Review- The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Summary-

Kelsea Glynn is the sole heir to the throne of Tearling but has been raised in secret by foster parents after her mother - Queen Elyssa, as vain as she was stupid - was murdered for ruining her kingdom. For 18 years, the Tearling has been ruled by Kelsea's uncle in the role of Regent however he is but the debauched puppet of the Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of neighbouring realm of Mortmesme. On Kelsea's 19th birthday, the tattered remnants of her mother's guard - each pledged to defend the queen to the death - arrive to bring this most un-regal young woman out of hiding...

And so begins her journey back to her kingdom's heart, to claim the throne, earn the loyalty of her people, overturn her mother's legacy and redeem the Tearling from the forces of corruption and dark magic that are threatening to destroy it. But Kelsea's story is not just about her learning the true nature of her inheritance - it's about a heroine who must learn to acknowledge and live with the realities of coming of age in all its insecurities and attractions, alongside the ethical dilemmas of ruling justly and fairly while simply trying to stay alive...

Review-

I had read of the hype surrounding The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen and the whole movie deal thing before picking it up. It definitely made me curious about it. So while I did like a few things about the book I had a ton of issues with it as well. And I think the bad outweighs the good for me in this case.

Lets get the bad over with. I hated Kelsea, our protagonist. She was annoying to the nth degree. She was supposed to have all these queen like qualities ingrained in her but all I found her to be was a spoiled child who was bothered about nothing but looks. I mean, I appreciate a hot guy standing next to me just as much as you do but going on and on about it all the time while calling yourself and most women surrounding you ugly was just too much. Kelsea was a really shallow character in my opinion.

Then we have Kelsea's guard who is supposed to protect her come what may. I did find a few of her guards to be okay but I did not like the way they looked at The Mace in a god like way. The Mace was supposed to be this warrior of unbeatable strength and intelligence but from what I could see he screwed up all the time. I found it to be very pretentious. 

But I did like the world Erika Johansen created. It is supposed to be dystopian but the feel to it was very historical in a way. It was quite unique but there were some similarities to the best selling dystopian novels out there. The only character whom I found to be remotely interesting was The Fetch. He was a total grey character who had intentions of his own. I really would have liked to know more about him.

The Queen of the Tearling goes from the third person's point of view in which we get mostly Kelsea's side of the story. If Kelsea wasn't so irritating I would have liked it more. We also get a few more povs but I felt they were very boring. So, after all the mixed thoughts I'd conclude by saying that The Queen of the Tearling was an okay read.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by Random House India in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.