up my alley: Eastern Cultural focus? Check. Supernatural creatures and themes? Check. A diverse, female focused cast of characters? Double check!

This novel follows the story of Muna and Sakti, two sisters living on the island of Janda Baik. They have lost their memories and have been taken in by the island's most esteemed witch. Sakti, who unlike Muna, has some magical ability, finds herself under a curse. To find out more about the curse they must travel to England to see the Sorceress Royal.  Whilst travelling, Sakti mysteriously disappears and Muna must find out what has happened to her sister before it is too late. To do so she enlists the help of Prunella, the Sorceress Royal and Henrietta, Prunella's friend and colleague.

I absolutely loved the initial setting of Janda Baik and kinda wished the whole book could have taken place there. The lush descriptions of the forest and the evocative descriptions of the traditional and colonial buildings really brought the island to life, as well as some of the supernatural creatures present on the island.

The novel also has a diverse cast with characters from different ethnic groups and LGBTQ representation. The characters were well-written, although there were some I'd liked to have seen more of. I believe the author has an earlier book set in the same world so perhaps they make an appearance there.

I really liked how Muna refused to be cowed by the racist and ignorant attitudes she came up against and I felt she was a great example of a feminist heroine in YA. She wasn't the usual bombastic, sword wielding badass, rather she was quietly confident and cunning in her own way which was quite refreshing. The romance is also very subtle and not central to the plot so that was quite different too, in a good way.

The English Regency setting was portrayed well and Jane Austen fans will see a nod to her style, particularly in the witty exchanges between characters. I'm not a huge Austen fan myself, so I didn't always love pages and pages of dialogue but if that's your thing you'll certainly appreciate it. Because of this however, there were large sections of the book where nothing really happened. For example, I found my eyes glazing over the part with the dragons in particular. I lost track of what was happening and found myself not really caring that I was rather lost and confused.

Overall, a well written book with an interesting premise and compelling heroine. However, I found it too dialogue heavy and light on plot and I wish more of the novel had been set on Janda Baik. I found it really fun to read at first but things just dropped off for me as the story progressed.

This is a standalone follow up - if that make sense?! - to Sorcerer to the Crown - and the series with the most stunning covers (my award!!) captured my heart again with a story that doesn't follow on in the way that you'd expect it to, but takes it in a new direction, but with nods to the past and previous characters that we got to enjoy so much in Book One.

In this book we follow two sisters - Muna and Sakti who are discovered dazed and confused on a beach by the powerful sorceress Mak. Whilst Sakti seems to have magical powers in abundance, Muna has none so both girls are shipped off to England to try and discover the reason behind their curse but Sakti disappears along the way, leaving Muna to face the Sorceress Royal on her own and to try and rescue her sister from wherever she has gone.

What follows is lots of drama, fun, battles, dragons and talking paintings and it just made for a fabulous escape from the world we live in, and kept me on my toes trying to second guess what twists were bound to follow and how the strong female characters dealt with all that was thrown their way - and there was lots for them to battle! While there wasn't as many humorous moments as in the first book, I found this story to be just as compelling and higher on the adventure scale, and the action never really lets up once the stage had been set and the girls were set on their path of discovery.

Cannot wait for the next installment and hope we're not waiting too long for it!! A cracking historical fantasy book!!

Review at Foxes and Fairy Tales: https://foxesfairytale.wordpress.com/2019/03/14/arc-review-the-true-queen/

Sorcerer to the Crown was one of my absolute favourite books I read last year so I was unbelievably stoked to see that this sequel was coming out this year.

Since the mercenary, ambitious Prunella was my highlight of the first book I was a little disappointed to read The True Queen‘s summary and see that the story veers off to centre new characters. I shouldn’t have worried though, because the new characters are great and it totally worked! Something that’s nice is that although Prunella, Zacharias and some of the characters from Sorcerer to the Crown make appearances and cameos, if you really wanted too, you could read The True Queen with only minimal spoilers for the first book.

The new protagonists are Muna and, to a lesser extent, her sister Sakti. The girls are very different but there’s a great and really believable sibling dynamic between them in the scenes where they’re together. I also thought that in the sections where they’re separated, Muna really felt like a worrying sister. I thought the Muna was a really compelling character and I’m glad that of the two sisters we saw the most of her.

