It's quiet good but I realized it's not my genre. But for those who love magic and politics then this one's for you. The world building took a while for me to get in to, there were so many things I need to keep in mind and I just can't go through with this book. It's not for me but it is for someone else.

This review is for a rather large excerpt of the book. "The Queens of Innis Lear” is a lyrical fantasy retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear. It’s told from multiple character POVs, and each is delightfully distinct. It did take me a while to get into the writing style, but by the end of the excerpt I was eagerly anticipating what would happen next. I’m looking forward to reading this book when it comes out!

This review is for a 'preview excerpt' of the book. Quite a large exceprt, well into the middle of the book.

This is fantasy retelling of "King Lear" on an island that has it's flow of earth and water magic blocked by a king who prefers to read portents in the stars. He fails to see that the land is becoming barren and the crops are failing as he himself falls into madness while his eldest daughters plot against him.

Told in a slow, lyrical style, it took a little while to get into the plot and the second half of the excerpt was definitely better paced than the first. Many of the characters are recognisable as those from King Lear including the shadowy, enigmatic Ban the Fox, a wizard in touch with the magic of the trees and the water, who is the banished bastard son of Lear's ally, Earl Erigal and the childhood playmate of Lear's youngest daughter, Elia. Lear and his three daughters are all play the roles assigned them in the original play with the backdrop of magic and fantasy. Elia, for example studies the stars and reads the portents in them. So an enjoyable read with a good fantasy element. I think it will be popular with GoT readers and I am looking forward to finishing the book once I get hold of a complete copy.

I received an ARC preview of this book via Netgally. Since it was only a preview I will not be reviewing the book, but simply give my impressions.

This is a retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear. Not having read or seen that one, I cannot tell you how closely it is staying to the original. I will definitely have to do that before I read the rest of the book.

There are multiple POV characters, and they are all very distinct and well developed. The three sisters are such interesting characters and they all have very different reasons for doing things. I found all of them very intriguing and I cannot wait to see how the rest of their story plays out.

The writing if one of the things that stuck with me the most. It is very beautiful. I was slightly worried because the book is very descriptive, and I expected that to slow down the pace of the story. I was very pleasantly surprised by the fact that that wasn't the case. It held my interest throughout the whole preview.

I enjoyed this preview of The Queens of Innis Lear! I was so enticed by the premise - and for the most part my excitement held up. I found the writing style a bit hard to get into, but once I kept reading, I got caught up in the story.

Of course it's hard to tell where the story is going, since this is only a sampe - but I look forward to reading more!

*Please note that this review is based off of the 193 page sampler from Netgalley, not the full book. Review is subject to change when/if the full book is read.*

4 stars

When I requested this on Netgalley, I didn't know this was a sampler. Alas.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy what part of the book I read. It's undeniable that Gratton is a good writer--you can see her technical skill and spot some of the clues she leaves for the story to further develop as a reader continues reading.

There wasn't anything that I disliked while reading, although it did get a little slow in places. Gratton's writing style is very...verbose. Not like purple prose, but she includes a lot of details in a way that I find is more characteristic to adult fantasy (such as The Night Circus and A Darker Shade of Magic) more so than young adult fantasy. There's lots of description and history interwoven into what's happening, and the paragraphs are a lot chunkier than what you might see in YA, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But this did take a little bit of getting used to for me, a young adult reader, especially because the review copy didn't let me change the formatting and shoved an entire page in one phone screen, making me squint to see the extraordinarily tiny text.

Oh yes, that definitely could have contributed to part of why I wasn't as into this book as I wanted to be--the digital copy had tiny text that was very bothersome. *sigh*

I did enjoy where the story was going though. I'm not too familiar with the King of Innis Lear fable, but I can definitely spot where Gratton wove parts of this in her own story. I think the sisterly (and family in general) dynamics were portrayed very well and there was a strong something bubbling up between them.

The whole purpose of the sampler was to hook the reader and I definitely was intrigued as to where the story would go from here. You don't get a giant sense of the plot of the story by page 193, just parts and details. There's some things going on with Ban and one of the other countries' kings, there's something going on between the older sisters, there's something else going on with so-and-so, but nothing really came together in the part of the story that I read so far.

This would probably be my biggest complaint--I wasn't sure where the story was going to go.

But overall, I did enjoy what I read and will most likely seek out the full book in the library's catalogue.

The language of the opening was a little overwrought for my tastes, but once I'd had a few chapters to sink into the story and establish the characters' framework in my mind, I devoured this excerpt. The writing is lush with tones of darkness underscoring everything, which effectively conveys the feeling that the island of Innis Lear is on the precipice of disaster. There are just enough tantalizing details to create a moody, sorrowful feeling. Each character is meticulously crafted; they are fully-rounded with strengths and weaknesses that play off each other in an intricate, ever-shifting balance of power, with hidden motivations lurking behind known agendas. I'm enamored with this story of sisterhood, legacies, loss and a grasping quest for the crown.

I was very excited when I heard about this book, it would be a retelling of king lear of shakespeare with game of thrones elements. The reviews were full of praise and I was super happy when I saw that this book was on netgalley as read now.

