Book Review: The Exiled Queen

Title: The Exiled Queen
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Seven Realms (Book 2)

While I didn't like this as much as The Demon King, it was still a pretty good book and definitely an enjoyable read. I read 20 out of the 36 chapters before I finally convinced myself that I should do what I promised myself and actually study. I don't think studying the events of this book are going to help me pass my exams, but you never know. Maybe a question about the series will pop up on my science exam, it's possible (not).

This book basically takes up where The Demon King left off, but I think it really gives the reader a deeper insight into the characters of Han and Raisa. We get to learn about their experiences at this really awesome school that I want to go to (the classes sound so much more interesting than the curriculum at my school) and the struggles that both of them have balancing their past lives with their current ones. My favorite character is still Han, but I feel like I got to know Raisa a lot better in this book because her chapters were (somewhat) less boy-focused than in the previous installment and they focused more on her developing as a person and less as a princess (although because she is a princess I guess she is still developing as one but you get my drift).

I also really liked that we got to know some secondary characters better as well (Dancer, Amon, and a couple others) because it meant that their stories didn't get lost in the whole huge shuffle of things. I'm not going to lie, this series has a lot of action (at least so far) and it would be really easy to just throw away everyone but the main characters, but China does a great job of making sure to develop the secondary characters as well and even introduce some new ones that help Han and Raise develop as characters/people.

LIKES:
+ Less boy-craziness on Raisa's part and more of a focus on her getting to know the conditions in which other people live and how she can apply what she learns in school to ruling
+ The school, because if it was a real place I would totally go there because the classes sound super interesting or at least more fun than the ones that I am in right now...
+ Still dual narrators! I'm really glad that didn't go away and I hope it continues into the next book, especially because I love Han's POV more than Raisa's and if his went away...
+ Han is a wizard now. Who doesn't like wizards? Plus MAGIC.
+ Character development & more secondary characters! I feel like I got to know everybody's motives better and the story made way more sense
+ Action & plot-twists because those are (almost) always awesome

DISLIKES:
- The last couple chapters of the book. I felt like they were super rushed and it made me feel kinda panicked inside even though I had no reason to be. It was like the rest of the book was going at a reasonable 60 mph on a fun-curvy road and then decided to go 100 mph on this super confusing twisty windy road like what was with all the plot twists at the end? I feel like it would have been better if the book had kept that pace and maybe been a bit longer versus just speeding through the end.
- Love triangles. I'm just going to leave this one here.

So while I liked this book slightly less than the first one (I think mostly because of the ending and how it left me feeling rushed) I still loved it and am definitely going to continue the series! I'm so glad that I found another fantasy author to read and that the series is actually a decent length because nothing bothers me more than awesome series that end too soon. I'd definitely recommend this to basically anyone!

See this review on Goodreads.