I thought that she was an interesting choice as a lead. She’s doesn’t have Prunella’s obvious power and strength, nor does she have the very vibrant, loud personality of Sakti. She’s quite quiet, hard-working, and loyal and she seems determined to put others before herself. The way Cho writes her, however, completely sucked me in and fascinated me. Muna does become part of an f/f relationship, but not until the very, very end of the book and it’s played very low-key throughout.

Although I was sad to see less of Prunella, I loved that we got to see more of the dangerous Fairyland which was really only hinted at and mentioned in Sorcerer to the Crown. I loved that we got to see more of the politics of the Fairy Queen and her court, more of the dragons and more of the aftermath of Prunella’s claiming the Sorcerer Royal staff. I liked that things don’t appear to have gone smoothly, but that she, Zacharias and the school have been making progress.

The True Queen manages to be very different from Sorcerer to the Crown while being just as engaging and just as magical. I adore the world and characters Zen Cho has created in these books and I’m really, really excited see where she takes the series next. I just don’t know how I’m going to handle the wait.

The True Queen is the sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown, one of my all time favorite books. I know many think this is a companion novel as the book focuses on different characters based on the synopsis but beware that you are best to read this after having read Sorcerer to the Crown. In ways it deals still with the backlash of what happened in Sorcerer to the Crown and we get a lot of relationships and characters from that novel in this one.

With that out of the way, The True Queen is an altogether different book from Sorcerer to the Crown. Where in the first book we dealt with Zacharias and Prunella’s places in society, in this book we deal with two sisters who don’t even know who they are. It is a different story about finding out who you really are. I didn’t love this as much as I loved Sorcerer to the Crown but overall it is still a really good book.

One of the reasons why I didn’t end up loving this book is because I guessed the plot twist very early on. And at about 75% I was about ready to bash everyone’s head in for not having guessed it yet. Clearly they needed more of Zacharias council but he was very much on the sidelines in this book (one that I am sad about).
Another reason is that this book switches around in point of views a lot. Some characters only having one, maybe two point of views throughout the whole book where I wondered if it was really necessary to get their view on those situations.

Having said all that however I just really enjoyed being back in this world. I loved seeing a bit of Janda Baik at the start and I would love to see a book set there (but then this series is called sorcerer royal so bloody unlikely). I loved seeing Prunella being petty with all of the English magicians and throwing in their face her position of Sorceress Royal. I loved getting to know Henrietta more and seeing a slight focus on her relationship with Prunella.

Muna was interesting though it took some getting used to her. I found her sister incredibly grating and I was glad she wasn’t there for most of the book . I loved the relationships that Muna build with those around her, especially Henrietta. Her priorities shifted throughout the book, and I was pleased to see that at the end she still retained that new bit of her. And hey, that last chapter, totally on board for that!

https://lynns-books.com/2019/03/07/the-true-queen-sorcerer-royal-2-by-zen-cho/
The True Queen is the second in the Sorcerer Royal series by Zen Cho and it’s a book that I really enjoyed. I think if I was pressed I would have to own that the first in the series caught my attention in quite a dramatic fashion and made it somewhat difficult to compete with but I think the True Queen does a really good job as a follow up.

To be clear, this is not really a sequel as such. Well, it does follow events from the first book, and some of the characters are present here, but we follow a different story and focus on different people. I think it’s a really good idea to be honest although it’s also a little bit fraught in that you’re not getting the characters you already came to know so at the same time it’s something of a gamble.

The opening sequence brings to us two sisters, stranded on a beach on the island of Janda Baik, Muna and Sakti. They both have no memories of who they are, where they’re from, or anything else of significance basically, other than they know they’re sisters. The two eventually fall under the protection and tutelage of a local witch known as Mak Genggang. Sakti is the only one of the sisters who presents with any magical ability and is trained as such. Muna finds herself helping in the household in other ways. Unfortunately, the two sisters undertake a risky adventure that backfires and as a result they’re pressed into a position of having to leave the Island of Janda Bai so as not to draw unfavourable attention. Mak Genggang is forced to call upon the friendship and respect of the Sorcerer to the Crown – Prunella. The two sisters are granted places at Prunella’s school for magiciennes in London and both set off, on a rather unconventional route. Along the way Sakti disappears and whilst Muna manages to reach the safety of London she now finds herself in a desperately precarious position. Her sister has vanished and by the look of things perhaps been taken into the fairy realm and on top of this Muna not only needs help but also needs to masquerade as a person with magic in order to keep her place at the school. To make matters worse it seems that the Queen of the fae has issues, she’s having one of her moments when she thinks everyone is against her and consequently is on the rampage.

