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Author: Anne Bishop
Series: The Black Jewels
Series #: 12
Genre: Fantasy, Dark Fantasy
Age Group: Adult
ARC?: Yes

The Queen’s price is to stand against what you know is wrong. To stand and fight, no matter the cost to your court or to yourself. Especially to yourself.

Zoey, a young Queen-in-training at SaDiablo Hall, is wounded…and vulnerable to taunts and criticism. When an opportunity arises to befriend a stranger seeking sanctuary at the Hall, she puts herself and others in danger by ignoring Daemonar Yaslana’s warning to back off.

Meanwhile, the witch Jillian’s family prepares for her Virgin Night, the rite of passage that assures a woman will retain her power and her Jewels. The trouble is Jillian secretly went through the ceremony already. Now she has to explain the omission of that detail to her powerful and lethal family. And the High Lord of Hell’s daughter, Saetien, travels to Scelt to find out about Jaenelle Angelline’s sister–and perhaps to discover truths about herself.

With some guidance from Witch, these three young women will learn when to yield because it is right–and when to take a stand, even if they must pay the Queen’s price.

Review

Thank you to Netgalley and PRH for an e-arc of this book!

First off — I was so ridiculously excited to be approved for this that I squealed. The Black Jewels Trilogy has been a series I’ve read from the time I was a teen — 15 years ago. In a way I’ve grown up with this series. Sometimes when authors bring in children it becomes awkward and doesn’t work. And then sometimes they feel like copy and paste characters of their parents.

What I really loved about this series is our main young characters are not copy and pasted from their parents. While they may share similar traits they are their own people with their own stories. I think it’s very interesting to juxtapose Daemonar and Saeti and who they are and how they are or not interested in their parents stories and lives. Saeti’s story arc is wonderful in this book, and while I hated her in the previous and think she was justifiably punished, I liked her in this one. I felt that there was a lot of character growth for her.

Zoey and Titian are also great characters, they remind me of Jaenelle and her friends (which clearly is supposed to) but to show how quickly good things can go bad. It isn’t all that subtle in terms of how Bishop presents it.

Jillian and Brenda were breaths of fresh air in this book, and I will admit it was nice to have them around to question why things are done certain ways.

Bishop intersperses humor with the darker aspects of this novel, and it works so well. It is very amusing humor, and humor we’ve seen before in previous books, but still works in this one.

Witch has always been one of my favorite characters, and one huge point in Bishop’s favor is that while Witch is important, she isn’t the sole focus in this book. I sitll love her, and I love who she has become. Her and Daemon’s story still makes my heart hurt.

We have old favorites back too — Lucivar, Marian, Surreal, Karla…it was great.

Then there was some more backstory to Jaenelle and her sister after the purge.

Honestly, I was supremely impressed with this book. I am so eager to see where Bishop takes this story next.