Four Dead Queens Kindle Edition

4/5 StarsAuthor: Astrid ScholtePublisher/Imprint: G. P. Putnam’s SonsEdition: Hardcover, 413 PagesPublication Date: February 26, 2019Initial Thoughts:Four Dead Queens is quite an adventure! Keralie, a thief, teams up with Varin, an upstanding citizen, to prevent an assassin from murdering the four queens of Quadara. Astrid Scholte has created a world split into four quadrants: Toria, Archia, Ludia, and Eonia. Each quadrant has its own queen. At first glance, it might seem these are echoes of elements from books like Divergent, but I think Four Dead Queens still manages to stand on its own fairly well.Another interesting aspect of this book is its structure. The book is fast-paced, but I didn’t finish it as quickly as I had anticipated I would. It alternates between the POVs of Keralie, the four queens, and even the villain in the second half of the book. While this technique does create suspense and allow for us readers to glean insight into the minds and backgrounds of the queens, it does sometimes take away from the sections of the story that are focused on Keralie and Varin. Sometimes, I wish the focus had been more on these two characters rather than on the queens.Characters:Here is a brief overview of some of the characters:Keralie is our Torian thief, trained from a young age to steal from a black market dealer figure named Mackiel. Keralie feels intense grief over an accident she caused that severely injured her father. She is a strong, clever young woman, adept at sneaking into forbidden places.Varin is an upstanding Eonist messenger who gets caught up in the plot to murder the queens. He teams up with Keralie to try to stop the murders. He is admirably both loyal and honorable. Varin, like other Eonists, doesn’t show much emotion, and his “death date” is set at a young age due to a genetic defect of his. He also functions as Keralie’s love interest, and they do seem like a good match by the end of the story. However, I felt like I learned the least about who Varin is, and I think that has something to do with the focus on the queens’ POVs. I would have preferred to have Varin’s POV inserted somewhere, because by the end of the book, I still don’t know that much about him.The villain turns out to be someone unexpected, and I won’t spoil who it is. But I will say that I was slightly disappointed. For some reason, she isn’t a compelling mastermind; in my opinion, she came across as more of a selfish, sniveling brat. But I suppose things wrap up well in the end.Final Thoughts:Here are some other points to consider:The events of the book do occur within the span of a few days. That means that Keralie and Varin fall in love very quickly. I believe other reviewers have pointed this out as well. Whether or not this bothers you will depend on your particular readings tastes. If you don’t think about it too hard, it might not bother you.At times, the characters’ reactions could be a bit dramatic. Here is one example: “His eyes held a flicker of longing, and I thought I might combust under his gaze.” To me, lines like these sound dramatic and a little cliche. The reaction to Varin’s “condition” could also be considered dramatic.I question some of the Queenly Laws. Rules 7 and 8 require that the queens produce heirs, but they are not allowed to marry the father of their children. This is problematic since their physical intimacy would certainly create an emotional attachment and a desire to get married. Also, is it just me, or do Rules 13 and 11 contradict each other? One Rule says that when a queen takes the throne, she accepts responsibility to “rule the quadrant until her dying day.” But the other Rule says that a queen’s power can be passed to her daughter after death OR abdication. So, are the queens allowed to abdicate? Or does she have to remain queen until they die?Despite my criticisms, there are some pretty good twists in the second half of the book. Overall, the ending is satisfying and heartwarming. Four Dead Queens is not mind blowing, but it is certainly entertaining. I truly enjoyed the suspense and action! It is fun to follow along with Keralie as she and Varin sneak around the palace.Thanks for reading! I hope this review was helpful. Has anyone else finished Four Dead Queens yet? What did you think?*Content warnings: swearing (including several uses of the S-word), kissing/touching, implied sex (not described graphically), murder/violence*

Fantastic debt novel by Astrid Scholte!Thanks to NetGalley, Edelweiss and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read and review Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte!Quadara is a nation divided into quadrants. Each quadrant plays a part in the nation’s economy. Archia provides crops and natural resources;Eonia develops medicine and technology; Ludia provides art, fashion and entertainment; Toria arranges imports and exports. The story is told in alternating points of view between the queens and Keralie, Kera for short. When Iris, an 18-year-old Queen is murdered in the Palace Garden, the mystery begins. Kera is a thief working for Mackiel. He’s sent her to steal a comm case containing memory chips. The messenger she steals from is smart and ends up tracking her down at the auction house. Mackiel becomes cruel and Kera escapes with the messenger, Varin, after dissolving the chips in her mouth, watching and absorbing the memories. She sees a palace full of blood and murdered queens. Varin and Kera go to the palace to help find the assassin and share the chips as evidence. They realize that they’re ahead of the assassin when they reach the palace and they try to warn the queens of the danger they’re in. The mystery builds as the queens are murdered, one at a time. The twists are enjoyable and I love Kera and Varin. Unique world building and storyline filled with dynamic characters, 4 stars!

