Review: Queen of Destruction by Gwynn White and Erin St. Pierre

Title: Queen of Destruction (Queen of Extinction #2)

Author: Gwynn White and Erin St. Pierre

Publisher: 4xOverland Ltd

Publication Date: April 23, 2017

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance, Fairy Tale

I received an eARC from the author in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Description from GoodReads
Aurora and her allies barely escaped Ryferia with their lives. With the help of her would-be husband Jorah, the princess must trust in unlikely allies to have a chance against her arch enemy. An oracle with a flare for the dramatic may hold the key to Ryferia’s survival…

Jorah has deep feelings for Aurora, but he doesn’t have the heart to take down the shrine to his lost love. Between Aurora’s distrust and a broken promise with the vengeful Sabrisia, Jorah uses dragon magic and trickery to buy himself time. But nothing will convince Aurora that he loves her…

But all is not lost. One of Aurora’s new allies may turn the tide in her fight against Raith. The only problem is that he may conquer her heart as well…

My Thoughts

As you may remember, I had the pleasure of reviewing the first Queen of Extinction book.  You can read that review here.  When I had the opportunity of reviewing the next book as well, how could I turn it down?  I'm so glad that I was offered the opportunity.  White and St. Pierre did not let me down!

I was surprised to find that I didn't hate the main villain, Raith, nearly as much as I hated his brother, Carian.  I wanted Raith to finally find compassion and possibly be released from his addiction to power.  Carian, on the other hand, I wanted to watch as he writhed in pain and despair.  How dare he be so cold and calculating!  The authors did a fantastic job writing such a despicable character.

Aurora has definitely grown since the first book.  No longer restrained by her Infirmity, she is beginning to understand how much personal, and magical, power she truly has.  Her greatest moments of strength are shown in this novel.  Not only is she forced to believe in herself, which can sometimes feel impossible, she is encouraged to assert herself to the friends that have always guarded her and she is able to be open and honest about her emotions.  While none of these seem especially action filled, the authors use them to make Aurora as realistic as possible.  After reading this book, I am able to identify with her so much more!  It feels like she is a living and breathing person.

In addition to the vast amounts of character building accomplished in this book, the world building is beautifully done.  Every question the first book left me with was answered in this sequel.  

While there was plenty of character and world development, the authors provide a ton of excitement and adventure.  I was so happy to see the detailed fight scenes.  Not only were they plausible, they captured the humanity of the emotions spurring on each fight.  

I think this is the point I'm supposed to say something critical, you know, something I didn't like.  I guess I'll close on this one thing.  I have to wait for the next book.  Not ok.

My Rating

About the Authors

                                                                                                   Gwynn White

I’m a New York Times bestselling author of epic steampunk fantasy novels set on distant planets. All my stories have an adventure at the heart, mixed with a liberal sprinkling of romance and intrigue. To confuse things, I also write adventure travel books set firmly on planet Earth. Weird, I know, but it makes me tick.

I live in Western Australia with my husband, Andrew, my three daughters, a yapping Toy Pomeranian, and a fantastic farm cat called Pixel.

When I’m not writing, I’m reading, traveling, herding kids around, taking dogs for walks, and avoiding all cooking. You can contact me via my contact form or my email: gwynn@4xoverland.com

                              Erin St. Pierre
Erin St. Pierre is a twenty-year-old author and world traveler. South African born, she has lived in three different countries on three different continents. Still, that is not enough. She wants to travel the world, writing, drinking hot chocolate, and eating cheesecake. She currently lives in Western Australia (who knows how long that will last) with the best cat in the world. She started writing at around fifteen or sixteen, and Queen of Extinction, co-authored with Gwynn White, is her first published work. And it will definitely not be her last.

