The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

Ravenspire, Book 1

Synopsis: Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.

In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart.

But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.

Review: How not to be curious of a new retelling regarding Snow White? I love fairy tales and it is true that I am always on the lookout for nice readings like that. It is not necessarily easy to take the stories we love and to do something else, but it is a treat to see the personal ideas that authors always add.

We thus find our evil queen, Irina, who, after killing her husband, believed to be quiet on the throne while the crown princess and prince (supposedly dead) are hidding in the Kingdom. But now, Lorelai is determined to reclaim the crown and so to dethrone the woman by the same magic that has exiled her. It is in this quest that our heroine will ally to the queen’s hunter to try to prove that she is the rightful queen.

It’s quite difficult to write a review laying the foundations of the story because many things happen there and the plot is ultimately more complex than what could have expected. Of course, the author brings many personal touches as Leo, the brother of our beautiful Snow White or some dragons (yes yes, you heard it right, we have dragons here). And then, well, we also have magic throughout the history as our heroine is capable of many things, like the queen. But Lorelai will also be accompanied by a man who helped her during these years in exile and who will help her at all costs.

Without going any further, let me tell you that I spent a great time with the story and I enjoyed the ideas of the author. It’s a nice story to read and I enjoyed discovering Lorelai and her determination to recover her kingdom, to do things well and to help Kol, our nice hunter. Besides, their relationship is quite touching and I was curious to see what would happen for both.

So it is a good discovery that will appeal to tales lovers.