This was a great sneak peek that left me needing to read this book asap! I loved the characters and fascinating world. The world-building was well done and never confusing. There was never any info-dumping yet at the same time I understood what was going on and how this world works.

I am not particularly familiar with Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear. I missed out on taking AP English Literature and Composition in school, where some of my friends read King Lear. So at most, I'm vaguely familiar with the story from Akira Kurosawa's film Ran (乱).

That being said, I was still very interested in reading this book when I learned of it. An adult fantasy novel, with three women vying for the crown is appealing to me. The magical system—the practice of wormwork versus the religion of star prophecy—also appealed to me. This dichotomy between the earth and the sky feels very mystical, very rooted in Paganism and Western astrology, things I'm interested in.

Still, in the end, the writing style is what has gotten me stuck with this book. If I had only read the prologue—which I honestly skipped in the end, because it was very confusing—and the first chapter alone, I would have put this book down. Gratton is clearly a talented writer, but at times her writing is too flowery for me. Luckily, I continued reading, past the first chapter, which is told from the POV of Ban the Fox, who corresponds to Edmund, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester in King Lear. While Ban is one of my favorite characters so far, this chapter, again, spent much too much time describing the forest and the exterior world for my taste. And I was about to give up reading this book at that point when I finally reached chapter three.

Chapter three is told from the point of view of Lear's youngest daughter, Elia, and it helped me to finally start getting into the story. The chapters told from Elia, Reagan, and Gaela's POVs are the most interesting. Each daughter has a different voice, a completely different perspective, each equally intriguing. It's because of them that I think I can keep going through this book.

I'm on the waiting list at the library, so hopefully I can finish it soon, since, as I said at the beginning, I received only an excerpt of this from NetGalley.

I think this is the kind of book that you definitely have to be in the mood for. It's beautiful and haunting, but also plodding and dense. I've heard it compared to Game of Thrones, which is ridiculous. Just because it's about a throne and has multiple POVs doesn't make it so. I'd compare it to Robin McKinley or perhaps Patricia A. McKillip instead, due to the writing style and the retelling.

So, if you like a deeply infused natural magical system, breathtaking descriptions (which, at times, don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore) that make the world feel both gritty and beautiful, and three fully developed women of color at the fore, then this book is for you.

Absolutely LOVE this book. If you haven’t read up on Kind Lear, I recommend reading a synopsis before starting this book.

Beautiful prose, although a little dense. I feel as though it could have said more, with less at times.

Gratton wrote very strong female characters, and I loved each of the three sisters. This is the feminist Queendom you want to be immersed in. I found myself rereading passages quite often because of how powerful they were. I don’t want to say too much about this story, as I believe it’s best to be discovered as you turn the pages.

Highly recommend this book! I’m off to order the beautiful UK edition to sit alongside the US hardcover! Happy reading!

Didn't realize this was a sampler, but I still enjoyed what I read so far and I am intrigued to see what happens next and I hope it is as bloody as people say it is!

With gorgeous writing and an intriguing retelling, Gratton made me a fan of Shakespeare—it totally counts.

I know the very basics of the original, so I don't know if that helps at all. But somehow, this tragedy was enjoyable. Everything is complex: from the plot down to the characters. The diversity of the characters. Just, everything is positive.

I think I held back from rating it 5 stars simply because at times the writing kept the pacing slow.

I was not aware this was a sampler when I requested it. I don't read those so I would not have requested if I had. I tried it and this has some serious potential as a retold King Lear. We shall see.

Fascinating book with a unique plot! This is not typically the type of book I choose, as I generally prefer male protagonists, but I was thoroughly hooked on this band of women and their adventures. I read it non-stop and loved every minute! Highly recommended.

I had high hopes for THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR and, although I did very much enjoy it, it didn't blow me away. I had added it to my Goodreads TO BE READ pile long before I found it available on NetGalley. I wish to thank the publisher for allowing me to read a copy before its publication.

