Kings & Queens (Royal Blood Book 1)

Overall this story was entertaining but nothing that I would read again or recommend to anyone else. It was a little confusing and it did feel like the author was trying to put way to many things into her story that just weren’t necessary. Here are some questions I was left asking when the book was done that I don’t feel were intentionally not answered, but rather forgotten. This is merely to indicate that there were loose ends that probably shouldn’t have been there. It will not contain any actual spoilers.• Why did they actually have to be brothers? I see no point in this or how it added anything to the storyline.• Karyn’s past with her Uncle is mentioned and we are told what happened but there doesn’t seem to be any need for it. It doesn’t add anything to the story or to the overall character development of Majesty and her Mom (Karyn).• Punk. I find it kinda strange that it would never be mentioned thru ought the story that one of the MC knows who one of the high school boys is and what his nickname was when they were kids but this is never said, even by accident. Why would that have never come up? Ever?• I’m still not sure how Warren’s story interweaved with this.• Prophetic dreams? No place for that in a story that is supposed to be sci-fi, not fantasy or paranormal.I did like the ending because there was a little bit of vengeance served cold and the hinting at something more sinister going on but it wasn’t enough to redeem the entire book for me. I ultimately decided I did not want to read the next one in the series as there are way too many good books out there and, although this one isn’t bad, it also wasn’t good enough for me to be invested in what happens next. There were some spelling and grammar errors, some worse than others, but still not as bad as I’ve seen.

There are flashes of truly evocative, eloquent writing in Kings & Queens, so much so that I found myself reading the book more for the words than the story. Unfortunately, it's the story people read books for. Kings & Queens manages to convincingly convey the self-important, self-contained, self-centered viewpoint of a teenage girl named Majesty who acts, speaks and even thinks like an actual teenager. We are quickly introduced to her friends, mostly boys - she is one of the managers of the school baseball team and spends much of her time in their company - and it's Majesty and the boys who carry this story.And what a story. While there's a shooting, two kidnappings, druggings, satanic worship and so much, much more, the story itself feels rather light on plot, to me. There's too much stuff going on for the characters - or the author - to be able to focus on. Several scenes that should have been important and would have added weight to the story were done off-scene while other scenes were dealt with at length that added very little to the story as a whole. The big reveal of the 'plot twist' added nothing to the story and felt like a maguffin. The ending itself was so anti-climactic I had to re-read it to remember what exactly had happened. The plot was cluttered, the supporting characters were paper-thin and the ending was tacked on. It felt very much like a good writer was telling a story they'd heard from someone else.Overall this was not a bad book. It was well written and Majesty came across as an actual teenaged person - not a cardboard cutout or a hollow i-guy. I just wish Majesty had been more interesting or sympathetic.

Somebody in this book is planning to do some very bad things. It falls to Majesty to try to figure out who and what.Her two best friends, Derek and Alec, prove capable and willing to help... maybe a little too capable and willing. As the plot unfolds and clues turn up in the most unexpected places, Majesty wonders if even they can be trusted. She's on her own. And somebody evidently wants her dead.Kings & Queens is recounted in third-person narrative with an intimacy and conversational style normally found only in first-person. Not many people could carry that off but Courtney Vail does--brilliantly. The reader's right there in the scene with Majesty, pleading... "No. Not Alec." And two pages later, "No. Not Derek." Oh no. What if it's BOTH of them?While Vail has crafted a first-rate page-turner, her greatest strength is the ability to write living, breathing people. No two-dimensional cutouts here. Even the minor characters come to life... even if it's just before they die.I really love Majesty's personality. She's tough but at the same time vulnerable, innocent but with an edge.My favorite character is Derek. I don't want to go into too much detail and reveal the plot but Derek ranks as one of the top tortured souls of all time.If you're looking for a book with characters you can really care about and a plot that delivers on all its promises, look no further.You've found it in Kings & Queens..