The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King| Book Review

Title: The Hundredth Queen

Author: Emily R. King

Series: The Hundredth Queen #1

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Publication date: June 1st, 2017

Pages: 300

My ranting: 

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As an orphan ward of the Sisterhood, eighteen-year-old Kalinda is destined for nothing more than a life of seclusion and prayer. Plagued by fevers, she’s an unlikely candidate for even a servant’s position, let alone a courtesan or wife. Her sole dream is to continue living in peace in the Sisterhood’s mountain temple.

But a visit from the tyrant Rajah Tarek disrupts Kalinda’s life. Within hours, she is ripped from the comfort of her home, set on a desert trek, and ordered to fight for her place among the rajah’s ninety-nine wives and numerous courtesans. Her only solace comes in the company of her guard, the stoic but kind Captain Deven Naik.

Faced with the danger of a tournament to the death—and her growing affection for Deven—Kalinda has only one hope for escape, and it lies in an arcane, forbidden power buried within her.

“You are the people’s champion and the viraji, but let there be no mistake… You are not bait.”

When I first knew about this book I really wanted to read it because it sounded like The Wrath and the Dawn type of book and I LOVED that book so I was anticipating it SO. MUCH. So I was so happy when I got an ARC of this book (like really really happy!).

I really enjoyed some of the things of the story, but I have mixed feelings when it comes to the rest of the story. I overall enjoyed it, and will continue reading the next books tho!

“Did the gods create everything about us? They gave me fevers and gave me certain plants poison, but did they give people their power?”

First of all let me tell you that the author did a pretty good job at creating that world and the religion (she actually explained at the beginning of the book that that faith was derived drom Sumerian deities but it was fictional, so kudos to that. I found it a bit confusing at first with all those god’s names (YOU KNOW I’M TERRIBLE AT REMEMBERING NAMES), but once I got into the story and those characters I started to enjoy it more. However there wasn’t a lot of world building, but I think it’s because it’s the first installment and you’re already quite confused with all those names and religions to be introduced to even more. I hope we’ll see more about that in the sequel, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on that.

There’s a lot of diversity in the story as well, being most if not all the characters POC. I’ve been trying to read more diverse lately so that was something I apreciated. Also reading about a different culture was quite interesting, and despite not liking how the society mistreated women, it felt quite real since some east-asian countries they still treat women poorly.

“Your court is not a family. These women serve you only to survive. Your home is not my home. It is a prison of secrets and lies. And I will never love you, not in this life or the next.”

I think the magic system was one of my favourite parts, because even though it sounded like normal elemental magic, it still was more complex than that and I really enjoyed to know more about it.

The characters were okay to me, I didn’t love them but I didn’t despise them either. I found them quite similar to other YA fantasy characters. However I started to like Kalinda a bit more once the story developed. She became stronger and more independent, and started to trust herself more. The romance with her love interest was a bit insta love-ish, but I’m just not going to be judging that since every YA book has an insta love romance, so yeah.

AND THOSE SIDE CHARACTERS!! I was living! Especially Yatin and Brec. Brec was hilarious and I loved the parts he was in. I really hope I’ll see more about him in the sequel!

There still had some well-known YA tropes and it was a bit predictable sometimes to me, but you know me, I tend to know everything before it actually happened, so… maybe you won’t find those problems.

I recieved and ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. All thoughts are mine and mine alone.

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