At first, it was desperately slow and I was pretty sure that I was going to DNF it. However, I continued, and i'm glad that I did as after the scene setting it started to pick up pace and I begun to appreciate it a lot more. So, if you are finding it hard getting through the beginning, I urge you to persist as it does get better. You also see that a lot of the details given are what make the rest of the book make sense.

I am pleased that this is described as an "epic adult fantasy" as there are some pretty bloody scenes and a rather graphic description of a miscarriage that would not be appropriate for teenagers. As it is based on the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear, the story encompasses a king with a lack of sanity and an obsession with prophecies, and his three daughters - Gaela, Reagan, and Elia who end up having to take matters into their own hands as their kingdom crumbles.

I'm a big fan of William Shakespeare, possibly the greatest storyteller who ever lived, this retelling is definitely worth a read. As you would expect with King Lear, there is much blood and brutality. It is basically a story following the King in his gradual descent into madness.

I know one complaint in many of the reviews of this title is the writing. People feel that Gratton's style bogged it down but many people also feel this about my favourite author, Haruki Murakami, so this for me worked wonderfully. I felt her writing was brilliant and bold. No complaints from me. I tend to love books that describe things in minute detail so her worldbuilding felt like heaven to me. A masterclass in how to construct a world, in my opinion.

Tessa Gratton is such a talent, I know I will be purchasing a copy of this for my bookshelf, and would be interested in reading any future titles she chooses to publish.

I would like to thank Tessa Gratton, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an e-arc copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I did not realize this was a King Lear retelling when I was first interested in reading this book and I have never read King Lear so I cannot compare the two.

I thought this book was ok with some interesting moments, but overall, it was a little too boring and slow-paced for me. Nothing happens in this book. Literally, nothing. Some people travel for a meeting, said people meet, some people get mad about the meeting, and that's about it. There wasn't enough plot for me and it was a little all over the place.

Three daughters battle for the crown in this epic fantasy. The house is divided and everyone has their own plan. These three strong women will have you questioning and then agreeing with their decisions. Can they bring back magic without destroying all around them? I couldn’t put this book down and I was so drawn into the world that was built. Hurry up and pick this book!

Absolutely loved this book! It was such an interesting read and kept me hooked pretty much the whole time. The character development throughout this book was absolutely amazing. It took awhile to get into the actual plot but after it did it got even better! I didn’t realize it was a retelling of King Lear, which made it even better after I realized. It’s set on an island where water and earth magic is blocked by the king and he doesn’t realize his Kingdom is starting to break down. His daughters start to plot against him... amazing read

I did not finish this book.
I tried, I got nearly 20% of the way through. It may have gotten better after that.
This is one of those books that felt like things were just a little off.
I really struggled reading it. I had to force myself to pick it up and as soon as I feel I have to do that with a book, then I know my reading experience is only downhill from there.
The writing was beautiful, but it was so beautiful that I got lost and none of the words actually sunk in.
I couldn't connect to the characters, and the story felt too far away from them.
It just didn't come together for me.
It had a lot of potential, and it may have gotten better, but I struggled to get through it.

Love that this is a fantasy retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear. More Shakespeare retellings! <3
That being said, this book was SO wordy that it really dragged and wasn't always very fun to read. Thought about DNFing a few times because it just seemed so weighty and I went into it expecting something a little more accessible (isn't this YA?)

This book was well-written, it’s character-driven and the characters are well-drawn. There’s not a lot of action in this book, but I feel the Ms. Gratton did this to set up the story that will continue in future books. The story is filled with metaphors and symbolism that I found beautiful. It has betrayals, intrigues both personal and political, hidden motives and secrets. It is written with different POV’x (six is my count is correct) so the reader needs to pay attention.

