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A review by mackenziedyll
The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout
3.0
Full length review and thoughts incoming…. I avoided Booktok for a full day while reading it and come back to my fyp in utter chaos over this book…
UPDATE: It's been a good 6 hrs since I've finished the book and now that I've had more time to think about The War of Two Queens, here are my thoughts.
For reference, immediately after reading I gave this book 4 Stars However, after stewing over everything for a bit I've decided to bump it down to 3 Stars .
First off, I'll start off by saying that this is still one of my favorite series. I gave the first 2 in the series 5 stars. I absolutely love the characters and the world, it's unlike anything I have ever read. That being said, I feel like everything is spiraling out of control. JLA has started out with a really interesting premise and has created a fascinating gods/magic system. But, it feels like there is too much happening and JLA is just throwing new world building details at a wall and crossing her fingers that something is going to stick. I've read hundreds of Fantasy books and I'm no stranger to complex world building (Heck I'm an extensive note taker/annotator) and I found The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash #3) to be very confusing. Facts about the Gods, Ascended and all the other details revealed in Book #3 were A LOT and they felt very conflicting. It honestly feels like JLA, and by extension, her characters do a lot of telling and not showing, which does the world building a HUGE disservice (queue Poppy's millions of questions for a very annoyed Kieran). The War of Two Queens does a slightly better job at explaining things than it's previous book, but I think the credit has to go to the fact that JLA had to start an entire prequel series in order for the main series to make sense. I will say that the pacing in the 4th instalment is MUCH better than the 3rd. This 4th addition to the series has reconfirmed my belief that this series should have been a duology or trilogy.
So, lets unpack the Joining shall we. I feel like people who've reading the series are either pro-joining or anti-joining. Personally, I'm on the side of the it not being necessary. JLA called out fans on the Facebook group page saying that there is no such thing as fan service in regards to the hate over the Joining. Fan service is totally a thing and now I feel inclined to add the Joining as an example on the "Fan Service" Wikipedia page. I'm totally for Poly- relationship representation in books but, what is happening here is a terrible example of it. Why have the fated mates trope in a book if you're going have one character be a third wheel. At this point Kieran just feels like a plot device for making the Joining a thing. I love him, don't get me wrong, but he has had no character development since the beginning. I've seen many people mention that Poppy is emotionally cheating on Casteel with Kieran, all while Cas is being tortured. Honestly, I did not get that impression but I can totally understand why people feel that way. I was under the impression that Poppy and Kieran were growing to be close friends and were bonding over their mutual grief of Cas being captured and tortured. Boy was I wrong!! I feel like Poppy's growing complicated feelings developing for Kieran totally came outta nowhere. Thinking back to the beach scene in The Crown of Gilded Bones, Casteel mentioned that he was didn't want to include anyone else in their sexual relationship and he was more than happy with it just being him and Poppy forever. I though that was the end of a suspected Joining. Plus, it has been hinted sooo many times that the Joining did not have to become anything 'more' and it could just be as simple as the ceremony to connect Cas, Poppy and Kieran's lifespans. The Joining feels like it completely undermined the fact that Poppy and Casteel are Heartmates and all the progress they have made in their relationship so far. I honestly can't tell where this little threesome is going for the next book. It could be that Kieran is making a permanent appearance in their relationship or it was just a one time thing. I am seriously hoping its not permanent cause it honestly kind of blowing holes in one of my favorite ships.
Overall, am I a little disappointed? Yes. Am I still heavily invested in the characters and world? Yes absolutely! I think I am just going into the final half of the series with much lower expectations in order to spare my feelings and frustrations
UPDATE: It's been a good 6 hrs since I've finished the book and now that I've had more time to think about The War of Two Queens, here are my thoughts.
For reference, immediately after reading I gave this book 4 Stars However, after stewing over everything for a bit I've decided to bump it down to 3 Stars .
First off, I'll start off by saying that this is still one of my favorite series. I gave the first 2 in the series 5 stars. I absolutely love the characters and the world, it's unlike anything I have ever read. That being said, I feel like everything is spiraling out of control. JLA has started out with a really interesting premise and has created a fascinating gods/magic system. But, it feels like there is too much happening and JLA is just throwing new world building details at a wall and crossing her fingers that something is going to stick. I've read hundreds of Fantasy books and I'm no stranger to complex world building (Heck I'm an extensive note taker/annotator) and I found The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and Ash #3) to be very confusing. Facts about the Gods, Ascended and all the other details revealed in Book #3 were A LOT and they felt very conflicting. It honestly feels like JLA, and by extension, her characters do a lot of telling and not showing, which does the world building a HUGE disservice (queue Poppy's millions of questions for a very annoyed Kieran). The War of Two Queens does a slightly better job at explaining things than it's previous book, but I think the credit has to go to the fact that JLA had to start an entire prequel series in order for the main series to make sense. I will say that the pacing in the 4th instalment is MUCH better than the 3rd. This 4th addition to the series has reconfirmed my belief that this series should have been a duology or trilogy.
So, lets unpack the Joining shall we. I feel like people who've reading the series are either pro-joining or anti-joining. Personally, I'm on the side of the it not being necessary. JLA called out fans on the Facebook group page saying that there is no such thing as fan service in regards to the hate over the Joining. Fan service is totally a thing and now I feel inclined to add the Joining as an example on the "Fan Service" Wikipedia page. I'm totally for Poly- relationship representation in books but, what is happening here is a terrible example of it. Why have the fated mates trope in a book if you're going have one character be a third wheel. At this point Kieran just feels like a plot device for making the Joining a thing. I love him, don't get me wrong, but he has had no character development since the beginning. I've seen many people mention that Poppy is emotionally cheating on Casteel with Kieran, all while Cas is being tortured. Honestly, I did not get that impression but I can totally understand why people feel that way. I was under the impression that Poppy and Kieran were growing to be close friends and were bonding over their mutual grief of Cas being captured and tortured. Boy was I wrong!! I feel like Poppy's growing complicated feelings developing for Kieran totally came outta nowhere. Thinking back to the beach scene in The Crown of Gilded Bones, Casteel mentioned that he was didn't want to include anyone else in their sexual relationship and he was more than happy with it just being him and Poppy forever. I though that was the end of a suspected Joining. Plus, it has been hinted sooo many times that the Joining did not have to become anything 'more' and it could just be as simple as the ceremony to connect Cas, Poppy and Kieran's lifespans. The Joining feels like it completely undermined the fact that Poppy and Casteel are Heartmates and all the progress they have made in their relationship so far. I honestly can't tell where this little threesome is going for the next book. It could be that Kieran is making a permanent appearance in their relationship or it was just a one time thing. I am seriously hoping its not permanent cause it honestly kind of blowing holes in one of my favorite ships.
Overall, am I a little disappointed? Yes. Am I still heavily invested in the characters and world? Yes absolutely! I think I am just going into the final half of the series with much lower expectations in order to spare my feelings and frustrations