Book Review: The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima

Book: The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
Genre: YA Fantasy
Rating:★★★★☆
For: Fun
From: Bought at Amazon for birthday last year

I loved the first book, The Demon King, and have been anxious ever since to get to this second book. Finally, I just dropped everything else I've been trying to read so I could read this one. It took me a bit to get into it and remember the details, but it went really fast after that.

But here's the thing. We were left at the end of the first book thinking that Han and Raisa would be together all during this second book, at a sort of Harry Potter school. But, wow, it took awhile for that to happen! Of course, it DID happen, which is not a spoiler because you KNOW it's going to, but still. It took a long time!

Anyway, so we have Han aka. Cuffs coming to this school to learn how to be a wizard, and Raisa coming to learn how to be a soldier. Of course she is in disguise, no one knowing that she is in fact the princess. Except sweet Amon, who I absolutely love! Things back at home are still in quite the turmoil and there's lots of politics to explain all that. Poor Raisa, having to figure all that out!

But then she does run into Han, who has no idea who she really is. And the sparks fly of course. All sorts of kinds. Han asks her to tutor him in princely manners, which is really quite fun. He is also being tutored in magic by some mysterious wizard dude in the dream world (this reminded me so much of the Wheel of Time books! Ah, will I ever finish those?) and I'm hoping we learn soon what's going on with that.

But it wasn't to be in this book. Han and Raisa's (well Rebecca in this case) time together is short lived and pretty soon, they are both off to solve the kingdom's problems! Sort of. We'll see.

I continue to love this story. It's very engaging and enchanting. And like I said, quite Harry Potter-ish in this particular book. But, the story is not the same actually. Anyway, I hated to see the book come to an end, so luckily, there's more and I found myself at the bookstore buying the next one! Too bad I can't just jump right into and keep reading! Sadly, it must wait...but only for a little while.

Bottom line: I love this story and these characters!

Other Reviews:

This is epic high fantasy at its best. Chima has created a rich, detailed, and deep world here with customs, prejudices, cultures, and history so complete it is like an alternate reality. From One Librarian's Book Reviews

Cinda Williams Chima is a master at world building, and the setting in this book is almost like another character that moves and grows with the story. From Emily's Reading Room

Han is truly awesome. He reminds me of Kvothe, with his latent abilities and rough hewn, hard-earned status. He also reminds me of a hotter, more badass Harry Potter, just as he also reminds me of what I’m pretending is his namesake, my favorite stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder – that is, Han Solo. From The Book Smugglers

The quick pacing, difficult-to-predict storyline, and complicated heroic characters are sure to captivate readers, as are the perfectly hateable villains From TeenReads

The list goes on when it comes to these two main characters but as you can see this hero and heroine are completely different and yet when they cross paths with one another, they couldn't be any more than perfect for each other . . . ahhhhh . . . I just adore them so, so much! From Tales of the Inner Book Fanatic