King Lear is the ruler of an island nation that has two different types of magic; he follows the star-based magic of the stars which deal with prophecies and despises the other magic of the soil and root water and springs. After the death of his wife he covered most of the wells causing unrest. He is old, cruel and losing his mind. He has three daughters and each one is different; the two eldest Gaela and Regan are close and they have always ignored their youngest sister, Elia.

As the eldest, Gaela expects to inherit the throne from her father, she is filled with anger and rage, she trains as a warrior and intends to be a warrior-queen when she has the throne. She is married, but the only reason is because she need the men that he husband has; she despises him and has no intention of bearing his children or the child of any man. She sees her sister, Regan as more of a partner than her husband but she would destroy her if she thought that she would try to take the throne from her. Although she doesn’t believe in either type of magic she is content to let the people worship as they please if they obey her.

Regan, is a witch who uses the magic of the earth and water for her own purposes. She is madly in love with her husband and longs to give him a child but has been unable to carry one to fruition. Gaela has told her that it will be her child that will inherit the throne from her and while she has some aspirations for the throne it is only because of her husband; if she were queen she would be the figurehead and he would be the ruler. Both she and Gaela believe that father had something to do with the death of their mother.

Elia is the youngest child and the favorite of their father, she follows his worship of the stars and constellations. As a child she also had some knowledge of the earth-based magic. She had a friend, Ban who was the bastard son of the earl of Errigal who taught her about this magic. Her father disapproved of the friendship between the two of them and had his father banish him from Leer six years ago. Since this she has mostly forgotten what she knew of the other type of magic. She has no aspirations for the throne and wants to be a priestess to the stars. Over the years she has tried to get closer to her sisters but they have always rebuffed her efforts. She does not believe that her father had anything to do with the death of their mother and this is just one more thing they hold against her.

Ban has become a deadly soldier known as The Fox for the king of the nearby kingdom of Aremoria, Morimaros who wants to marry Elia. I think this will become a love triangle in subsequent books which is one of my least favorite plots. However, I did enjoy this novel and will probably read the next one.

4.25/5 Stars: **I received a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. I sincerely thank the author and/or publisher for providing an ARC through NetGalley,.**

First lovely thanks to Tessa Gratton, Tor Books and Netgalley for giving me an oppurtunity to read this tale for free in exchange for an honest opinion.

I had no idea that this was in short a retelling because as someone who has not read Shakespeare "King Lear" since high school, and not for fun mind you, this lavish tale can be read on it's own and it's beautifully well done.
Gratton has done an amazing job in creating this world and the the POC cast within is also just so brilliant that this can be read independent from the Shakespeare tale as I read maybe 3/4 in before realizing why it sounded oddly familiar. Right from the prologue, my attention was snagged and I kept reading till I was done which doesn't happen as often any more. Gratton, has in her writing, taken the basics of the established characters, added her own twist in order to make them feel new and still respective of the originals as her world is a bit more bleaker and gray around the edges than what Shakespeare originally wrote.

After having some time to think about it, I still come back to the princesses as not only were they a focus of the book, Gratton allowed them to have individual voices and thoughts that really spearheaded who they were as individuals and women in the ever changing man's world they are trying to reign over and the fact that they are women of color, really made that feel more modern as they were not just separated from each other, but themselves as well as the inhabitants of the island.

This review was originally posted on http://fictionistmag.com/

I've never read a Shakespeare play other than Romeo and Juliet -- and I wouldn't really even count that, since it was one of those high school group readings where we basically ran lines together.

I picked up The Queens of Innis Lear because it sounded intriguing and had crossover potential (it's an adult high fantasy book, but it got attention from those who read YA as well). I kept reading because it was intriguing. The writing style threw me off a bit at first, but it ended up drawing me in. It's descriptive, a little wordy, but still interesting and not hard to read.

The Queens of Innis Lear follows King Lear's daughters, whose mother passed away. They aren't necessarily friends, as they each believe their father will name them the next King of Innis Lear -- I would guess that the use of 'King' no matter the gender of the monarch is a Shakespeare thing, but I'm not sure. The book follows these sisters as they follow each of their paths to the throne.

