Book: The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johanson

Genre: Fantasy, YA (maybe?  Not sure.)

Do you want to talk about a kick-ass female main character?  Kelsea Raleigh Glynn  is that character.  She’s a princess, and has been in hiding for her safety ever since she was a baby, but she has been groomed to be a leader. Specifically, the leader of Tearling, which is desperately in need of a just, good ruler.  Though barely of age to take over the kingdom, and wracked with self-doubt as she stumbles through the political minefield of assuming her queenship, she manages to pull it all together.  She is definitely not your average disney princess, but she is everything that I imagine a real princess must be.

This book was so much fun to read.  I felt like I practically flew through it.  Kelsea is easy to like, and you just really can’t help rooting for her as she works to take her kingdom back from the regency of her tyrant uncle.  Even though The Queen of the Tearling definitely focuses on Kelsea’s assuming the queenship, it is quite clear that there are some other big issues brewing that I can only guess will be addressed in the next book.  Which, I might add, I have already looked up and ordered from the library.  It’s called The Invasion of the Tearling, in case you were wondering.

I have to admit, I had a slight panic attack when I was looking up the rest of the series, realized it was a trilogy, and that the third book isn’t out yet.  Queue hyperventilation… Hoping it comes out soon…

Anyways, only read this book if you can handle some serious girl power.  Kelsea kicks butt.

A note about my questionable classification of The Queen of the Tearling as YA: I feel like this book would be a great book for teenage girls to read, but the language was occasionally quite coarse.  It was contextual, but I think it would definitely warrant a discussion if the young girl in your life is wanting to read this.  Also, Kelsea’s uncle is awful, and does some terrible things.  Those are the only two things that make me hesitate to recommend it for young girls.  Just consider yourselves warned.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

(Update on 5-11-2015) P.S. Just because I love you… you should know that The Queen of the Tearling is FREE on Kindle right now. You can download it and be reading in mere minutes!