REVIEW: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen 
by Victoria Aveyard
Released Date: February 10th 2015 by HarperTeen
Series: Red Queen #1
Pages: 383
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Adventure
View/Purchase: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N
Author's Links: Goodreads, Website, Twitter, Facebook

MARE BARROW'S WORLD IS DIVIDED BY BLOOD—those with red and those with silver. Mare and her family are lowly Reds, destined to serve the Silver elite whose supernatural abilities make them nearly gods. Mare steals what she can to help her family survive, but when her best friend is conscripted into the army she gambles everything to win his freedom. A twist of fate leads her to the royal palace itself, where, in front of the king and all his nobles, she discovers a power of her own—an ability she didn't know she had. Except... her blood is Red.

To hide this impossibility, the king forces her into the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks her new position to aid the Scarlet Guard—the leaders of a Red rebellion. Her actions put into motion a deadly and violent dance, pitting prince against prince—and Mare against her own heart.

From debut author Victoria Aveyard comes a lush, vivid fantasy series where loyalty and desire can tear you apart and the only certainty is betrayal.
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

My Review:

Red Queen was such a great book, it exceeded my expectations from the world building to the characters, it will leave wanting for more.

Mare Barrow's world has been divided by blood- those with red blood have worked for the silvers, the elites with supernatural powers that have the ultimate power in her world. Not having much, she steals what she can to help out her family. After her brothers get sent to war, she and her younger sister are the ones that provide for the family. Only Mare is the one with no talent (or so she thinks), whereas her sister embroiders beautiful fabrics for the elites. When word gets out that she might get sent to war along with her best friend, Kilorn, she is set out to protect him no matter the cost. Little did she know that her life was about to change as soon as she meets a handsome stranger, Cal, who ends up getting her a job at the royal palace working for the King, his father. Not knowing what she was getting into, her luck changes when she discovers that she may have a talent after all, one that was going to set her apart from everyone else, a supernatural ability that she didn't know she had after all her blood is red and not silver.

From then on we are taken through a series of events that completely change the course of her life, as she gets the opportunity of a lifetime when she gets engaged to the prince Maven, Cal's younger brother. Now she has to fake being someone else while learning about her new abilities. It is then that a red rebellion is raising, with her in the castle close to the royal family she has the perfect plan to finally help the cause in order to protect those she loves.

From the epic fighting scenes to the supernatural powers, I was captivated with the set up of the book. As a red, Mare has to provide for her family, and that gives her an advantage in a sense that she knows how to get around, and how to defend herself. She is smart, yet there were times when she didn't make the best decisions. With her luck, she actually gets a job in the palace after almost stealing from Prince Cal (though she didn't know who he was at the time). It is at the palace that she finds out that the elite from around the land are coming to the palace to present their daughters to Prince Cal, the next in line to the throne. Being the heir he needs to pick a future queen based on just how powerful she is. This was actually one of my favorite parts of the whole book, where each girl gets to show her abilities. The idea reminded me of The Selection and X-Man combined (in terms of picking the next queen and of their abilities). It is evident that the author was influenced by a lot ideas, yet she kept some aspects original which I enjoyed.

Throughout the book we get to meet some of the girls and find out just how their families play a role in their world and the alliances that the King and Queen want to make and keep close. In terms of their personalities, like I mentioned before Mare is outspoken and she hates pretending to be someone else. Cal, on the other hand is calm and protective. Knowing that he is going to be the next king hasn't changed his personal views on how the red are treated. He wants to be fair, but at the end of the day he is brought up to fight and to know how to grow/use his ability when he needs to. Mare's ability is really cool, I didn't pick up any clues at the beginning of the book, it's later on that we get to find out just how powerful she is. Although I really enjoyed the book, there were some things that I didn't really like, one of them being the amount of romance that we get. There is a very little romance, and not a very detail world building that I would have liked to see. There are, however, a lot of twists and turns that had me up all night! I just couldn't stop reading the book, it's definitely one of the best books I've read in the “fantasy genre” thus far. I would highly recommend it, and I cannot wait to read what happens next after reading a jaw dropping ending in this book. :)

My Rating: 4.5/5

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