Review: Queen of Extinction

Title: Queen of Extinction: A Sleeping Beauty Retelling
Author: Gwynn White and Erin St. Pierre
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication Date: January 23, 2017
Genre: Fantasy, YA




Goodreads Description
A magical princess. A kingdom in danger. A fight to the death for the throne. Princess Aurora never thought she’d have to rule Ryferia. That was her brother’s job, until his brutal murder at the hands of their uncle. She knows the law. A marriage is her only chance to take the throne. Aurora gambles for her kingdom, invoking the right for a deadly marriage trial. As the most gifted--and ruthless--princes and lords battle to the death for her hand, the forces of evil conspire to snatch Aurora’s throne. But the princess has allies, as well as a secret power long outlawed in her kingdom… Will Aurora find true love and save Ryferia or will the trial’s winner destroy them all? Queen of Extinction is a fresh take on the classic Sleeping Beauty tale. If you like magic, steampunk, and romance, then you’ll love the first book in a new trilogy by Gwynn White and Erin St. Pierre.

My Thoughts
I am absolutely in love with this book!  As soon as I finished it, I lay flat on my back and just let myself breath hard for a while because I felt like I had run out of a part of myself when I ran out of pages in this book.  It was an absolutely wonderful ride.

I honestly expected to hate Aurora.  I greatly dislike women who are unable to fend for themselves and feel the need to be dependent upon their man.  Aurora's description made me worry that would be the case.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for proving me wrong!  Aurora is absolutely delightful!  I loved that she was willing to think for herself and to constantly push herself despite her Infirmity. She is such a believable character and I think the authors did a fantastic job with their heroine.   Throughout the novel, however, Aurora is referred to as "ugly" or "homely" and I love that she is able to love herself and to be part of a romance novel without being the stereotypical beauty.  As a female in today's society and an active mentor to several teenage girls, I think it is important for oung ladies to see such women.  I don't think that there is enough literature that encourages these girls to accept themselves and would like to congratulate the authors for successfully approaching and portraying such an important theme.

My favorite character, however,was Jorah.  Here was a being who had to suck up everything that he had been going with for so long and to get over his stubborn ways.  Was it easy?  NO. Did he do it?  Mostly.  We are just going to have to wait and see what the authors bring us in book two!

My least favorite character was Aurora's uncle, Artemis.  Man, did he get under my skin!  Could he be any more rude?  Although there was plenty of negativity between Artemis and Aurora, Artemis was not the main bad guy.  I liked the true villain of the novel more than I liked this scumbag!  He is the epitome of elitism and feelings of entitlement.  He is definitely on the same level as Dolores Umbridge of the Harry Potter series!

The authors chose a wonderful way to write this piece.  They switch between Raith, Jorah, and Aurora's points of view.  This allows for complete character development of the two who are trying the hardest to win her hand-one for dark and one for light, respectively.  It was WONDERFUL to watch both sides of the spectrum develop.

As the trials in the novel developed, I thought that the authors did a terrific job of suiting the trials to the prize.  Each trial shows one aspect of who Aurora is, be it her culture or her hobbies.  This only added to the all ready wonderful characterization.

One thing that tends to push me away from novels is the editing of the book.  As I write this review, I can't think of a single typographical error in the entire book!  I can't think of the last time that happened!

I have been wracking my skull all day to think of one thing I don't like about the book.  And, by golly, I think I've done it-- its sequel, Queen of Destruction, will not be released until April 2017.

About the Authors

                                                                                                   Gwynn White

I’m a New York Times bestselling author of epic steampunk fantasy novels set on distant planets. All my stories have an adventure at the heart, mixed with a liberal sprinkling of romance and intrigue. To confuse things, I also write adventure travel books set firmly on planet Earth. Weird, I know, but it makes me tick.

I live in Western Australia with my husband, Andrew, my three daughters, a yapping Toy Pomeranian, and a fantastic farm cat called Pixel.

When I’m not writing, I’m reading, traveling, herding kids around, taking dogs for walks, and avoiding all cooking. You can contact me via my contact form or my email: gwynn@4xoverland.com

                              Erin St. Pierre
Erin St. Pierre is a twenty-year-old author and world traveler. South African born, she has lived in three different countries on three different continents. Still, that is not enough. She wants to travel the world, writing, drinking hot chocolate, and eating cheesecake. She currently lives in Western Australia (who knows how long that will last) with the best cat in the world. She started writing at around fifteen or sixteen, and Queen of Extinction, co-authored with Gwynn White, is her first published work. And it will definitely not be her last.