I really did enjoy this – with a couple of small issues which I think I will highlight first. I think the opening chapter is terribly spoilerific. It just gives away far too much imho and I think it should have been shortened. On top of this I found Sakti quite an annoying character, very flighty and a little bit superior and uncaring towards Muna (although at the same time I think this was possibly intentional on the part of the author). Muna came across as very caring and was genuinely concerned about her sister all the time but the relationship didn’t feel reciprocal. The other thing that I felt a slight concern about was the way Muna was treated when she arrived in the UK. Everyone was of course completely solicitous to her in terms of comfort but I felt their lack of concern over the disappearance of Sakti was really quite dreadful and bordered on the verge of rudeness. Although, again, I think this was probably the intention of the author in order to really exacerbate the way people behaved during the Regency period. “Oh, your sister has mysteriously disappeared? Dear me. Have a cup of tea and everything will be tickety-boo directly.”

To be honest, my niggles were few. I loved finding myself in this absurd regency world where manners are more important than threatening to eat somebody or cut off their head. I just loved the nonsense of it all. I really enjoyed going to the land of the fae – via a circuitous route that is full of fun and I thought this was charming and appealing in equal measure.

The one thing I hadn’t foreseen, because of course I wasn’t aware of the change in tack, was the introduction to two thoroughly enjoyable characters in Muna and Henrietta and the friendship that develops between the two as the story progresses. Hernrietta was a great character, thoroughly self deprecating and yet very dependable in a tricky situation.

Overall, a few niggles aside I thought this was a great second instalment and I can’t wait to see where the author takes us next. One thing that I feel absolutely certain of is that this series will not be predictable.

A thoroughly charming book of magic, manners and regency silliness that is both entertaining and incredibly easy to read.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Muna and Sakti wake up under a curse that leaves them with no memories, and with their magic almost diminished. The only way to take their lives back is to go to Britain and visit the academy of the female magicians. But the road the two sisters are on is a dangerous one, and Sakti soon disappears. Now, it is Muna's duty to find a way to bring her sister back.

The True Queen is Zen Cho's second fantasy book. Carefully constructed, it's a story in which the reader will find many interesting secrets, mysterious characters, and powerful magic. However, the flow was quite difficult to follow in the beginning, and the plot very slow. Moreover, while this book is advertised as working well as a standalone, ti was very difficult for me to dive into the story since I hadn't read Cho's first book. Thus, it might be a very exciting book for someone that has read it, but not that much as a standalone read.

An amazing book I loved the mix of regency and fantasy, I hadn’t read the first but wasn’t lost and now I need to go out and read it now. Well written, so involving I didn’t want to put it down. Such strong females I loved it so much. A fantastic read , I encourage everyone to read this. Great literature

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

The True Queen is unlike anything I’ve read recently. It’s a fantasy featuring magic and dragons with some politics thrown into the mis as well. I’m not going to lie, it took me longer than I expected to finish it. The writing, while great, was a bit dense for me. It was detail-heavy, so at times I felt a bit lost. On the whole though, I enjoyed the story and I would definitely read more from Cho!

Two sisters are cursed, and with the assistance of their high witch, they set off to England in the hopes of breaking their curses and finding out who the curseworker is. Meanwhile, England have been threatened by the Queen of the Unseen Realm as she believes the Sorceress Royal has stolen the Queen’s prized amulet, that she’s prepared to go to war over. The sisters find themselves in the middle of this magical drama, and attempt to navigate helping England from a potential war, all the while trying to save themselves from their formidable threat: The Great Serpent.

This book was a fantasy filled adventure I really enjoyed. Regrettably, I haven’t read the author's first book in this series, Sorcerer to the Crown, although they can be read independently. I wish I had read the first one, perhaps, for character context. But The True Queen can definitely be read independently from the first book, it would really be every reader’s prerogative if they’d like character context.

I knew from the offset this book was going to be enjoyable, because the writing style was truly captivating. It illustrated a magical atmosphere that completely absorbed me into the plot, the characters and the magical realms created.

The settings in this book were fun. I imagined Janda Baik like a tropical island, and saw England’s Academy for witches as something like an old but developed cathedral. Then there was the Unseen Realm, in which Threlfall’s caves and the tree dungeons were easy and enjoyable to imagine.