I started reading enthusiastically, but I had some trouble getting into the story. Where I liked reading from the different princesses in Three dark crowns, I often found it confusing here. Which meant it took me more time to get into this book than I expected. I thought that was a shame because it did take away from my enthusiasm for the book a bit. But I read on and eventually I certainly came into the story. But was this also the story I had hoped for?

I must confess that I am less enthusiastic about this book, I might have had too high expectations for the story which makes me disappointed. But I expected a kind of three dark crowns a book that would hold me and where I would like to know what was going to happen. But unfortunately I did not find this in this book. I also missed the game of thrones element a bit. Where I expected more violence and politics, I did not really find that. It all remained somewhat superficial and I did not really like the characters enough to really connect with them.

Is this book so bad? No, the story is very good in itself and there are good moments in the book. I do not give it three stars for nothing. For example, the setting is very cool, the idea that people let themselves be led by the stars and what they predicted was really cool. Also the fact that certain characters could talk with trees I found very cool.

All in all, this is a nice book for in between but for me it did not make the expectations.

There’s a lot to admire about this retelling of King Lear with its representation of female characters of colour and beauty and non-gender conforming characteristics. It also has a strong setting in a world of strange and powerful magic, with a rich history and intricate politics. But that didn’t stop it from being a struggle to read at times. The pace is slow, the narrative constantly swapping between a range of characters as well as taking trips into the past. However, it is also beautifully written with lovely lyrical passages and even bits of Shakespeare dotted here and there.

My biggest problem was the characters – and the fact that I struggled to like any of them. Oldest sister Gaela is full of rage and passion, but is also ambitious and selfish and more prone to hate than love. Middle sister Regan is beautiful and cunning, also ambitious and rather single-minded in her selfish pursuit of her goals. But those are the older sisters and we aren’t supposed to really like them, though I did at times feel for both. Gaela because of the prophecy over her mother’s death and how that impacted everything about her, and Regan for her desire to be a mother and the love she had for her husband. None of that stopped them from being difficult to like, but they’re the bad sisters, so that was mostly expected.

Elia was worse, because we’re supposed to like her, to get behind her, to want her to win. But she’s so whiny and passive, letting everyone make all the decisions for her because she just wants everyone to love each other – while she herself doesn’t want to love anyone because… of some suspect reasoning. I had hopes for her as the book progressed, but even when she seems ready to take control of things, she still waits for everyone else to make the decisions and gets annoyed when others step in to her passive void. Yet everyone loves her because she’s Elia, the youngest fairytale princess, and that’s how the story goes.

Away from the three sisters there’s Lear, who is mad and has little personality beyond his Shakespearean role. There is also Ban, who for most of the book was the one character I liked. He’s the antagonist in all, as apt to take action as Elia is to sit back and wait. He’s not good and he’s certainly not innocent, but he is interesting. His magic is dark and earthy and I really liked how he made things work. But, alas, as the book went on I liked him less. Mostly it was when he got mixed up with Regan that I lost all liking for him. With everything he knew, everything he’d been, that sudden swerve made little sense to me – except to serve the narrative. We also have Mars, the foreign king, who falls for Elia for no obvious reason and is a real whiny wet blanket considering what he’s supposed to be. He and Elia deserved each other, they could talk in drips.

Other characters pop up here and there, with the men usually being lacklustre and ineffective and the women having a little more life. I would have liked to have seen more of Brona, the Witch of the White Forest, but sadly we spent more time with Elia’s maid and best friend who kept trying to show how great Elia was, but left me unconvinced.

Which is a shame, because the world this is set in is rich and detailed and I loved the magic. There’s the cold and distant star magic of charts and prophecies, and the worm magic of trees and dirt and life and root water. Whenever the magic got involved everything became more interesting, it’s just a shame the characters kept getting in the way. The plot too has plenty of potential, taking what it needs from the play and embellishing – particularly with regard to the lost queen. But the pace is slow and tended to drag and with all the tension that builds and builds, I found the ending slightly anticlimactic. Which left me feeling rather flat about the whole book. The idea was interesting, the magic and world is great, but in the end it just didn’t quite live up to all it might have been.

When I originally downloaded this copy, I was not aware that it was a preview. Unfortunately, I cannot provide a review of a preview. Thank yoU!

DNF'd at 28%.

The Queens of Innis Lear is a retelling of Shakespeare’s King Lear. This fantasy story begins when the king decides to abdicate the throne to give the crown to one of his three daughters. There are different POVs and I was intrigued by the three sisters, but I couldn't stand Tessa Gratton's writing and there is barely no plot during the 28% I've read. Everything was too confuse, the pacing was unbearably slow and I couldn't connect with any character. So I decided to DNF'd this book. It wasn't for me at all.

This is fantastic so far. The world-building is convincing, and the three sisters come across as distinct personalities. I definitely want more, so I've preordered the book and will give a full review once I've read it.

I requested the full version of this book after finding out this was only a preview. I'll leave my complete review there!

I only got the preview excerpt, so I can't really review this book.
The rating is based on the first 200 pages, I will definetly continue reading this book as soon as I own the rest!

