Title: Cruel Crown
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Series/Standalone: Red Queen Series (Book # 0.1- 0.2)
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Dystopian
Pages: 208
Publisher: HarperTeen
Year Published: 2016
Format: Physical Copy (Own it)
First Line:
"Two women on either side of the Silver and Red divide tell the stories no one else knows.
Discover the truth of Norta's bloody past in these two revealing prequels to #1 NEW YORK TIME bestseller RED QUEEN.
Queen Song
Queen Coriane, first wife of King Tiberias, keeps a secret diary- how else can she ensure that no one at the palace will use her thoughts against her? Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince, the birth of a new prince, Cal, and the potentially deadly challenges that lie ahead for her in royal life.
Steel Scars
Captain Farley was raised to be strong, but being tasked with planting the seeds of rebellion in Norta is a tougher job than expected. As she travels the land recruiting black market traders, smugglers, and extremists for the first attempt at an attack on the capital, she stumbles upon a connection that may prove to be the key to the entire operation- Mare Barrow."
My Rating: 5/5
This is my third or fourth time rereading this novella collection and every time that I start it I think it can't be as good as I remember. But it always is. Aveyard is able to conjure such enormous feelings for characters who appear briefly in the series itself. I think that this novella collection does an amazing job of bringing different perspectives to the series. It helps us understand why certain groups of people act the way they do.
Thanks for reading,
Sidny
Title: Cruel Crown
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Series/Novel: Red Queen Series (Prequelish)
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Dystopian
Pages: 142
Publisher: HarperTeen
Year Published: 2015
First Line: "As usual, Julian gave her a book."
"Two women on either side of the silver and red divide tell the stories no one else knows.
Queen Song:
Queen Coriane, first wife of King Tiberias, keeps a secret diary, how else can she ensure that no one at the palace will use her thoughts against her? Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince, the birth of a new prince, Cal, and the potentially deadly challenges that lie ahead for her in royal life.
Steel Scars:
Captain Farley was raised to be strong, but being tasked with planting the seeds of rebellion in Norta is a tougher job then expected. As she travels the land recruiting black market traders, smugglers, and extremists for her first attempt at an attack on the capital. , she stumbles upon a connection that may prove to be the key to the entire operation- Mare Barrow."
My Rating: 5/5
So to begin with, this book is two separate Novellas Queen Song and Steel Scars as mentioned above. Each other them shows different aspects of this futuristic world.
My only regret while reading this book is that I didn't savour it for long, because now I have no new Red Queen material to hold me over until the next book comes out. This book was very impressive. It really filled in the gaps of what happened before Mare entered the castle and how Cal's parent met. I thought that was very interesting to see how the Silvers interact with each other and how Elara worked her way into the whole scenario.
The second novella really followed Farley's entrance into Norta and how she worked the Scarlet Guard into the country. I thought that that was an interesting way to look at Farley. I find myself sometimes forgetting that she's younger than I assume.
I hope that the next Red Queen book is just as incredible and so far I have no doubts! I'm excited to see what will happen after the ending of Glass Sword. I also wonder if Victoria Aveyard has any other half novellas waiting for us in the future.
Tell me what you want to see and if you're enjoying this series so far.
THANK YOU VICTORIA AVEYARD FOR SHOWING US THE IN BETWEEN!
Thanks for reading,
Love
Sidny
Just in case you have not read this prequel, I will tell you that there is a book review above if that's what you'd be more interested in reading, because this will spoil aspects of Red Queen, Glass Sword and Cruel Crown for you. You've been warned in case the title was not enough.
Because of the size of this book I will not have a separate characters area either.
This book comes with two separate novellas: Queen Song and Steel Scars.
Queen Song follows Queen Coriane through her courtship, into her marriage and the birth of her son, up to her death. It does so sparsely which interests me but doesn't drag on so that's awesome. I thought it was interesting to see how she was living before she was courted. To know that her house really wasn't doing well and then to be picked out by a prince who refused the tradition of Queenstrial which must have been the greatest scandal EVER! And then to see that she really struggled with depression. Which is something that many can relate to. I think that was a very important aspect of this novella.
Steel Scars focuses on Captain Farley and how she infiltrates Norta and gains followers for her resistance. I thought it was interesting to see her communication with both her father, the Colonel, and Command. The way she does what she feels is right was important as well the way she feels so strongly about the Scarlet Guard. I hope to see something more about her past in the upcoming books, but I understand if that is kept in the dark for sometime. We all love a good mysterious past. Watching her fall in love with shade was incredible. To see how he interacted before he was a member of the Guard and how he was so easy to smile, and joke even in such a terrible position that he was in, it was impressive. I think that those moments were the saddest to read, because we really got to look at their relationship up close and remember, feeling the pain of them together.
Final Line: "RISE, RED AS THE DAWN."
Thanks for reading,
Love,
Sidny