I liked the characters in this book, particularly Muna. She was full of wit and moxie, which made her easily likeable. The other characters provided the story with a variety of attitudes and action, that made me as a reader fully engaged, but they also contributed to a satisfying pace, as character interactions repeatedly developed the story along.

The family of dragons were one of my favourite parts of this story. The dragon Georgiana was really awesome, as was Rollo, and I think I need a book ASAP on the Threlfall dragon family, because seriously, they have family drama that could definitely be developed into an independent story.

There were two issues with the book that did leave me sort of underwhelmed. Firstly, the inclusion of the Stapleton family. These characters, like Amelia etc., read as totally irrelevant to the central story. Especially during chapters 19 – 21, where the subplot of the Stapleton’s family drama was focused on. Sadly, this subplot felt chore-some to read, as it verged off and detracted from the book’s building climax of the showdown.

Secondly, by the end of the book, I was disappointed with how the issue of female oppression in the magical world was handled. For the amount of mention of this topic, I would have liked some form of confrontation of the issue, because, whilst some of the female characters rebelled against their oppression, all they did when it was mentioned was more or less roll their eyes. It didn’t need to be anything major, but a witty and snappy one liner that declared women were quite able to do as they pleased, would have been nice.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read with a plot full of magic and adventure that I read over 6 days. I really, really wanted to rate this 5 stars, but with the benefit of hindsight through writing this review, I must rate it 4 stars, as I found too many issues that left me vexed in my overall feelings about the story. The True Queen is definitely worth a read because I did love it, and I'm already planning on pre-ordering my hardback copy :)

P.s. I REALLY think a story about the Threlfall family would be AWESOME! Fingers crossed this happens, I'll wish on every shooting star!

Thank you kindly to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc, in exchange for this honest review.

It's back to magical Regency England - and beyond - for the long anticipated and worthy sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown.

Sorcerer to the Crown was one of my favourite books of 2015, the year when I first started getting deeply into SFF literature fandom and voting for the Hugo awards, so perhaps it isn't surprising that it's so close to my heart. Returning to this world in the True Queen feels like going to a reunion of smart, politically active, take-no-prisoners friends, where you're taken straight back into the action despite the intervening years. Most of the best characters of Sorcerer to the Crown are back here - although Zacharias Wythe is a little more in the background this time - and it's lovely to see them all back on top form, in a title which expands and deepens the world of the first novel in smart and satisfying ways.

Like its predecessor, Zen Cho's magical regency is one that's inextricably tied to the realities of empire, and while irrepressible mixed-race magical prodigy Prunella Gentleman might have taken up the Sorcerer Royal's staff, the undercurrents of white supremacy and misogyny still run deep in this version of the British Empire. Into this world comes Muna, a girl found on the shores of Janda Baik: a still independent island in the middle of the Malacca strait protected by powerful witches, including returning character Mak Genggang. Muna, and her sister Sakti, have been the victims of some sort of curse which has robbed them of their memories, and while both are taken in by Mak Genggang and Sakti is tutored in witchcraft (Muna has no magic), when she starts literally disappearing it's decided that the pair might have to call on backup to figure out what's going on. That backup is, of course, best found in the form of England's scandalous Sorceress Royal, especially when an initial magic spell proves there might be an English connection to their curse itself. It's decided that this will be done by sending the pair to Prunella's newly formed academy for magiciennes, now founded in opposition to all good taste and propriety in London.

Of course, Sakti and Muna's plan goes sideways very quickly. Sakti disappears during the crossing the pair take through Fairy and Muna is left to take her place despite her lack of magic. This quickly proves the least of her worries, as she's thrown into the ongoing dispute between the mortal world and Fairy, all tied up in the loss of the Queen of Fairy's "Virtu" - a magical artifact containing a powerful spirit which was entrusted to the Threlfall family of dragons. Together with Henrietta, Prunella's former schoolmate and now teacher at the academy, Muna ends up at the forefront of the mission to untangle this drama, save her sister, and avoid bringing the wrath of the Fairy Queen down on England.

