The Queens Assassin (Excerpt) – Melissa De La Cruz

Yet another huge thanks to Netgalley for giving me this ARC sampler in exchange for an honest review. Without further ado, let’s get started. 

I was actually really excited about this sampler. After reading the description it sounded like my kind of story, however, I was kind of disappointed. It just wasn’t what I wanted from it. Now, the book might get better, I did only have the prologue and first three chapters, but from what I read, I wasn’t that impressed. 

Plot

A war rages between two kingdoms over powerful magic and dark scrolls containing secrets. With the war, a king dies, forcing his wife to take a blood oath with a guard to protect the kingdom and find the scrolls, making the guard and his son under the rule of the queen until the task is complete. 

Years later, Shadow, an eighteen-year-old girl who has her heart set on joining the royal Guild, stumbles upon the battlefield of the war. She hopes that one day, she may become an assassin like Caledon Holt, the son of the blood-oathed guard. 

Cal is known throughout the kingdom as the Guild’s most dangerous and deadly weapon. Bound by the Queen’s magic, he is unable to leave her rule until the tasks are fulfilled and the scrolls are found. 

After Shadow finds the battlefield of the war, she realizes that she is being followed and there is someone trying to kill her. Caledon steps in and finds her, murdering the man who was pursuing her. 

I was kind of enjoying this plot, but honestly, it wasn’t what I wanted from this book. Maybe it gets better, but after these three chapters, I expected a bit more. 

Characters

We mostly saw Shadow in these couple of chapters and she seemed like an averagely OK character. I mean, she wasn’t that interesting, but it was enough to make me finish it. She also seemed pretty dense. The only thing that concerned her was getting into the guild, and clearly, her relationship with her mother isn’t that great. Overall, her character was enough to keep me interested in these few chapters, but I don’t think I could have read an entire book with her. 

Setting

I don’t really have much to say about this setting yet. I feel like I need to explore the world a bit more, but from what I did see, I thought that the battlefield and wreckage was pretty cool. 

Writing

This writing was definitely not what I expected. There were a few informational blobs in the middle of the story and it was a bit hard to keep up at times, however, it kept me interested enough to read. I just don’t think that I could read the entire book like that. 

In Conclusion… 

Not what I was expecting and a little disappointed. It might get better as the book goes on, but I don’t think I’ll be reading the rest of it. 

Rating: 2.5/5⭐