While I really enjoyed the premise of this book, I didn't love it as much as I wanted to. The largest issue I had with the book is that it seemed like too many things were just too easy for the characters. Several things happened that felt like they would have been a natural place for there to be drama or tension, but instead, events just kind of resolved on their own. I enjoyed the premise and the characters, but would have liked more depth and more world-building. Overall, nothing about the book really stood out to me - either positively or negatively.

— thanks to #netgalley and the publisher BooksGoSocial for providing me with the arc of #tokillaqueen in exchange for an honest review.

this book had an interesting premise, i went in expecting a new fantasy world to get sucked in. unfortunately, the story fell very short for me. the plot felt really linear and there was no sufficient material to make me connected to any of the characters or what's happening to them. i was so close to dnf-ing this but i kept going back to give it another chance. i wish i'd loved this, but the execution of the premise did not deliver.

To Kill a Queen is a story that follows Princess Raine, a reluctant heir to the throne, trying to find her older sister. She sets on a quest, with a companion, where they face adventure and danger.
I felt the world-building was okay, but it needed a bit more. It felt either rushed or there were moments where I felt was super important, yet wasn't brought up again or dismissed. If there will be a sequel, which is implied, I hope the worldbuilding improves. The story isn't bad at all. Kudos to Uliano.

Thank you NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the Arc for an Honest Review.

This book sounded promising, but I found it hard to keep coming back to reading this one, and DNF'd it around the 50% mark.

The premise and world-building at the beginning of the book I felt were done well, however after that I felt that the rest of the "magical world" and even the magic system lacked a bit of depth. The magic system made some sort of sense, but not enough where I would immediately understand what was happening when magic came into play.

The characters were alright, but I did not find myself connecting with any of them, or even caring for them for that matter. I would have liked to have seen the main character Raine's relationship with her older sister Alana (who disappeared) explored a bit more - I remember it being discussed once that their relationship wasn't great, but only from Raine's POV which never offered potential explanations for her sister's behaviour towards here.

I think the story overall has potential, and there are definitely key elements there, such that perhaps with a bit of rewriting/reworking would make for a good book.

I'll start off with the good. This book starts out with a promising introduction to a magical world. It has all the components that I love in fantasy, magic, interesting characters, and a compelling mission. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book because of how disinterested I was in the writing style. It was difficult to become invested in the story when the story felt so detached. I think I would have grown more invested in the main character's journey if there was more descriptive and engaging language. I also would have enjoyed seeing her relationship with her sister explored more.

This novel is totally up my alley. I love the whole dark dynamic with the royalty and the dark prophecy. This book had such an amazing level of adventure and intrigue. Many parts left me wanting more because of how rich and detailed this story was. I am definitely getting the physical copy of this book.

This book has all the elements that are expected from a fantasy book - okay world-building, magic system, etc, and names that you haven't heard before. It had an original plot-line but the main downfall was that the story lacked "life".
It felt like a fast overview of a deeper story. It was a bit hard to keep going because the first 50 pages are basically a ride down the memory lane. Plus, the backstory at times felt a bit too shallow. For example, the first heir had disappeared and there were no concrete actions taken to look for her. They had searched the castle, and had found no foul play and had reached the conclusion that she had left on her own. That's it! No other actions were taken. Why? Because there was another heir to the throne.
The story starts on a good note - it has the typical ya character who doesn't want to be the queen and get married because she secretly loves someone else in the palace. There were assassins, mages, magicians, and even a seer but I almost DNF'ed at the 75% mark because it felt like the author was dumping facts on you and telling you what you feel about the characters instead of letting the readers form opinions. There was a lot more "telling" rather than "showing".
But, as I said, although the plot was original it felt a bit shallow at times and the execution was not commendable.
I had really wanted to like the book because the synopsis really intrigued me and the cover pulled me right in. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations :(

The characters were well developed, and the plot was interesting. Overall a very nice read! Lately it’s been hard for me to get into certain books, because the characters seem very shallow or the plot is not original. But this book really held my attention from start to finish! Thanks for the author and publisher for this book!

Raine's sister - the heir to the throne - has been missing for 3 years. Their father is sick and his health is deteriorating and with her sister missing Raine is next line for the Throne, she is desperate to find out more about her sister's disappearance and sets out on a journey to find her.

I will start with the positives and say that the plot line for the book is very intriguing and had potential but unfortunately fell flat for me in every way.