This book wasn't a can't-put-it-down experience for me, probably because of the writing style and the slow nature of the plot, but it was definitely an enjoyable experience. Though I have no knowledge of the source material, it was a refreshing departure from my usual YA fantasy, and I will be looking for more from Tessa Gratton in the future.

If you can’t get enough of High Fantasy and world building galore than The Queens of Innis Lear is for you.
I received some sample chapters from Netgalley which consisted of Part One and some of Part Two. This is my review and rating of those first twenty five chapters. Please keep in mind that I have not read the second half of the book so an overall rating (if I were to read the entire novel) may differ.

The Queens of Innis Lear follows several characters including Elia, Gaela, and Regan who are the daughters of King Lear and potential Queens of Innis Lear. Other POVs include Aefa, Elia’s friend that’s hiding things from her, and Ban the Fox who is a bastard son with ties to Innis Lear, has feelings for Elia, and now is the Fox for a different King Morimaros.

The three daughters of Lear are very different not just appearance wise from the other civilians, but personality wise as well. Most people within Lear and surrounding kingdoms such as Burgan and Aremoria, are white while Elia and Gaela and Regan are dark skinned just as their mother Delat. Gaela, the oldest should be queen and has done everything to secure that spot including even doing things behind her father’s back pertaining to what she believes Lear needs. She’s a warrior and very strong willed. Regan the middle child is more maternal, but after many failed attempts can’t seem to bear a child. Elia is the youngest and loves her father most. She believes in his philosophies that the stars tell all. She doesn’t want the crown and strayed far from it by being a star priest.

There is ancient magic that’s been banned and secrets that slowly trickle out. A queen was and wasn’t picked by the end of my sample chapters and the drama got thicker by the page. However, it took a while for the real drama to begin.

If you love being emerged in a fantasy world and take your time strolling through it, then I recommend this novel for you. It’s definitely a read that you need to take slow and savor, because even though there wasn’t a lot going on…there was a lot of people and places to remember.

The lure of The Queens of Innis Lear is great. There’s magic of Rootwater that resides in the wells that Lear sealed off, the language of trees, and many rivalries.

I would absolutely consider finishing this novel!

So this took me a bit of time to get through. And I didn’t realize it wasn’t the full book so I saw it at the store and was very confused so now I have to buy it and read the book so I can figure out what happened! Gah! Hahaha but I guess it was good so far from what I read! I feel for poor Elia though.

From the excerpt I received through NetGalley, this book is intense. I can't wait to get my hands on a full copy.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is good - really good. I want to be clear about that from the start. This book is also dark. It is both, but the second one may be a little problematic for some readers. Those who are combing reviews looking for bits and pieces of information to tell them a little more about the story, I say the following: you will not be sorry that you read this book. But you might need to read it in small chunks if tragedy is not your thing.

This book is based on Shakespeare's 'King Lear' which is a brilliant play about people I kind of hate. Never, until I read Game of Thrones, had I so viscerally loathed characters. This book takes all that and adds a fantastical twist to the whole thing which is both genius and so bold that I found myself in awe of the writer at various points for giving it a shot at all, let alone pulling it off. What I really loved about this book was that it brought depth and complexity to characters that can seem flat when reading Shakespeare - this is less of a problem with King Lear (see above re: love to hate) but fundamentally, plays are meant to be SEEN, not read. "Queens of Innislear" is able to overcome that by virtue of being a novel, but there's no resting on laurels here. The characters are put through the wringer in a great way, but I'll admit it's hard to read at times (because what's happening is wrenching and tragic, not because the prose is bad. The prose is excellent).

Technically, the book is excellent - well written, well paced and well edited. The characters are diverse, multidimensional and do not mess around. This is a worthy read, and I'm glad I had the chance to experience it.