The characterisation in The True Queen is a big selling point, and there are some truly wonderful new and returning characters. Muna, in particular, is a great addition - smart and resourceful when given the slightest opportunity to be, but out of her comfort zone and with a habit of deferring to her magical older sister which makes her hesitant to show it . Sakti, her sister, is significantly less compelling, but she's absent for much of the book and it soon becomes clear that her callousness and the lack of behaviour that justifies Muna's desperation to be reunited are all part of the plan here. The growing relationship between Muna and Henrietta (yes, this book has substantial representation for same-sex relationships) is also great, and Henrietta's understated but clear progression from being Prunella's less talented and under-trained schoolfriend to being confident and assertive about her abilities is very nicely done. Because Henrietta and Muna are a little less outrageous than Prunella, and the latter is more in the background in this outing, I did occasionally miss her inimitable presence, but overall I felt that the balance between new and returning characters was handled very well, and I hope poor Zacharias enjoyed his break from the spotlight this time.

Where this novel really shines, however, is in balancing the humour, absurdity and melodrama of its dense plot with the more serious topics of colonialism, oppression and marginalisation which nearly all of its characters have to grapple with in one way or another. There's some truly majestic comedy scenes in here: notable is the entire section in the Threlfall dragon estate, involving dragon-turned-affable-dandy Rollo and his formidable Aunt Georgiana Without Ruth, though the scenes with Henrietta's family trying to deal with her awful simulacrum are also right up there. These moments of pure comedic fantasy share their tone with less savoury moments, like Muna's discovery of a racist talking portrait of a former Sorcerer Royal, but this balance is handled very carefully: it's always clear that the joke is on the racism and small-mindedness of the reactionaries, and not on the content of what they are saying. Of course, the representation of Janda Baik's culture is taken completely seriously, and occasional moments of humour from cultural misunderstandings, like Muna's assumption that Henrietta could become Zacharias' second wife to resolve her marital woes, are handled in a way that avoids portraying Muna's understanding as limited or "uncivilised". Zen Cho herself is a Malaysian living in the UK, so aside from the historical period this is own voices; overall, it's a masterclass in subverting the colonial assumptions that still drive our narratives of the "real" history of this period.

More so than Sorcerer to the Crown, The True Queen is interesting in that the conservative aspects of society are not represented by characters with any power to speak of: Prunella and her friends are running the show, now, whether the old boys like it or not (spoiler: they do not) and the brief moments of specific threat from reactionaries are very quickly dealt with or pushed to one side. Cho doesn't understate the effect of having a talking portrait of a racist dead man shouting at your visitors, but nor does she allow George Midsomer (it's always those pesky Midsomers!) to score any points over the characters who, after all, have things to be getting on with that aren't proving themselves to him. This balance of power stands in contrast to the portrayal of Fairy, which is powerful and threatening and alien, and which contains a large number of denizens who are quite enthusiastic about the prospect of eating humans for their magical strength.

In short, if you liked Sorcerer to the Crown - and I'm not sure what to say to you if you didn't - then you'll almost certainly like Zen Cho's second outing in this world. The True Queen is smart, funny and sweet, regularly all at the same time, and I continue to be in awe of the author for creating such a compelling world that combines the best of cutting Regency drama with a ruthless subversion of some of the period's most unsavoury aspects (especially those which are still going strong today). I already suspect this book is going to be one of my strongest of 2019, and I'm excited for the prospect of more.

Thank you to Netgalley, Pan MacMillan and Zen Cho for my arc of The True Queen in exchange for an honest review.


Spoiler warning: no spoilers for this book but some spoilers for book one: Sorcerer to the Crown where necessary to this review.

Synopsis: Following the events of Sorcerer to the Crown Prunella Gentleman (now Whyat) is now the first ever Sorceress Royal. When two girls wash up on the shore of Janda Baik, Prunella's old friend Mak Genggang entrusts them into her care. Muna and Satki can remember nothing before they found each other on the beach following the storm all they know is that they have been cursed by an unknown enchanter and Satki is beginning to fade away. But it is down to Muna who has no magic of her own to navigate high society in England and convince them all she is a magical prodigy in order to save her sister. But as her own past gets entangled things become a lot more complicated than they first seemed...

I loved Sorcerer to the Crown and The True Queen was just as good. We got to explore a lot more of the different views on magic in different cultures and I love the diversity of Zen Cho's books which have everything! Despite the regency setting the magical whimsy allows for lots of changes which mean we get to see not only diversity but the crushing of prejudices, the freedom from oppression regardless of gender, race or sexual preference and of course there's magic! Perfection, I can't wait for the third book in this series!