Thequeen &
The Ways of Wayward Witches by Evelyn King

I was so excited for this because a witchy fantasy mystery is right up my alley. Though that is what the blurb gives off, it is not what I got from the book. I assumed this would be an adult fantasy because the protagonist is 21. However, It is very, very, very young adult. I'd recommend this to a 14 year old if it weren't for the explicit sex scenes. The protagonist is so incredibly juvenile; her thoughts are grating to read even though I am actually younger than she is meant to be. The back and forth with the love interest was awful—he fell in love, tried to kill her, fell in love, tried to kill her, fell in love again. Was two rounds of that not enough? The entire romance was very instalove, which is insane because they were going for an enemies to lovers storyline. They were enemies one day (or at least he hated her) and then in love the next—no development other than physical attraction on her end, and what he saw in her, I couldn't tell you to save my life. The mystery aspect was underdeveloped and rushed—I understood the goal of what they were trying to find because they mentioned it explicitly several times, but exactly how they were going about this, I really couldn't tell you. Everything culminates in the last 20 pages or so, but there isn't enough excitement for the amount of buildup. I understand this is a series, but the cliffhanger was placed awkwardly, and I am not even sure the main plot of this installment was completed. The worldbuilding was the most developed part of this book. I can recite to you exactly everything about the witch government, how it formed, witch powers, their relationship with vampires, etc etc. I don't like that it was very infodumpy towards the beginning, but that can be forgiven. What can't be forgiven is the atrocious amount of pop culture references. This is an urban fantasy, yes, but that doesn't make it any less annoying to hear about buffy the vampire slayer every two paragraphs. Overall, 2.5 stars. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.