Rating: 9/10
Books Like This: The Scarred Earth Saga, The Broken Lands Series
For People Who Like: Danger, Betrayal, Romance, Violence, Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery
*Spoilers Ahead
Synopsis:
Everleigh Blair might be the new gladiator queen of Bellona, but her problems are far from over.
First, Evie has to deal with a court full of arrogant, demanding nobles, all of whom want to get their greedy hands on her crown. As if that wasn’t bad enough, an assassin tries to kill Evie in her own throne room.
Despite the dangers, Evie goes ahead with a scheduled trip to the neighboring kingdom of Andvari in order to secure a desperately needed alliance. But complicating matters is the stubborn Andvarian king, who wants to punish Evie for the deaths of his countrymen during the Seven Spire massacre.
Dark forces are also at work inside the Andvarian palace, and Evie soon realizes that no one is safe. Worse, her immunity to magic starts acting in strange, unexpected ways, which makes Evie wonder whether she is truly strong enough to be a Winter Queen.
Evie’s magic, life, and crown aren’t the only things in danger—so is her heart, thanks to Lucas Sullivan, the Andvarian king’s bastard son and Evie’s … well, Evie isn’t quite sure what Sullivan is to her.
Only one thing is certain—protecting a prince might be even harder than killing a queen…
Introduction:
Protect the Prince is the second book in the Crown of Shards series by Jennifer Estep. I recently reviewed Kill the Queen which was the first book in this series so I would recommend reading that review first.
Rating Explanation/Review:
Okay, so this book...was really good. Especially the end, but sadly I can't tell you exactly what happens, just know, it's worth it to read the series just for the end of this book.
This book starts off with Evie in her court, dealing with her...well...court. Specifically the nobles in her court. I have to say, Evie's self doubt in this book really annoyed me. I know that it's significant and shows her growth as a person, but sometimes I just wished that I could scream in her face that she was doing a great job being queen despite the situation.
Eventually, the queen and her troupe go to Andvari to try to come to an agreement with the King after during the massacre, Vasilia killed his son and some other important people. *Spoilers* Evie soon finds out that the king was being poisoned after a failed assassination attempt. Can I just say, it was painfully obvious who the culprit was from the first couple pages of their stay in Andvari. If you didn't think it was obvious when you read it, this is completely my opinion. And maybe it just my prior experience with crime-solving books that made it so obvious to me, but I knew it wasn't going to be as easy as Evie made it seem and if you remembered the details, you could probably guess who the responsible party was way before Evie even had a suspect in mind.
Besides the predictability of this book, it was overall really good. The flashbacks were a little long, but they got their point across. The world building was really good as well. We still are seeing Evie discover who she is and what it means to be a winter queen (which I love). Which also comes with some...intriguing developments, but I'll leave those for you to find out. I really liked this book and I can't wait to read the third and last book in this series.
Jennifer Estep, I wish you luck on all of your future endeavors.
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