The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

Title: The Shadow Queen
Author: C.J. Redwine
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: February 16th 2016

Summary from Goodreads:

Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.

In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.

But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.

Review

Snow White. Magic. Dragons

The Shadow Queen is a Snow White re-tellling that takes the traditional story and then throws in magic dragons, and a crazier queen.  The book starts of with an action heavy intro and then slows down  to develop the characters.  While I do appreciate the grabby intro, I felt a bit like I was just thrown into the deep end.  I needed to find my balance before really enjoying what was going on.  In the end though, I enjoyed The Shadow Queen, the plot gradually climbs to the climax of the story.  There are flashbacks but overall the plot pacing was linear and very traditional.

My main reservation was the predictability of a couple plot points.  Predictability that comes at you when you are reading and you go no no no don't you dare do what I think you are going to.  I felt like it was to give motivation and move the plot forward so I get it but I wish it went differently.

Aside from that I thoroughly enjoyed the addition of dragons to this classic story.  I also enjoyed the dynamic between Lorelai and Kol.  There are a lot of different things going on and a lot of secondary stories and characters that make for a very entertaining book! Redwine offers the reader an intricate and imaginative re-telling.