I received an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.
I am disappointed to say that I didn’t finish this book. Try as I may, I had to force myself to even get to the halfway point, and couldn’t work up the energy to continue.
This book had so much RIGHT with it! I adore the King Lear retelling, the story, the world, and even the writing. What I could not get past was the MILLION character POVs. Even that wouldn’t be a death knell (Game of Thrones and Six of Crows prove that many POVs isn’t always bad) but it was that I found myself uncaring of even one of the characters among the masses. I can forgive a lot of things in a story, but I HAVE to feel something for the cast.
I may revisit this at a later time (I hate having a DNF book) but it won’t be any time soon.

The kingdom of Innis Lear has been drained of it's magic and vitality due to the decisions of an old king obsessed with prophecies. Enemies know the country is weak and are willing to do what it takes to wrest some control into their own hands. The king's three daughters, Gaela (ready to do anything for war), Reagan (cunning and manipulative), and Elia (almost a perfect Disney-esque princess) know that a new monarch needs to be crowned to bring the kingdom back to its old power and defend itself, but their father won't select an heir until the longest night of the year when prophesies will align. The three sisters are unwilling to wait and let such an important decision be left to chance so they must prepare for war while their island kingdom must brace itself for the fallout of a house divided.

Firstly, I want to mention that the ARC I received from NetGalley was only a "Preview Excerpt", which means that instead of getting the complete 576 page long ARC we get give or take 200 pages. It just seems to randomly stop at that point rather than coming to a end at a decent point. Regardless, my review is of the first ~35% of the novel that I had access to - and unfortunately, I'm not all that interested in coming back for the rest of the story. The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton is one of those novels where I preferred the concept behind the story to the actual execution of it - I mean, as soon as I heard King Lear retelling I was there. The author writes beautifully and the story is full of potential, but the pacing just barely creeps by. Not much of anything actually happens in the pages I did have access to read. There are about six P.O.V. characters, by the way, and I was expecting to really be fascinated by three complex sisters, but I didn't find myself interested in them. I preferred the characters of Ban the Fox and Aefa, but they don't get nearly enough page time during their P.O.V. chapters. In the end, everything comes across as far too flat and distant for me to really get attached to Gratton's story.

Overall. I had high hopes for what I got to read of The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton, but unfortunately it just wasn't my cup of tea. I was too disconnected throughout, didn't find myself interested in following any of the main cast, and the pace was crawling. While Gratton's writing style is certainly beautiful, if the first 35% from my preview excerpt is anything to go by I highly doubt I'll be back for the final section. Too many books, too little time.

The Queens of Innis Lear was not my cup of tea. Not because it was badly written, that wasn't it. Gratton can write a book and I'm sure that this book will be liked a lot by some people, I'm just not one of them. My big issue with this book is that even though it was written with skill, it is a very, very strange book. The characters are strange, the world is strange, the writing is strange, everything about it is. And most of the time strange is good because it sets a book apart from other books (which this book managed to do) but it was a little too strange for me.
The book starts of without any real introduction (other than the prophecy like prologue) which left me scrambling to understand what was happening. I felt lost, a feeling that stuck with me for a while there. Suffice it to say by the time I became accustomed to the writing style I has lost interest in the book. I will commend the author on the world building--she did a good job with description--and the characters, which all where driven by interesting personal dilemmas, something which I'm sure readers will like. but I do wish the book might've maybe begun differently or maybe just narrated differently--I might have liked the book more then.
That being said kudos to the author for writing a book thats original like and different than anything I've ever read.

The Queens of Innis Lear seems to be a very intriguing fantasy novel following a set of three sisters and their struggles. From the excerpt that I have read, I quite like this book and am interested in finding out what happens next. The characters are phenomenal, the plot is intricate, and the story just flows like a dream. I will say, I wish we had more perspectives from Regan in this excerpt, though that might change when we look at the full novel. I really liked her character in particular and want to know more about her. The writing itself was beautiful, though it could be a bit too flowery at times. Certain sentences just add more of a dullness to the story than a luscious description. Other than that, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

When I first downloaded this book, I didn't realize it was a preview excerpt, so needless to say I was slightly disappointed because it wasn't the whole book... With that being said, I am definitely interested in reading the rest of the book to see how it turns out - it was intriguing so far! - but my review reflects the fact that I only read this extended ~200-page excerpt rather than the entire 576 pages.

Here are some preliminary thoughts I had about the book so far. When I read the rest of the book, I will write a full review!
--From the first few pages, I was drawn in. The writing was beautifully written and descriptive, and the world-building was interesting.
--I like the fact that we get to follow the different characters and get to know them better rather than following a single character. In a book of this scope, I feel that it works a lot better this way.
--I enjoy the fact that it is a retelling of William Shakespeare's King Lear. I never read it in high school, so I don't share the author's dislike of the play, but I did enjoy watching the play - I felt that watching Shakespeare's play beforehand gave me a better grasp on and appreciation of Gratton's retelling.

I will definitely be checking this book out when released so I can know how it ends!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an advanced copy of this eBook in exchange for an honst review!