First of all, the romance occurs in the first few chapters between Raine and Kirin - a mage who she grew up within the castle who she considered a brother. Even though in the book she describes their friendship, as a reader we don't get to experience this and so her confessing her love for him so early into the book was weird, uncomfortable, and unconvincing because he also suddenly comes to terms with his feelings for her. Raine is an immature, impulsive character who is prone to throwing tantrums. At one point she was jealous of an older woman who was Kirin's former trainer!

Aside from the characters, the world-building was poor. It was underdeveloped and the magic system was barely described. We have mages, elves, dwarves, and necromancers. However, there was no historical or cultural mentioning regarding their existence (this doesn't even have to be factual). There weren't many of them either, there was one elf, some mages, one random necromancer who revealed himself as one later in the book, and a few of the dwarves.

As for the plot, although intriguing, it wasn't executed well at all. Whatever tension or conflict in the book is based on petty jealousies but within this 'conflict' there isn't enough suspense that makes me hold my breath or hastily turn the page to see more. There isn't enough build-up, most of it was predictable. I didn't connect with or like any of the characters. There's also a dark force in this book which is a big part of the plot which didn't fit well with the story and how it was written. It was all very cliche in my opinion.

I greatly enjoyed this story and I hope to read more from the author in the future. The writing was good along with the story.

Unfortunately, this novel fell very short and flat for me. The bones of the story and premise are very intriguing, but I feel it failed to ever be fleshed out or go beyond feeling one dimensional. I also feel that for a book that is meant to be the first in the series, by the end there weren't any driving questions or events that would require/make me want to read the rest.

I've decided to DNF this book. I managed to get about 15% in but the writing style felt a bit jumpy and I was unable to click with it.

The premise of the book really intrigued me with Raine, a reluctant heir and her missing sister.

I felt like the scenes with Raine and Kirin were too jumpy and there wasn't enough development/ we didn't get enough of the history between them before it jumped into love interest time.

I didn't care much for the main character or her interactions. They felt forced and I just couldn't get into it. I think the concept of the book is really great unfortunately I don't think it was executed very well. It has all the making of an epic fantasy, but it felt rushed and forced.

I read the description and it felt like it would be a book that I would love, but within the first few chapters I had a bad feeling about it. I have it 3 stars because I do think it has all the making for an amazing book, but something got lost in traslation.

I found myself skimming the book to get it over with. I think the idea is great but it wasn't what I wanted it to be.

I genuinely enjoyed this book, however, I think there’s a few key issues that readers will find a little frustrating while experiencing this book.

This story is about Raine, the reluctant heir/ princess, who is trying to find her older sister alongside a bunch of very interesting characters and friends; a mage, an assassin, and a seer.

The general premise of this book has the drive to be a fantastic leap into a new and interesting fantasy world, but for me, the book needed to be more in depth with just about everything (world and character building, character relationships, timeline development, predictability), for me to have had really sunk into it.

This books is also meant to be a part of a series, but I don’t understand how the author intends to continue on with these characters when their ‘quest/ mission’ have already been completed.

Again, I did like this book, I just think it needed to be revisited and worked on a little more before it was published.

I received an e- copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Nancy Uliano for the opportunity!

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be continuing with this series.
The plot synopsis wasn't anything new and I've just read it done better many times before.

I think this could have done with another few rounds of editing. I don't know if this is this author's first work or not but it definitely read like that and suffered from a few traits typically found in debut fantasy books.

The writing was the biggest issue for me, even just down to sentence structure. The style of writing just came across a bit too amateur for my taste in fantasy. Sentences ran on too long and repeated way too many "ands". This is just an example that took me out of the story and why I felt it could benefit from more editing.

There was a lot of info-dumping, not just in the first chapter but anytime we had new information given to the reader. Again, this just falls into the category of beginner writer issues. Leading on from this, I found some of the dialogue between characters just unrealistic and only there to serve as background and world building for the character. Which is fine in and of itself but when it's just done so clunky I find it difficult to immerse myself into new worlds.

Lastly, I really didn't enjoy any of the characters. The main princess character, who we're supposed to feel for the most just ended up getting on my nerves. She was naive and childish. While the argument can be made for character development and growth throughout the book, I found myself disinterested in her arc.

This may be more suited to people just getting into fantasy perhaps, but unfortunately, I don't think this would be first on my list to recommend to customers down to the writing.