It becomes a fast-paced murder mystery. I went from page 10-160 in a day and had a hard time putting this down. Secrets, lies, thievery, murder, and forbidden romance, this book has all of this. Keralie finds out something she did not intend to when she opened the package that she stole. Her boss wanted her to find that package and it seems that he was planning on what happened next as well. In order to keep Keralie's wicked boss from seeing what is on the chips, Keralie ingests them and by doing so, witnesses what is on the chips almost as if they were her own memories. Memory chips are inside the package and they contain disturbing images of the death of the 4 queens. (Hence the title of the book) It seems that they were found before these deaths occured. So if Keralie and Varin hurry, they could save the surviving queens before it is too late.

Actual Rating: 4.5‘They were there. Everywhere – the images. The crowns. Faces. Faces I knew all too well. Faces I’d seen many times on the Queenly Reports. They were there. All of them. All four queens – dead. Behind my lids. Inside my head.How do you hide from your own mind?Get out, get out, get out!’Lately I’ve been struggling with my reading a little; despite desperately wanting to do it I somehow convinced myself that I couldn’t concentrate. Then, when I finally got going, I ended up not enjoying another book as much as I’d been expecting to which made me rather wary about picking up another of my most anticipated books of the year in case the same thing happened. I’m glad that I still went ahead and picked up Four Dead Queens however as I think that was exactly what I needed. This book managed to capture my attention, draw me into its world and push aside my worries that reading had somehow become mechanical for me. It’s such an easy story to get lost inside of with lots of drama, secrets, twists and turns to keep a reader glued to its pages.I think my favourite aspect of ‘Four Dead Queens’ was probably the world that it was set within. I found each of the four quadrants fascinating to learn about and felt that they each contrasted one another greatly. Admittedly some of the quadrants I’d have liked to see a little more of but the ideas behind them all were intriguing. One of the quadrants in particular haunted me with its rules, teachings and customs (it could have had an entire dystopian novel set within its borders). Much of the ‘Queenly Law’ that you learn at the start of the novel was also quite chilling in some ways, painting a world where it’s rulers were trapped in gilded cages by tradition.Many of the characters within the novel captured my attention and drew me into their stories. I loved getting to see a little bit of the Queens’ thoughts and feelings, although personally would have liked to have seen a little more of Queen Iris. The main two characters – Keralie and Varin- were both interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know each of them over the course of the story. Keralie had a compelling attitude and well painted past to her character which was deeply intriguing to delve into whilst learning about Varin was almost heartbreaking at times. Mackiel was another character that greatly interested me and I was quite excited to see what would happen next whenever he appeared on the pages. I think the character whose thoughts I was most enthralled with learning about was Arebella’s however; her way of thinking was quite unusual and I’d have loved a couple more scenes with her.I also quite enjoyed the somewhat unusual way that the story was told with its odd feeling timeline and focus on several points of view. I know that there are some people that aren’t fond of books with multiple points of view but I generally quite enjoy them and, in this case, thought it worked wonderfully. Uncovering some of the truths as to what was happening within the palace from the Queens’ points of views gave the story a lot more emotional depth than I think it would have achieved if the Inspector had simply uncovered everyone’s secrets without seeing the thoughts, emotions and perspectives of those involved. Thanks to the way that the story was written I actually found it incredibly heartbreaking at times.There were also a lot of different twists and turns throughout this story, many of which caught me off guard. I did, frustratingly, figure out who the assassin was before it was revealed but that didn’t particularly detract from the story for me, mostly because although I thought of the possibility I was hoping I was wrong and did find myself questioning whether I was right at times.The only reason that I’m giving this book four and a half stars rather than five is because I felt that certain things happened too easily/were accepted too swiftly towards the end of the novel. I felt that one of the revelations could have used a bit more emotional turmoil and probably also a little more conflict initially; both of which probably could have been achieved if it had been written over a few more chapters than it was. I also felt that Mackiel lost his edge a little bit at the same time. The ending did tie things up fairly nicely however on the whole and the entire novel was still a pleasure to read.Overall I recommend this novel and look forward to picking up Astrid Scholte’s next book, whatever that will be. Honestly I’d absolutely love it if she ever decided to write a few short stories set within this world, giving readers a chance to see more of each and every one of the quadrants, especially if some of those stories showed a bit more of the Queens and the various secrets that were revealed over the course of this novel. Quadara was a joy to explore.

