trigger warning
<spoiler> torture, child neglect, implied cannibalism </spoiler>

Today, Klara starts her new job as waitress in a tavern, which will bring her one step closer to be able to run away. She'll need money - she'll need to bribe people. Because her father is the devil and three wicked queens act as her guardians.

This made sense to me in the beginning. In order to pursue her dream, a free life, she tries to earn herself some money but loses her new position as she discovers her employees smuggle human flesh which a) is illegal because b) if the wrong creatures eat it, they'll turn into ghouls. It comes to a fight and as she has had supreme combat training, she wins, if wounded.
But as I saw that she just lost her heart to be very edgy and that her name is Klara Morningstar, I knew this would be a hard read because I stopped reading fanfics years ago with the reasoning that with published books at least a professional would have edited it.

Yeah, it read like a fanfic. Klara is not like other girls. She is lonely, isolated, has been tortured and is so brave and intelligent and cunning and beautiful and she's in love with the bad boy she can't have.

So, Lucifer shipped her from hell to a place called Malum which is ruled by three queens: Eve, Lillith and Abadon. A sorceress, a warrior and a demon. A big point is made about Lillith having been the person who trained Klara, a training so hard it was torture, so she can stand what life will throw at her later. Eve, who would have been responsible for her knowledge and magic abilities neglected to do so, instead pointing her ward in the direction of the library. Abalon was responsible for... ah... nothing. But still, we're told that all three of them left their mark and balanced each other out.
The author makes sure to let you know that Klara's magical abilities are mostly based on instinct, because apparently the library is rubbish when it comes to that topic - and yet, in the last third of the book, Klara has one amazing spell after the other that will help to solve a problem.

Klara wants to flee because her life has been misery. She knew, or thought she knew, that the queens hated her, wanted her dead, and she longs for a life without constant threat, without endless training. She has been isolated, parted from her best friend she also has a crush on, on purpose. She immediately takes to the travel companions she ends up with, and does everything to save them, especially a child. It's not explained why, and feels like character inconsistency as it's not adressed in any way. When was the last time she felt companionship? Does she remember that, or are these new feelings? Or does she feel more maternal? Maybe she even comes to realise she'll have to rule and will protect her own, or percieves them as her property?
There is no way to know. What could have been an interesting angle has been completely ignored.

I can live with there being a lot typos in an advanced reading copy that is not supposed to be the finished product. Yes, it was annoying, but I am just going to assume somebody will have done something about that before printing.
What I really, really, really dislike is the inconsistency in pronouns. In the beginning, I was glad as a demon was described with they/them pronouns. In the bible, angels are depicted as genderless, which makes them non-binary in my mind. Demons are fallen angels and their offspring. It makes sense to use they/them pronouns. That was a point I noted positively. And then it pronouns were used for the same characters, not once, but multiple times. Yeah, thank you for that one.
This non binary reader is not amused.

We could talk about the author sticking to Latin, but at this point I just want to get this review over with. Just let me say that Latin is not that old and totally overrated when it comes to fantasy as a genre. If you want to portray beings as being eons old, either give them more than one language or chose something that has been around for longer. Sumerian is always a safe bet - you know, the first language we have written evidence of. You could even ignore that and chose the language of birds the people supposedly spoke before the tower of Babel and all of that confusion, or invent a celestial language like they did in Penny Dreadful.

As it stands, I got the impression that they saw that Holly Black's Folk of the Air trilogy and Netflix' Chilling Adventures of Sabrina are popular and mashed everything together without thinking about it too deeply.

One star. Read it if you love reading badly written books, ignore it otherwise.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Crowned A Traitor had an amazing idea. I really enjoyed the ideas that this book presented with the daughter of hell literally getting her heart ripped out in the first chapter(so fun). Klara is a likeable character from the start who, while still a bit evil, really is different from the people around her. I liked the three "stepmothers" that she had and her half sibling even more. I do feel that the book was a bit dense especially in the beginning, but it does get a bit better towards the middle. I also felt the transition from her going to get a job at a pizza place to the rest of the story was a bit choppy. Overall, a fun read even if it did need a bit more direction.

Received a free copy from NetGalley, in exchange for a review.

Crowned a Traitor by Kate Callaghan is the story of Klara, daughter of Lucifer, and her escape from the dangerous land of Malum. She is pursued by dangerous Queens, various Creatures, and her own father.