I will not lie I have been in a pretty bad reading slump over the past month and I was hoping this book would be able to get me out of it; although, judging by the fact that I'm DNF'ing it at the 50% mark - it didn't quite do the job. Albeit, getting me out of a reading slump is a lot of pressure to place on a book.
There was nothing inherently wrong with this book. There was a cool world with magical elements as one would expect from a standard fantasy novel. My main quip with why I did not finish reading this book (which is EXTREMELY rare for me to do might I add) is that I was halfway through the book and I just did not care about any of the characters at all. I find that I tend to prioritize well developed characters over everything else and to me, the characters in this book just felt so 2 dimensional and fell flat.
On a positive note I will say that the prose was good and easy to follow, but it was the content of the story itself that failed to capture my attention. I fail to see how a princess that is the heir to the throne goes missing and no one bats an eyelash at her disappearance. The main romantic relationship in the story also was odd to me and felt like there was no real chemistry between the two characters involved.
Maybe it was the dark storm clouds of my slump lurking over the pages of this book that made me DNF it, or it could just be that this book made my slump even worse than it was before.

I received this book for Netgalley so I could give an honest review.

This book had the makings of a great series, There was a start of a fantastic group of friends in the first book, a princess who doesn't want to be a princess, a mage, an assassin, and even a seer.

I could not finish the book, and the story just fell short for me. A tiring first chapter where the entire back story is brought up as fast as possible followed by several chapters of filler scenes. Which did not really seem to matter, like the magic ritual to find the lost sister, doesn’t affect the plot and the rest is just random waffling about. A romantic couple without a romance. Also the point of view changes randomly from paragraph to paragraph, which was very confusing.

This book has the makings of an epic story. There is a lost sister, forbidden love, and prophetic dreams.

Sadly, I could not get past 40% of this book. It was very hard for me to stay engaged. The narration changed characters often within the same chapter, which made it difficult to follow. Also, the characters seemed to constantly change their mind with little convincing as to why. The language is very basic, and the world building is not descriptive enough.

I'm honestly pretty bummed. This had all the makings to be a really good, if not great book. But for me the narrative choice not solely follow the character who is supposed to be the MC, but to tell it in third person on top of it made things feel a little detached for me. It was really hard for me to connect with any of the characters. Some of the dialog, to how things were described felt and sounded too real-world and modern at times and for me it took me out of the story a little. One of the biggest narrative issues I had was that seemingly nobody cared that the crowned princess, Alana, went missing some-odd years ago. From how things were told, there wasn't any full-scale investigation or search for her. She went "missing", and everybody was all "well, I guess Raine is the Crowned princess now, moving on with life." It just didn't sound realistic to me.

Raine was a decent character, but to the point where I got, there wasn't anything special about her. Other characters, Kirin mostly, says that "the people love and respect her." but we never get to see this before she goes on her journey.
Speaking of Kirin, he was also pretty flat for me. I saw nothing about him that made him a compelling love interest for Raine. It's alluded that he did some questionable stuff while training to be a mage and it's unclear how long he was gone, how old he was when he left and how long it had been since he got back from his training. There was also a little explained as to why the King distrusted magic, and why exactly Kirin was allowed to stay. This was one of the biggest issues, too much was focused on Kirin and not on Raine, the MC.
Where I left off, they had met some elf lady, assassin... or something, Thora. She hits on Raine, gets both Kirin and Raine arrested for talking to her. She even had a POV segment in a chapter, I have no idea why, hopefully it wasn't pointless. I will never know since I DNF'd before any more was explained. But any POV for her feels wasted when more time could have been given making Raine a more compelling MC.

I'm mostly bummed by this book than anything, it has the skeleton of a great story, but it for me, it needs a lot more polishing and rounding out the MC to make her more compelling early on.

This book started off strong. An interesting fantasy with a cool group of characters that had a lot of potential, I was excited to get into the adventure. There were lots of traditional fantasy elements with a new twist, different races, unique kingdoms, and the characters even had decent motivations and backstories.

Unfortunately, the writing was what hurt the book. Uliano writes in a very detached style that made it hard for me to connect with the characters and made the story feel like a fast overview rather than an immersive story. There were also point-of-view changes that happened abruptly mid-chapter that left me confused.

Overall, this book had a promising set-up, but let me down with the writing.