Book 80 Four dead Queens by Astrid ScholteFor me this book is a great concept with some amazing plot twists, but suffered from bad pacing, plot holes and forgettable characters.Pacing issues. I struggled though the first half of this book but then from page 249 (Part 3) I was hooked after the first major plot twist. There's another couple of big plot twists, 1 was really great but the other was super obvious. But the the ending felt a little rushed as everything is too neatly and too sweetly tied up.Many points in this book you may find yourself screaming What are you doing??? You know Queens are being murdered and you're having a snooze?!?!? Why didn't you just do this etc that really frustrate me.The stories has chapters in different POVs that at first are very easy to put into a time line but by the end I'm not sure whether it all works.Characters - Keralie isn't your run of the mill female lead, she is definitely a morally grey character as you find out some pretty cruel and selfish things she's done in her life which was nice to see but Varin is pretty bleh as a leading man and their romance is pretty fogettable and odd (their major climax occurring at one of those..uh shouldn't  you be concentrating on saving the day?! Moments)The queen's have a nice mix of personalities but their decisions aren't fully explained.There's a bit of diversity in terms if sexuality, medical condition and ethnicity, that feel fairly natural to the story and not added in just to tick them off the '2019 must-include list' .There's a few plot holes/unanswered questions which always arise when you have futuristic technology that seems to be able to do anything. I. E there's a cure for everything, and  comm chips to record memories etc but no security cameras or sprinkler system to put out fires.

I took a punt on this book - the author's first name is my favourite name/pen name, too, and so I had to read the blurb (the cover is absolutely gorgeous too), and I was intrigued. I wasn't disappointed, the book hooks you almost instantly with its rich, diverse world and its characters with depth and faults. The book has several twists and turns - around about the middle I thought Keralie wasn't who she thought she was, but it twisted again!The book focuses on the kingdom of Quadara - like its name suggests, there are four regions to the kingdom, each so very different to the last. Ludia - the lusty region where everything is flamboyant and a game, life isn't too serious; Eonia- the intelligent region where scientific advancement is valued above all else, every person has their designated role; Archia - the "old fashioned" region, where values are upheld, like nature and agriculture; Toria - the intellectual region, where everything is questioned and education is key. Each region is strictly separate from each other. A Queen from each of these four regions rules and keeps the peace, ensuring each nation has its voice heard and its values upheld. That is, until (as the book title suggests), Queens start dying.Keralie is a fantastic main character. She thinks she has her life sorted as a thief in the underbelly of Toria - that is, until her friend (and manager, mentor, boss) Mackiel starts making her question everything she's ever thought. Her journey to find out what happened to the Queens is also a journey of self revelation, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The book isn't just about these Queens and their deaths, it's about Keralie finding herself and sorting her life out, too. Realising she has flaws - we all do, and we can either run from them, or face them and try and fix them.Mackiel was a menacing character, too. You could tell he just wasn't right - as much as Keralie wanted to believe that he was her friend and perhaps there was something more than friendship there, he was just using her to further his own gains.I believe the author who wrote this book has worked on movies such as Avatar - it shows. Her world is rich and full of depth, and could well be turned into a movie or TV series, or developed into more books. There's so much to explore in the four regions, not to mention Quadara's past and how the four Queens came to rule. There is so much to explore, and the author has done a wonderful job of creating a fascinating world.I'd thoroughly recommend this book. I could not put it down once I'd started.

YA murder-mystery that kept me guessing right to the very end. Every time I thought I had it, a new twist would drop or my great theory would be blown to smithereens! I do love it when I can’t guess the killer! Although I’m not the biggest Keralie fan, I adored all four of the queens and I’m wildly smitten with Quadara: the dark dystopian Eonia and the Six of Crows’ Ketterdam-vibe I got from Toria - I do hope Scholte decides to go back some day so we can explore the Quadrant of Archia and learn more about Ludia with it’s art and shallow canals. It’s a world to fall in love with and has great mileage to it.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, but it was a really beautifully written mystery with an interesting fantasy twist. I already can't wait to read it again!