The first thing to mention is the gorgeous map design. It was beautiful and I could imagine it being hand-drawn by Klara.
There were a couple of tense, comma, and capitalization issues throughout the book. These do become quite distracting, which is frustrating, especially during more intense scenes.

In terms of word-building, I really enjoy the mesh of our world and the other world, even extending to the food like with the pizza. I loved the suturing spiders. That was a brilliant invention for the world that I haven’t seen in other fantasy novels. I also loved the image of the River Styx being made of ink and water. There’s lots of really creative and visual things like this in the book. Additionally, I really liked all the detailed mentions of different stories and mythologies, it made Malum feel like an opposite enchanted forest.

The mythology is really, really complex, which is great, but a lot of it comes in chunks of exposition so it’s hard to wrap your head around it and get used to it. I wish there was a glossary of creatures or something. And on the opposite end, there’s a lot of creatures and bits that are sort of thrown in with no explanation at all. The balance wasn’t there yet.

There were a couple of really bold choices with the plot, especially with the Ghouls. That actually made my skin crawl.

However, I did feel that a lot of the book was an incredibly slow-paced intro. And then, the last 50 pages are a wild twist and turn of insane plot twists going way, way too fast with almost no build-up. Callaghan could have cut 50 pages from the beginning and used them to really flesh out the ending. There were multiple plot points that really needed to be teased or built up, because I didn’t understand them in the end. Namely, Klara’s wings and Arthur’s cuff. As well as, most of the ending plot twists, especially the one with Wolfgang and Frendallz

I didn’t really believe either love story, as I felt that we as the reader got little insight into why or how the romantic interests came about. I think Wolfgang was much more fleshed out than Frendall, but that sort of became a moot point.

I also wish the synopsis had been more accurate, because the plot it described hadn’t begun halfway through the book, and the characters it mentioned, beyond Klara, hadn’t appeared. I was interested in what was happening, but I’d been expecting that plot for a while now, which left me less focused on everything else.

You might also notice I’m not really talking about characters much. For me, none of them were very interesting or compelling. There were a lot of plot convenient mind changes or reveals, but not a lot of depth to anyone. Even Klara, I didn’t really understand her enough to see why she was doing things or acting in certain ways.

So. Did I love this book? No. But it was an entertaining read, and the world was really interesting. I’d like to see Callaghan give herself more time to dive into her intricate worlds, deepen her characters, and pull back on the plot twists (unless seeded).

For me, this one is a 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for Goodreads.

I was intrigued by the storyline of the book - daughter of Lucifer, in line for the throne of Hell, but she doesn’t want it. She attempts to run, but the Queens of Hell have different plans. Story ended up being ok, but it was not well written. Notes below:
Book needed some editing with paragraphing, some paragraphs seem to run together or gaps in the timelines aren’t split up well
Sentence structure is too much the same throughout the book - “Klara” used a lot to start sentences, change up sentence structure some
The story is very rushed. Very limited world building and no background on why Klara wants to leave hell. Story jumps very sporadically - daughter of hell is all we know before she’s running for her life. Why? - Also dialogue jumps emotion a lot, happy to angry to a totally different subject too quickly
Last comment - What’s the story with the Fae, all we know is they seem to be bad, no back story.

Note: I received an ebook copy of Crowned a Traitor via NetGalley in order to review it.

I was interested in Crowned a Traitor initially because I thought the description was intriguing and I was drawn to the cover (it is cool, isn’t it?). I somehow missed the bit about heir to Hell when I was reading the description (it focused more on Malum), which was my bad. I liked the idea of a girl destined for royalty who wanted to escape. Unfortunately, Crowned a Traitor was a major disappointment.

Let’s talk about the things I did like. To be clear, there were some interesting ideas here. Malum is a kingdom created for the Fae undesirables, and I thought that was a unique concept. Klara also has some unique abilities; for one, she is able to disperse glamours. Lastly, I must admit I like the cover art.

Unfortunately, the unique ideas were about all I liked in Crowned a Traitor. First, the fantasy and world development. There were demons and fae and leprechauns and hobbits and ogres and trolls and ghouls and…shall I go on? There was waaay too much involved here. There were so many magical creatures that there was very little time or opportunity for their development. I also didn’t think that spiritual fantasy (angels, demons, etc) worked very well with fairy tales (fae, leprechauns, etc). I don’t know what to think about the huge number of vaguely villainous creatures like ogres. It was all a bit much.

