The Queens of Innis Lear is a slow paced novel and that paired with the fact that the writing style did not work for me made this a book I have no desire to finish. I had a hard time connecting to Tessa Gratton's writing, she writes in a way that makes me feel detached from the characters. Additionally, I found it difficult distinguishing between the characters, they all just blended together in my head. But the biggest complaint I had with this novel is that it's boring. 10% into the audiobook (which is 67 pages into the novel) and still I felt that nothing was happening. I want more plot or character development or something from the first 67 pages of a novel.

I requested Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton just after I joined NetGalley. I didn’t expect my request to honoured, but I got one! I’ve heard about the book on Twitter and Instagram and the name itself made me curious. The ARC is only the first part of the book, so I can’t comment on the ending.

While this book is about three princesses waiting to hear who will become queen of Innis Lear, the princesses are all their own person. The warrior princess, Gaela. The elegant, dutiful Regan. And the star priestess Elia. I’d say that the story is all about these three women, but there’s a fourth, Innis Lear itself. The island lives as much as the people on top of it and that’s due to the magic originating there.

Ban the Fox is one of the few people who still talks to the trees and listens to the wind. I think he will get a bigger part later in the story. The magic of Innis Lear is hidden the old magic, and so far Ban is the most obvious option to heal the land. It would be a waste to create magic belonging to nature, kill it, have someone who learns the old ways and not use it.

The writing is poetic and it makes the magic more real, the women more interesting, and the story longer. It’s part of Gratton’s style and it makes the story more alive, but it’s not necessary. It slows down the story, and that’s okay. Queens of Innis Lear is the kind of book you want to last.

Queens of Innis Lear has earned four stars. The story so far is interesting, the characters are complex, and the world is magical. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t easy to read for me because of the writing style.

I was so, so excited when I got this book and it paid off!
It was interesting and well-written, I loved the concept of the two queens and I've always loved reading about royalty anyway. I certainly would rad more.

The story intrigued me and I actually completely forgot that I got this book off of NetGalley so that's why me review is so short and so late as well. But it was enjoyable and I liked pretty much everything about it. It was a bit slow in the beginning but everything else was top notch and i enjoyed it a lot.

A great start to a fantasy retelling of 'King Lear' although a little slow to get going. I'm intrigued enough to likely continue after reading the sample.

I was so excited for The Queens of Innis Lear. Now, I’ve never read King Lear, so I’m not sure how accurate it is as a Shakespeare retelling. I’ll tell you this: the world building is intense, the characters are so complex, and the plot is dark.

So overall, I enjoyed the novel. One of my favorite things was the fact that the sisters are black, and that their dark skin is never forgotten, which probably doesn’t make sense lol. You know how there’s been a whole string of novels claiming to be “diverse” just because one of the more important characters is ethnically ambiguous or is a POC but it’s only mentioned once. Yeah, so that’s why I liked that we’re constantly reminded of the sisters and their heritage.

While the characters are complex, I did think they were difficult to understand. Like, I know that some of the characters are morally gray, but they would say they were going to do something in one chapter and then just do the complete opposite the next chapter. With no indication of having planned it. So yeah, I got confused a lot.

Also, this book is long. Now, I knew that going in, but reading it on my phone was definitely a mistake. The only real reason I finished this book is because I forced myself to because I was bored in the car. If you pick up this book, I totally recommend getting a print copy if you’re able to.

3.5/5

This book reminds me so much of an adult and longer version of Three Dark Crowns. Minus the actual competition to kill each other for the crown. Apparently this is also a King Lear retelling.

In the land of Innis Lear, the prophesy-obsessed King has stifled the natural wild magic of the island. The land has become vulnerable and the surrounding nations are gathering to make their own moves. The kings three daughters, Gaela, Reagan & Elia, know the only way to revive the island is to crown a new sovereign. But the sisters want different things and the alliances are shaping up to tear them apart.

