Series: The Nine Realms #1
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages: 496
Find it on: Goodreads. BookDepository. Amazon.
Source: The publisher kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis

Orphaned, exiled and hunted, Cérulia, Princess of Weirandale, must master the magic that is her birthright, become a ruthless guerilla fighter, and transform into the queen she is destined to be.

But to do it she must win the favor of the spirits who play in mortal affairs, assemble an unlikely group of rebels, and wrest the throne from a corrupt aristocracy whose rot has spread throughout her kingdom.

Review

I know I’ve only read nine books so far this year, but I’m calling this as one of my favourite books of 2020.

A Queen in Hiding is the first in a four part fantasy series from Sarah Kozloff. The story follows Cerulia, princella and heir to the throne of Weirandale. When a scheme is uncovered to overthrow her mother the Queen, Cerulia is sent to live in hiding to protect her from those that wish her harm. As she lives in hiding she must master her magical talent, and learn the skills she will need to reclaim her throne.

I honestly loved every second of this epic fantasy tale. It had everything you could possibly want in a book. Full to the brim with magic, political intrigue and adventure I struggled putting this one down and definitely had a few nights where I stayed up way too late reading it. It’s not a short book by any means but I raced through it eager to find out Cerulia’s fate. She’s a fascinating character and I’m so excited to see how she grows through the next three books. The story is told in alternating POVs between quite a wide range of characters and I loved getting to see what was going on in other parts of the world at the same time as Cerulia is living in hiding. The story is expertly crafted with well fleshed out characters. I loved the political intrigue in this story, characters scheming and working against each other to meet their own ends.

As well as the wonderfully written characters I felt the world building in this story was truly superb. There was so much detail in the history surrounding the spirits and the religion, it felt effortless just to dive into this world. The magic system based on elements was also well explained and fit into the world really well. I really liked that magic was present in this world but not in a really overbearing way, it was a very subtle approach that worked so well with the story. Kozloff writes big battle scenes incredibly well too and I loved those epic moments of life and death. She brought them to life so vividly that I couldn’t look away from the book even if I wanted to.

One of the worst things about being a fantasy reader is waiting a long time for the next instalment in the series but amazingly Kozloff is publishing the entire series in four months. With the next instalment due in only a few weeks, so now is absolutely the time to get reading A Queen in Hiding – you won’t be disappointed.