The Impostor QueenAuthor: Sarah Fine
Series: The Impostor Queen #1
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication Date: January 5, 2016
Format: eARC
Pages: 432
Source: Publisher
Sixteen-year-old Elli was a small child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic. Since then, Elli has lived in the temple, surrounded by luxury and tutored by magical priests, as she prepares for the day when the Valtia perishes and the magic finds a new home in her. Elli is destined to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.
But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found.
Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, the home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between the love she has for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must align with the right side—before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.
Well now, that was rather pleasant. The Impostor Queen is the second Sarah Fine book I’ve read, and it was an even better experience than the first one.
This is a fantasy that lets you slip into the wonderfully rich, magic filled world with ease. The interesting characters and slow build romance brings it all together for a fantastic read.
I have to say, I was a bit surprised by Elli. I’m sort of used to these overtly badass heroines that come out swinging, but she wasn’t like that. Although she was extremely sheltered and kept naive by those around her, I love how innately curious she was and that she was determined to be an asset in any situation she was in. She definitely had a fierceness to her that continued to grow throughout the book.
Really, all the characters were done super well, and each one stood out. Especially mischievous Raimo and Oskar the grouch. Love those two! And the romance impressed me. I wasn’t sure where it was going for while, or more specifically if it was going anywhere, because it seemed to be heading in one direction in the very beginning. Am I confusing enough? I don’t want to get detailed because, you know, spoilers. But seriously, it was lovely!
The Impostor Queen is just an overall awesome book that left me completely satisfied. Thankfully without a torturous cliffhanger.
oh yippee for no cliffhanger…those are actually awful. Glad you enjoyed this one, i love Fantasy’s especially when the author does a great job in the details.
I’m looking forward to my first Sarah Fine book! It seems like she’s well loved in the blogosphere. Great review, it sounds like the romance, fantasy and characters were done well!
It’s great that you had such a great time and that it’s even better than the other book you tried.
Looking forward to this one! It’ll be my first Fine experience. Oh darn, that sounds so wrong. Anyhoo….. Glad you enjoyed it!
I haven’t read anything by Sarah Fine before but this one sounds really interesting! I love fantasy novels and books with great characters are always a big plus. Yay for no big cliffhanger!
YAYY! I’m so please you loved this one, Christy! I love this author and can’t wait for you to read more from her too. I 100% agree with your description of Elli. She was a very quietly strong character and I loved that. Those outwardly badass characters can get old real fast.
Lovely review! 🙂
Nice to see a good fantasy, I saw that cover somewhere and the blurb definitely got me interested. Plus no cliffhanger- that seems to be rare these days. 🙂
Everyone LOVES Sarah Fine! I still need to read her, though. She must really be THAT good, huh? I’ve heard nothing but awesome things about this book! And no cliffhanger? That’s crazy talk!!
Yay! I’m starting it this week and I’m so glad to know you loved it Christy! Especially the romance. You know the romance is my favorite part of any read, so I’m really looking forward to it:)
This is on my wishlist, and I was hoping it was good…looks like I will be adding it!
Great to hear that it was a satisfying read! I have been thinking about reading this
It was weird to have Sarah write a character that wasn’t BA right from the beginning but like you said, it was a refreshing change too. Especially since she wasn’t necessarily a Mary Jane either. So glad you read this and liked it!
Yeah, so glad you liked this one. Sarah Fine is just amazing. I hope you start reading more of her now that you have read her. This one had awesome characters, great story and terrific world building. Hey, are you enjoying all the rain I sent you? We got dumped on in December, 15 inches, so now it’s your turn.
I love Sarah Fine but some of her books have been a miss for me. Although this one was a little slow in the start and I considered DNF’ing, I stuck with it and loved the second half. Glad you had a good experience!
I absolutely loved this one, so I am glad to hear how much you liked it.
BTW cute new layout 😀
I still need to read Sarah Fine. Maybe this one then. Plus I am all about no crazy cliffhangers!
Wohoo no cliffie
Definitely happy to hear no cliffhanger ending! I’ve read one Sarah Fine and I really enjoyed it, can’t wait to get my hands on this one! Hee hee, Oskar the grouch.
Great review, Christy!
Must. Read. More. Sarah. Fine. Aaaaaaah!!!
I’m reading her Servants of Fate series and liking them. I’ll have to check this book too. Great review, Christy!
I really enjoyed this one too. I didn’t love the romance, but it was secondary to her tale anyway. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series. This was my first Sarah Fine book, but not my last!
This is on my wishlist, Christy, and it was my WOW pick this week… even if it was released on Wednesday 😀 I know I won’t be able to read it straight away, so I haven’t bought it yet. I’m so happy you enjoyed Impostor Queen, especially because the characters, while being different from other fantasy characters, made sense to you 🙂 Great review!
oh man. i feel like i’m failing miserably with the books i’m getting for review lately. this one is really not keeping my interest. ack.
Seems like I have another series to look into. thanks!
Sounds like a great read, adding this to my ever growing TBR!
Hmmm, interesting. I hope this doesn’t read quite like Red Queen because I didn’t like that one. But I’m really curious about this. A little bit of a romance in a fantasy novel can’t hurt no one, just not a little too overboard, lol! Great review, Christy!
Glad you enjoyed this one! It’s not usually my type of book but for some reason I keep being drawn to it.
This one seems to be getting really good reviews! Elli sounds like a really interesting heroine (hurray for curious characters!) I’m looking forward to checking it out soon.
Fab review, Christy! It just made me happy that I have this book on my wishlist 🙂