The world building was stunning, I felt transported by Gratton's writing to the land of Innis Lear and those surrounding it. I loved the magic system of prophesies from the stars and the wild magic of the ground. The conflict between the two was amazingly done. Elia was my favorite from the beginning, but the other sisters each had fascinating personalities.

Gaela was really interesting. She was definitely aroace, though it's not said bluntly. But there were so many times that Gaela hinted about how much she hated being a woman. It's hard to say whether she actually was transgender, or just wanted to be treated with the same respect men had, since women were constantly underestimated and under valued in their society. She was super brutal at times too, which was slightly terrifying.

Reagan was the embodiment of lust and manipulation. Her determination to be queen alongside Gaela and bear all the heirs was awe inspiring. I loved how much she was determined to get what she wanted, even if it was by suspect means.

Elia was a bit of a dream child. For the first half or so she constantly had her head stuck in the clouds. She was always expecting the best of people and it made her a tad naive. I really enjoyed seeing her grow and accept she needed to do what the island needed from her. I loved seeing her awaken the magic of the island and fall in love with it all over again.

The Queens of Innis Lear was a magical story about family, duty and the price of taking things into your own hands. While it was amazing, it was also quite long and I found myself bored many times and waiting for it to end.

Good writing, a good worldbuilding, great character development but everything was a little bit slow.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I somehow wound up with three Netgalley e-arcs – one was a sample I got by mistake. One approval from the US site which I never expected to be approved for and one from the UK site (I have both UK and US residences so I use both sites).

Reading this book reminded me of the Charlie Brown episode “Happy New Year, Charlie Brown”. In the episode Charlie Brown’s class are assigned to read “War and Peace” over the Christmas holidays. A daunting task as it’s such a big book and throughout the episode poor Charlie Brown is trying his best but only ever seems to be on page 5 of the book. At the end of the episode his best friend Linus asks did he like the book? Charlie Brown replies he finished the book at 3a.m. and doesn’t remember a thing about it.

Which pretty much summons up my experience reading the Queens of Innis Lear. No matter how much I read, I barely seemed to make a dent in (it felt like I hadn’t got past page 5!) which I actually did. That being said – I absolutely completely fell in love with this book. I loved it so much I bought a finished US hardcover, a finished UK paperback and an audio version. It did take me well over a year to actually finish it.

The book is a fantasy themed retelling of King Lear – the mad king and the ungrateful daughters and a kingdom poised on the brink of war. King Lear is not a play I’m that familiar with and did have to read the Spark Notes a few times to familiarize myself with the original story. The novel is full to bursting, it’s richly written with the most excellent word building. It’s so lush in its details. It has the most wonderful history and magic woven into the story. There are a hell of a lot of characters to get to grips with, lots of different points of view. Emotional and romantic and violent and a myriad of other emotions.

I remember very little of the plot the characters, just that I loved it to pieces.

This was a book that took some digging to get into. The world building and descriptions are vivid and the characters are well developed.

This story was a good take on king lear story and heartache. Great story and loved it all. I loved the turmoil and secrets being kept and how heartless the dad was in this story.

I hat ot finishing a book but I just couldn't connect with this and was left feeling very conflicted.

You will enjoy this more if you are familiar with the Shakespeare play King Lear. It is set up in 5 parts, like a play, but it is a little slow.

I'm not quite sure how to rate this since it was a sample instead of the full story but I'll settle right in the middle because the story was engaging and enough for me to want to continue on with it. I also really love that it expands/retells Shakespeare's King Lear, definitely a unique idea!

Reviewing for NetGalley

This book was so amazing in character and plot development that I have a giant book hang over. I just want more books just like this. Amazing book Tessa Gratton

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's taken me far to long to review this, I read some conflicting things about the author before starting the book and it ended up coloring my enjoyment of the story.

The prose is lyrical and enchanting though a little long winded, it led me to either skim or to set the book down for long periods of time. I wanted to love the story, I love Shakespeare. I just couldn't fully invest myself into this land or these characters.

