Name: The Cursed Queen
ISBN: 9781481441933

Sarah Fine

"Ansa has always been a fighter. As a child, she fought the invaders who murdered her parents and snatched her as a raid prize. She fought for her status as a warrior in her tribe, but the day the Krigere cross the great lake and threaten the witch queen of the Kupari, everything changes"--

The Cursed Queen

Chosen to be their queen, Elli grows up surrounded by luxury only to be banished when she fails to inherit essential magic, a situation that leads to devastating revelations about her world's magic and the role Elli was meant to play.

The Impostor Queen

jess

Sometimes a book doesn't capture you even if you were pumped for it, but that's all right. Still a good read, but the plot is pretty typical. I feel like I've read this before, despite the unique plot elements. I love the fact that Elli is bisexual but not that her female love interest is killed, which .... okay I hate love triangles but how great would a bi love triangle be okay? Anyways - good, but nothing really special.

The elders chose Elli to be queen, but they chose wrong in this beautifully crafted novel that “fans of Rae Carson’s books and Victoria Areyard’s Red Queen will find much to love in” (VOYA). Sixteen-year-old Elli was a small child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic. Since then, Elli has lived in the temple, surrounded by luxury and tutored by priests, as she prepares for the day when the Valtia perishes and the magic finds a new home in her. Elli is destined to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule. But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found. Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, the home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between the love she has for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must align with the right side—before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

Sheila

I read this in one sitting! This was an A-grade story about what happens when the future you've been groomed for your entire life is supposed to arrive and...it doesn't. Your entire identity becomes a lie, everything you knew to be true was wrong, and you're chucked into the frozen wilderness to die. 

Elli's story was a great read, & her character felt honest in a way that many YA heroines don't. It was also refreshing to have a lead character that was bisexual, but that aspect wasn't given much of a chance to be explored. :< I also haven't read many books that include such an obvious Finnish influence; a lot of the words & titles used are derived from Finnish words, not to mention the landscape could easily be anywhere in Finland. 

I went into this thinking the book was a standalone, but I'm glad to find out that it's not! With the way it ended, things will only get more hectic for Elli & friends.

Using fire and ice magic, Elli and Ansa must bring their people together to fight a common enemy in this epic conclusion to the Impostor Queen trilogy, which is a perfect fit for “fans of Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen” (School Library Journal). Now that Ansa knows she is the destined queen of Kupari, she is desperate to find a permanent home for her people, the Kriegere, in the Kupari lands. But as the small band of warriors crosses into the foreign territory, Ansa loses her fragile grip on her newly-acquired—and violent—fire and ice magic and puts everyone, including her love Thyra, in danger. Inside the walls of Kupari, Elli maintains the facade that she is the magical queen, with her secret—that she has no magic at all—on the brink of exposure every day. But as she tries to prepare the citizens to protect themselves from another invasion, unrest spreads as wielders like her beloved Oskar begin to lose control of their powers. As Kupari grows increasingly unstable, with the land literally crumbling beneath their feet, and a common enemy once again threatening everything, these two young women on a collision course with destiny must find a way to save the realm and their people from total destruction. In this epic conclusion to the Impostor Queen series, Sarah Fine’s sweeping tale of two fierce leaders imbued with unimaginable power and called to unthinkable sacrifice finally answers the question: who has the strength to be the True Queen?

The True Queen

A hard-fought happy ending. Ansa is legit dumbass on main for 98% of this book lol but she makes it through. The final few chapters are def the best and my overall gauge for this trilogy has been alright! Not bad, but I wish the world wasn't so claustrophobic.

Wren Hardwick

A buddy read with my dear friend Brittney ~ Her Bookish Things! Love that girl.

So this book... 

EHHHH.

I would say that I did not get into this book until maybe the last third. I was interested enough to keep going and curious enough to know what was going to happen next, but did I really care a lot about Elli? Not really, sadly.

ICE and FIRE.

This magic is super cool. 

That is the power in this land. Everyone has a little of both and some can heal with it or control things with it. Like I said, it's magic. There is one person who has a lot of BOTH, which is unusual, and that is the queen, or the Valtia. One girl carries the world on her shoulder with this power to keep the people safe. They usually die super young, but with the help of their long-lived priest they will do what they can in the time they are given.

Elli is () and she is next in line to be the Valtia. When the unexpected happens, she is thrown into the role she has been training for her whole life. She was taken from her family and had the mark to be just this. So when it doesn't happen...

The most interesting character in my opinion doesn't really get into the story until about a fourth through. Oskar was your typical tormented guy doing the right thing by everyone he loves. Elli was your typical thrown-into-it girl who comes out swinging. Both not people that I found with any interesting and unique traits or voice. 

And then the next book's description doesn't even have the characters introduced in this book in them? I'm not sure about this.

I would say I am happy I read this book and I will probably read the next one. But would I read this series over again? Probably not. It was Fine. 

It was such an awesome idea of a book. But the deliverance of it was kind of... meh. It was enough to keep me interested but not enough for me to fan girl over.