This just wasn’t for me at all. I found the characters annoying, and the plot was just awful. It started out promising, but when it switched to the present day and the ex-fbi agent, it just got stupid and implausible...and the sex scene was utterly cringeworthy. There seem to be some huge plot gaps as well...

As ever though, my thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Queen of Swords was an interesting book to dive into. I'll admit it had some weird parts but I somehow managed to finish this. In it, you will meet Alexandra and Jared. She is an ex-FBI profiler and he is a stone walker. They are working together and trying to figure out what exactly happened to Ivyssa, who was recently in command and an archer, and the Kingdom of Azulyria.

So the beginning definitely dragged on and on for me. I just wasn't exactly intrigued by anything or invested. Then about half way through the book, it started to pick up. I can't exactly pin point the one thing that made me realize that it was going to get interesting.. just know that it happened.

By the time that I got to the very last page of the book, I just knew that this book and I didn't mesh well together. It did have some interesting parts filled with some twists and mystery... but I still couldn't get invested in any of the characters. I really wanted to like this book and tried so very hard to find something likable.. but it all just fell flat for me.

Maybe I'll try book 2 but I'm not setting any expectations right now.

I enjoyed reading this book, it was a great start to a series with interesting characters and a great plot. I look forward to more from the author and this series.

I was given a free copy of Queen of Swords by Karelyn Spacek, the author, and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Queen of Swords is the first novel by Ms. Spacek that I have read. I think I would characterize this novel as a combination of epic fantasy, mystery/thriller, and bit of romance.

This review will not contain any spoilers.

I read eighty-one percent of this novel before I stopped reading because I realized this novel is not for me.

As I was reading this novel, it became slog for me after the story stopped no longer being an epic fantasy and suddenly became a mystery/thriller. The main character in the epic fantasy was a queen-in-training to a former FBI agent, and it took some time before I realized they were two different characters and not a time jump.

Even though this I received an ARC, there were some typos and formatting errors. The author’s name appeared randomly a few times in the text.
I will rate this novel 1.5 stars.

I would like to Ms. Spacek and Net Galley for the free ARC.

This intrigued me as the synopsis suggested a weird hybrid, some magical fantasy but then the involvement of an FBI profiler? Colour me interested, and whilst the first third of this book did not give me that weird hybrid, it was quite a compelling YA fantasy. We have the chosen one Queen, who comes into her inheritance at an awkward time causing a tragedy, and then we see her training to be a good queen - hold on everyone just got turned to stone.

Its an audacious twist and one which left me disoriented. The antagonist wins, though at great personal cost. It doesn't really matter because its 34 years later and we are now in the US and have a new protagonist, the FBI profiler who has recently left the job for REASONS.. How this new story connects with the previous one is the main driving force of the book, though I never quite reconciled the idea that the initial fantasy story took place on an undiscovered Pacific Island with with working magic and supernatural creatures in the late 1980's. And unfortunately the modern story, even as it starts to dovetail into the initial one, is a lot more traditional. Something terrible happens, our heroine uses her skills to investigate. The synchronicity in age of the character and the time jump suggests another chosen one narrative but to get there we have had to play with a nasty murder and some not great sex scenes (the book does sort of pivot into soft erotica in the last third which was unexpected, and not really all that successful).

There is a lot going on here, though it ends on the obligatory cliffhanger because chosen one narratives only really do the end of their choosing in book two. And whilst I am interested to see how the disparate storylines will reconcile (and would like to see the original protagonist again because I prefered her), its unlikely I'll go back to this series.