I really Enjoyed this one SO much and can not wait for the next book! I did not do an official review, but I did Do coverage on Instagram via stories feature after I read It.

Tessa Gratton has quickly become a new favorite author. The Queens of Innis Lear was everything I wanted out of a fantasy retelling of King Lear. I loved this world she crafted around star prophesies and magic tied to the very roots of the island. The way all these different characters and plots were woven together was incredible.

A re-imagining of King Lear, it draws on the same interpersonal conflicts between complex, morally gray characters. It also infuses the world and societies with enough magic that it serves to elevate the characters in delightful ways! It also paid respect to the original King Lear play. There were at least 7 characters from whom the story was told, giving plenty of perspectives of the story itself. Once I was familiar with each of the core cast and who they were supposed to be in/mirror from King Lear, things got a bit easier to manage.

The prose was gorgeous and the character development was fascinating! A lot of effort went into character development, world-building and plot construction, making it a great stand-alone book to read! However the paragraphs were exhausting to read though and I often found myself skimming through them or even putting the book down because I couldn't stand to read the book in large doses.

Hello, thank you for approving me for this excerpt. I did not know it was not the full book when requesting. I have purchased a copy of the book and will read it sometime in the future. Thank you again.

So I feel like first I have to admit that I’ve actually never read nor watched any adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear. I had considered reading it before I got to this book but instead chose to go in blind, not even reading a summary of the play, so I can’t quite talk about any connections or references and also I wasn’t reading to a guide so most things that caught me off guard might have been very obvious based on the original story.

I loved this story about three sisters and I loved the magical fantasy elements. This is a long and grueling story about all of the emotions and intrigue that define not only who rules, but how they rule, and how they will ultimately meet their downfall.

What I liked:

-The representation of many types of woman. The three sisters are so very different, not just in their personalities, but in their personification as women. I loved how being soft, or hard, or infertile, or asexual (I’m like 99% sure one of them is ace based on the description), or strong, or beautiful, or a star-gazer, or a warrior (except some of this language did feel like trying to strip her femininity) didn’t define their womanhood. There were soo many women in the story playing all kinds of roles including that one of the main plot-points is a dead mother. I also loved how it was about women trying to figure out what their roles were and also fighting them to make their own decisions with whatever agency they had.

-I always love stories where the magic is part of the natural world. I just loved this magic system, even as it’s dying, and want to learn more about it. And the lyrical prose definitely helped bring the magic to life.

-How all of the characters and storylines are intertwined. The plot felt really cleverly done as it revealed some things but left just enough mystery that I felt I was constantly on the edge of flipping the page to see what happened next. Even with all of the jumping around between characters, the plot moved smoothly and wasn’t jarring which is the main danger of moving around like that.



What I didn’t like:

-Because it did keep jumping from character to character and plot to subplot, it did feel like it was mostly exposition with action sprinkled in to keep things going. Also definitely a character-driven book, where magic could arguably be another character.

-Although I said I liked the different representations of women, I was a little bummed that the person who fought her femininity the hardest went all the way, she was the warrior who wore masculine armor, was potentially aromantic and asexual, and demanded she be granted infertility. It felt a little...much. Like, okay, I get it, you hate being a woman, but I wish it had fallen a little more one way or the other, like could she be okay being a woman and just fight the femininity of it? AND on the other hand, the person that embraced her femininity and wanted to be a mother couldn’t? Yeah, it’s part of the magic/curse/or whatever but still

-Not sure how I feel about the race relations. I appreciate that they were princesses of color, but it was very obvious that their dark-skin was other and exotic which I always feel queasy about.

-Ban ??? What up with that guy? I love morally gray characters but for as *deep* as he supposedly was, it felt more like a child throwing a tantrum without really thinking it through??

*Thanks to NetGalley for a preview of this book, I did end up checking the book out from the library so I could finish it!*