{ARC Review} Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte

Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte
Pages: 432
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on February 26, 2019
Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy & Magic
Source: eARC from Publisher

Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but she's, in fact, one of Quadara's most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara's most enlightened region, Eonia. He runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie both find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara's queens dead.

With no other choices and on the run from Keralie's former employer, the two decide to join forces, endeavoring to discover who has killed the queens and save their own lives in the process. When their reluctant partnership blooms into a tenuous romance, they must overcome their own dark secrets in hopes of a future together that seemed impossible just days before. But first they have to stay alive and untangle the secrets behind the nation's four dead queens.

An enthralling fast-paced murder mystery where competing agendas collide with deadly consequences, Four Dead Queens heralds the arrival of an exciting new YA talent.

Four Dead queens is a young adult fantasy novel by debut author Astrid scholte. Four Dead Queens is a stand-alone novel that I really enjoyed. It is told in such an interesting way. The Novel switches between several different perspectives, which include each of the four queens of Quadara, our main character Keralie, and a few other characters scattered throughout. 

Quadara is an interesting world, made up of four very different quadrants, Toria, Ludia, Archia, and Eonia, each ruled by a queen. But don’t think of the quadrants as different kingdoms, because all of the four Queens rule from a single central castle, and they seem to make decisions as a single counsel. I thought this was an especially interesting political setup. But we don’t dwell on the political set up too much, because most of the story centers around Keralie, who sees a memory of murder, and sets out on a quest to solve the murder of the four queens. 

I loved Keralie. She is from the Toria, which is the quadrant of the explorer, and also the traders port of the world. My favorite aspect of this story, other than solving the mystery of who murdered the queens, was learning about each of the quadrants. Eonia holds technology above everything else. Toria loves exploration and curiosity. Ludia loves celebrating beauty and Archia values nature and keeping the world as it was. 

Keralie is a thief, but her latest assignment gets her tangled up in something that leaves Quadara with four dead Queens. So she must team up with Varin, an Eonian boy to figure out who the murderer is. I loved that this was a standalone novel. It was great to be able to wrap everything up in one story.  I honestly can’t believe this was author Astrid Scholte’s debut novel. She did a fantastic job of creating a rich world and a compelling story that never had a dull moment. I gobbled this book up in one sitting and I really loved every single page. I stopped several times to try and see if I could figure out the mystery, and while I came close on a few aspects I didn’t put it all together on my own, which is pretty awesome. If you are a fan of fantasy novels, Four Dead Queens is a must read debut for you! It is one of my favorite reads of 2019 so far!

In Four Dead queens there are four quadrants as I have said above in my review. For this blog tour, I was assigned a Quadrant of my own. I am from Toria, the land where curiosity and exploration and trade are valued. So I created an explorer/adventurer board with some things that reminded me of Toria Traits.

In true Torian fashion, my husband and I are off exploring at the moment. We are in Italy on our honeymoon. So head over to my Instagram to see Four Dead Queens Captured in a medieval town in northern Italy. (And you can also see some other pictures from our trip) 🙂

YOu can check out my Pinterest board here:

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