Title: Cruel Crown
Author: Victoria Aveyard
ISBN: 9780062435347
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 208
Source: Private copy
Two women on either side of the Silver and Red divide tell the stories no one else knows.
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 lie ahead for her in royal life.
Steel Scars
Captain 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.
Official Summary
10 January 2022
This book is two novellas in the Red Queen series. Queen song and Steel Scars.
Queen Song
There are two things about Queen Song that annoy me.
Number One, the fact that is called Queen Song and not Queen’s song.
Number two, this short story did not need to be written. This book didn’t give us any new information about the world or characters. Pretty much everything in this story was already mentioned in Red Queen.
I normally love novella’s, as they can add so much to a storyline and give you character growth for other characters in the story. However, I don’t see why we need to see a story from the point of view of a woman that is already dead at the beginning of the first book.
One thing that I did enjoy about this story was how nice it flowed. Even though I already knew the story it was a quick read, I read it in one sitting. It was only 54 pages though.
Steel Scars
This book was a lot better than Queen song, as it actually added to the plot of the overall story. It also added more insight into how much the reds were really struggling.
I enjoyed getting to know Shade better. (Although I still can’t believe someone would name their child Shade.) Shade is Mare’s older brother who we learnt in the first book was a part of Farley’s rebellion.
However again two things that disappointed me in this book.
One: Farley was a bit bland and boring. This character had the potential to be such a badass character and the author could have really played into how strong she truly was. However, she just came across as boring. This was also the case in Red Queen, it was almost like the author was afraid that she would outshine Mare.
Two: This one isn’t so bad, it is just the fact that the story is about red’s in war and about to start a whole rebellion, and there was not a single action scene. I wanted action in this story and I got basically nothing.
I really enjoyed Steel Scars and I loved meeting new characters and expanding the world of the red’s a bit.
Overall I enjoyed Cruel Crown. It was an okay book compared to Red Queen, however, I would still recommend this book as, Steel Scars specifically, added some insight to the world.
About The Author
Author Bio from the Author’s Site
Victoria Aveyard is an author and screenwriter, born and raised in a small town in Western Massachusetts. She has a BFA in Writing for Film & Television from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Her books include four #1 New York Times bestselling and USA Today bestselling novels, two New York Times bestselling novellas, a New York Times bestselling short story collection.
She lives full-time in Los Angeles with her dog Indy. Realm Breaker, the first instalment in her next young adult fantasy series comes out May 4th, 2021.
The Red Queen series is currently being translated into 41 languages and counting.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think in the comments below.
Goodbye my little book nerds…
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