The same went for Klara’s (and other’s) magical abilities. She kept pulling new powers out of her hat and none of her abilities were fully explained. Sometimes she was incredibly weak, and other times she was unstoppable. It was very confusing, and the same power fluctuation existed for the villains. Or are they villains? Because the majority of the characters were constantly flipping between good and bad. Even Klara can’t seem to make up her mind. Will she be cruel or kind? Selfish or selfless? She waffles constantly. I guess I’m supposed to root for her anyway, but I honestly didn’t care. She couldn’t seem to decide if she was going to Kalos (the Fae kingdom) or not, so why should I care?

I never ended up caring about Klara’s relationships either. In some ways, starting Crowned a Traitor was like starting a movie that had been on for a while. There was very little development or explanation for any of Klara’s attachments. Am I supposed to feel sad her childhood best friend was tortured when I literally just discovered his existence? With no emotional buildup, none of Klara’s relationships felt genuine or important.

Lastly, there were some issues that may have been pet peeves on my part. The grammar was really bad. I understand that self-published authors don’t have the same resources as authors working with a publisher, but I would think there would be software to improve some grammatical errors. Not a big deal, but it was distracting. I also find it kind of offensive when biblical material (Eve, Garden of Eden, fall of Lucifer) is taken out of context and distorted for a fantasy novel. This may not bother everyone, but it bothered me. Having demons and hell would have been enough to get her point across without specifically referencing biblical content. Lastly, there were a lot of twists at the end that didn’t make sense. I think they were added for dramatic effect rather than actually improving the plot.

Following Good
I have already mentioned that biblical information was changed and used for fantasy purposes. God was mentioned, but only briefly. There was not a lot of language. There was LGBT content in a supporting character. There was no sexual content beyond kissing.

Rating
If it wasn’t already clear, Crowned a Traitor did not work for me. I should mention, however, that this is a self-published debut novel, which could account for some quality issues. Unfortunately, I still found the overall holes in the plot, world-building/fantasy, and characters to be too large for me so I am giving Crowned a Traitor one star.

I don't know what to make of this book, it started out gruesome yet interesting, but went downhill for a bit. The pacing was off and even though this is just over 200 pages, it felt much longer and not in a good way. I also felt like Klara was all over the place with her emotions and actions. First she hates the Queens, then one helps her, then she protects them. Klara couldn't decide if she wanted to run away from her responsibilities or stand up and help others. Sometimes she was strong and you could see the potential leader, other times she acted like a child and was irresponsible.

The ending picked up in pace, but the twist made me feel like the whole book was for nothing. Characters I liked died and not even for a good reason. I suppose the ending was happy and I liked the romance between Klara and Frendall. Lottie is also a super cute character and I want all the good things for her.
I think the author tried to do too much with a short story and it got convoluted. Maybe a more straightforward plot would have been better.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

With an intriguing, never-before-heard-of summary like that, how could I pass up the chance to read this book? Unfortunately, despite the neat plot, interesting characters, and mind-blowing worlds of Malum and Hell, I can't bring myself to give this book more than 3 stars.

For starters, the pacing was a bit too quick for my liking, especially since so much happens within its pages that seem to be brushed over, including character relationships, action and events, and a lack of internal dialogue. Additionally, there were numerous formatting issues that made my reading experience problematic (e.g. the actual dialogue, which was mashed together making it difficult to decipher who was speaking and when; missing words, inconsistent tenses, misspellings, etc.). The truth is, I found the first half of the book to be far stronger than the second half, where it began to lose steam.

As for the things I enjoyed: the mythology, the magical elements (I'd love to explore more of everyone's powers), and the interesting twist at the end regarding one particular Lycaon. Although I wish the author would have given us more details and interactions to help the reader better connect to the characters, I actually really liked Klara, Arthur, and Lilith. Heck, I even liked this portrayal of Lucifer.

All in all, it was a story brimming with brilliant ideas...that just needs a bit of tweaking and expanding upon.

This book was totally different than what I normally read, and I loved it. I've been looking for books with morally gray characters for years since I read The Young Elites, and although I wouldn't classify Klara as morally gray, I think she bordered it. i thought the concept of this was totally unique, and as soon as I read the blurb, I knew I had to have it.

