A review by tsilverman
The Born Queen by Greg Keyes

2.0

I kept this on my "Currently Reading" shelf a few days after I finished it because I was just so disappointed in the ending. It's like I was hoping that maybe it had been a bad dream. But no. Queen Muriel died and didn't come back, making her entire character development over the four books completely useless. It wasn't even a purposeful death. Well, maybe for Anne. But Muriel didn't sacrifice herself. Robert just killed her. Like. What. Why. UGH.

Also the end was SO rushed. A huge fight between three super powers, summed up in a paragraph. And after all that, Anne was still queen of Crotheny?? How could the people be remotely okay with that? She was a demon. Yeah, she made the choice to (somehow?????) be defeated through Austra and the new Briar King, but like so what? She made bad decision after bad decision. One good choice doesn't cancel all those out. Including SENDING HER MOTHER TO HER DEATH. What was the point of that? Sir Neil and Lady Berry ended up being the ones to deal with the hell rune, maybe Anne could have just sent them. Muriel had nothing to do with that.

The first book was amazing. The second and third were decent. This one? I want a rewrite. Not a fifth book. Just a complete do-over.