Review: Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard

Cruel Crown

Victoria Aveyard

(Red Queen #0.1 and #0.2)

Publication Date: January 5, 2016

Paperback, 208 pages, HarperTeen

Genres: YA, Dystopian/Fantasy

Book Depository | Amazon | Goodreads

Two women on either side of the Silver-Red divide tell the stories no one else knows.

Discover the truth of Norta's bloody past in these two revealing prequels to #1 New York Times bestseller Red Queen.

Also includes an exclusive excerpt of the hotly anticipated second book in the Red Queen series! Glass Sword transports readers to the world of Silver tyranny, a Red dawn rising, and one girl's resolve to break down the system that will hold her back no longer.

Queen Song

Queen Coriane, first wife of King Tiberias, keeps a secret diary—how else can she ensure that no one at the palace will use her thoughts against her? Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince, the birth of a new prince, Cal, and the potentially deadly challenges that lay ahead for her in royal life.

Steel Scars

Diana Farley was raised to be strong, but being tasked with planting the seeds of rebellion in Norta is a tougher job than expected. As she travels the land recruiting black market traders, smugglers, and extremists for her first attempt at an attack on the capital, she stumbles upon a connection that may prove to be the key to the entire operation—Mare Barrow.

My Review

First off, the book was incredibly short. While I loved being able to read something set in the Red Queen world before Glass Sword’s release, I was hoping the bind-up would be longer. Honestly, I would have been okay with these two only being released in ebook format until Aveyard had more short stories available which could then be put into a hardcover bind-up volume. Sounds good, right? Maybe it’ll happen in the future…

The first novella in the book is “Queen Song,” and it follows Queen Coriane, Cal’s mom, before and after she married Cal’s father, the future king. I was very confused while I was reading this one. I didn’t read the description so I had no idea Coriane was Cal’s mother. I thought I was reading about Queen Elara at first (it had been a while since I’d read Red Queen so I didn’t remember names at the time). However, once I realized who the main character was, this novella proved to be a fantastic mini-fantasy princess story. I absolutely adored the Coriane, little Cal, and the king. That ending, though… Ugh.

The second novella, “Steel Scars,” follows Diana Farley, captain of the Scarlet Guard. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first, even with the appearance of Mare’s brother. Farley is an interesting character, but she just doesn’t hold my attention for some reason. I also didn’t really like the correspondence snippets that were included in this novella. They broke up the story too much, so I mostly skipped over them.

All in all, I’d recommend this bind-up to anyone who enjoys the Red Queen series. While I don’t think not reading these novellas would hurt your comprehension when it comes to Glass Sword, I wouldn’t take the chance that you’ll miss something later on in the series because you didn’t read “Queen Song” and “Steel Scars.”

3.5/5 stars for the entire bind-up

4/5 stars for “Queen Song”

3/5 stars for “Steel Scars”

*Note: I purchased a copy of this book for myself. This in no way affected my opinion/review.

Review: Dangerous Dream by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Dangerous Dream

Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

(Dangerous Creatures #0.5)

Publication Date: December 17, 2013

ebook, 46 pages, HQN Books

Genres: YA, Paranormal

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Goodreads

Catch up with Ethan, Lena, and Link as they finally graduate from high school and get ready to leave the small Southern town of Gatlin. But when Dark Caster Ridley makes an appearance, the sometime bad girl can't resist picking a fight with her sometime boyfriend, Link. Angry and rebellious as ever, Ridley ends up alone in New York City and becomes entangled in the dangerous underground Caster club scene, where the stakes are high and losers pay the ultimate price.

Where's a Linkubus when you need him?

My Review

It’s like a walk down memory lane reading this short story. It just brought back all of the feels I had as I was reading the Caster Chronicles some five or so years ago.

Ethan and Lena are still the same old cute and haunted couple they were in their own series, while Link and Ridley are apparently breaking all hell loose trying to attempt to be together…? Honestly, I’m not really sure what Ridley is doing. I don’t even think she knows half the time.

As for the plot, there were three parts to this novella. The first one was a short snippet from Ethan’s point of view, which I loved. Hearing him tell his story about graduation made me want to re-read the entire first four books of the original series! His voice is just so lyrical and melodic. I forgot how much I crushed on him during my high school years. *sigh* Oh, and Link was very funny in this section. He seriously made me giggle.

The second section was in Link’s point of view, and it was ridiculously short. Also, not a lot happened in it besides some relationship drama. The third section is where things start getting darker and weirder because Ridley takes over as the narrator. She gets herself in a sticky situation and I couldn’t help by want to scream at her the whole time. You would think the girl would learn her lesson the first dozen times or so!

All in all, this novella was short and fun. I enjoyed the first two parts more than the last one, just because it brought me back to Gatlin for a while. I’d recommend this story to anyone who is missing a little bit of Ethan and the Caster world in his or her life.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review via Netgalley. This in no way affected my opinion/review.