First off, the world building in this was amazing. The universe this is set in contains three worlds: Kalos (the Fae realms), Hell, and Malum. Despite every world being vastly different, I could picture each one clearly in my head. The inhabitants of each realm were loveable (or in some cases not). Our main character Klara, Lucifer's heir was poised to take over ruling both Malum and Hell, and I really liked how she actually had the priorities a heir should have.

So, I've mentioned a bit of the plot above, and I can't give much more because of spoilers, but the plot in this was also great. It was definitely action packed, and at times confusing, but it never lagged. It combined a few epic fights, a bit of politics, and a yearning for freedom masterfully until its climax. In the blurb, we are promised a leprechaun smuggler, and I was slightly disappointed that he only made a few appearances, but the rest of the crew was there.

Now, there is a slight romance in this, but its not a huge part of the story. I almost wish we had gotten a bit more of it, because it would've given the action a break. Regardless, I enjoyed its inclusion, and can totally see the characters thriving together. I liked all of the characters in this, especially Wolfgang and Lottie, who really added a bit of comedic relief to the story.

After all of my praise, my 4 star rating really comes from something that is a direct consequence of receiving an arc of this book. I struggled to enjoy this book at times because dialogue would be smashed together, making it difficult to understand who was talking, and because of some grammar mistakes. Both of those will hopefully be fixed, so then I can see my enjoyment of this going way up. I would totally recommend this book!

The story had me captivated, drawn in and engrossed from the beginning and I couldn't put it down. It is a well-written book, however there is a lack of conversation indentation/separators so it is hard to tell who is talking in each group or paragraph of words, some spelling and grammatical errors throughout the ebook.

Crowned a Traitor was far from what I expected. I absolutely loved this book and the characters (well some of them I didn't), they were written so well in how they behaved personally or..demonishly (completely irreverent)?? As well as how they interacted with others.

There are so many twists to this and quite a few things that I was not expecting at all!! I would have loved this book more if there hadn't been as many grammatical errors, spelling errors and other errors. Hopefully these will be corrected.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Crowned A Traitor honestly sounded like a pretty cool and dark fantasy book that I needed in my life. However, the beginning started off pretty slowly for me. Then I had a few boring chapters that I just wanted to skim through. Yet, I kept chugging along with this book and even gave myself some - yay you read a chapter here's some cheese!

In it, you will meet Klara who is the heir to Lucifer. She isn't sure who her mom is but she has to play nice with the High Queen while they "train" her. Out of them all, I loved Lilith. She was the only who took her role seriously and protected Klara ruthlessly. She was her mother figure in a way without knowing who her true mom was.

Then you get the feeling that something isn't quite right. The entire time I was just focused on who the "traitor" really was. I also didn't trust anyone when it came to things in this book. I had so many theories as to what was going to happen and how.. but I was way off. Especially towards the end of the book.

"Crowned a Traitor" follows Klara, the daughter of Lucifer and heir of Hell on her perilous journey to escape Malum and the Queens that rule it. As she travels through Malum towards Kalos, she meets a Leprechaun, two Lycaons and an old Warlock who are all willing to help her make her journey and defeat her foes.

I really enjoyed this book and how it weaved different legends and myths together; it truly made for a unique world that I could fully immerse myself into. Not only that but the characters were all so different, multi-faceted and unique. I enjoyed the different relationships between the characters and how they developed over the course of the book. Klara was a great protagonist; she was three dimensional, had some cool skills and she had a pretty rad character development throughout the book (even though she did at times sway back and forth between her convictions).
The three Queens of Malum all had different personalities and specialties. On top of that the dynamic between themselves and between them and Klara was a joy to read about, especially as the story progressed, conflicts arose and sides were chosen.
The last quarter of the book was extremely fast paced with multiple revelations and plot twists that I didn't see coming.
The ending of the book expertly set up the next installment in this series and I cannot wait to read it.

The only thing that I can truly criticize is that the book got a bit confusing when the plot moved too fast. Other than that "Crowned A Traitor" is an extremely fun book and unlike anything I have ever read before.

I found the story and world in this book really compelling. It was incredibly interesting, and I wanted to know more with every page turn. I think, however, in an attempt to both world build and create excitement for a first book in a series- we lost some character development. It was sometimes difficult to tell who was saying what, and Klara’s internal dialogue was often…said aloud. Had this book been either a little longer, or, the sequel well promised already, I think we would have gotten more justice. I really enjoyed the way that Callaghan wrote of these classic characters in such a new way. The ending felt a little tidied up too much for my taste. It was then unraveled for there to make space for a sequel, and I feel a little confused about what the sequel would even be. I would love to see more of Lottie and Klara, and am intrigued if anything to see where this journey will go.

Read full review 9/7/2020

It was very difficult to rate this book. The first 80 pages were absolutely fantastic – bloody, macabre, and thoroughly entertaining. The main heroine Klara was the villainous lead I have been waiting for some time. As Lucifer’s daughter and Heir to Hell, raised by three cruel and demonic queens, she definitely had a tough head on her shoulders and was a skilled killer.

Alas, those first chapters were the best. Once Klara went to visit her father in Hell, a very unnecessary romance sub-plot was inserted. The first pages alluding to it set it up as something having more potential, but that was wasted for a classic mushy-gushy tortured love story.

Unfortunately, the book only went downhill from there. What I thought of as a 4-star read turned to be only worth 3. The saving grace of ‘Crowned A Traitor’ was Lilith. She was awesome as a queen and as a sapphic character in general. Her and Klara’s relationship was done very well. Their bond was unique and as loving as you can expect from a demon and their trainee.

The most disappointing thing was the second half/the ending. It went nowhere and in circles. When Klara was running into danger, her companions kept shouting “Don’t!” and Klara always went “I will!”. She never learned from her mistakes, no matter how many times her actions had consequences. The argument happened at least four times, and. every. single. time. Klara was proven wrong and yet…. It didn’t help that spelling and grammar mistakes became more frequent and more annoying. The final chapters weren’t good at all, and I don’t even want to discuss them.

I wish this were the 4-star book I was promised in the first pages. I loved them with all my heart.

Content warnings: blood, graphic violence, off-page mention of starving a character, mention of torture, minor self-harm for a ritual, off-page death of two queer characters, mention of cannibalism.

Unfortunately, this book didn't meet the expectations I had from it’s synopsis which made it seem really interesting, but unfortunately it was too chaotic, too much mixing of mythology that just didn’t work, it felt also like it needed more editing and work on the grammar etc . Just not for me unfortunately

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I had mixed feelings about this book. I was enjoying the book till about half way through. And without giving too many spoilers, the book brings on a huge trope. That I nearly put the book down to not finish it. But surprisingly it all turned out better then expected.

This was a good stand alone. It’s getting harder and harder for books to stay stand alone and then we get these 6-7 book series. Which is great and all. But I like me a good stand alone every so often.

This was honestly so much fun! I really enjoyed the references to mythology and the intriguing world building around hell. All the characters were interesting to learn about. The dark Forrest was a curious aspect to the story. (Also, can I just mention, it’s great to find a fantasy story that isn’t a thousand pages long.) I will definitely be continuing on with this series,

I didn't know what to expect when I first started reading Crowned a Traitor. I certainly didn't expect the main character to try a new waitress job in a very special restaurant where they make pizza that nobody should ever eat. When she finds out their real ingredients, her fighting skills taught by one of the three Queens that keeps her captive and "protected" will be useful. Turns out, Lucifer is her daddy and he thought she would be protected with Eve, Lilith and the High Queen. Lucifer however doesn't know everything. There's a conflict for Lucifer's throne once he'll retire. It should go to Klara but she doesn't really want it. She doesn't like Hell and spends as little time as possible there. She's not the only option and the High Queen and Eve would prefer to see their own children on the throne. This is why one day, Klara has to run.

I wish I'd loved this book more. My main problem was that I was incredibly bored in the first half of the book and after that, my mind was made up even if it became a little more interesting. It still felt like reading a 500+ pages book instead of 200 pages. It took me all day to get through this book and I wish the interesting parts would have started earlier (running with Arthur, Wolfgang and the girl). I didn't expect the last reveal about Wolfgang which left me kind of shocked but overall, I'm not really sure what to think about this book. My rating is based on my enjoyment. There was also a few typos and errors that should be edited before publication (I hope) but those didn't bother me.


(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

This was a unique book. I am not sure I really know how I feel about it. It was an interesting concept, part fairy tale, with heaven/hell thrown in. It seemed like there was too much thrown in with the fairy tale concepts, then Lucifer with good/evil theme. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.

I really loved this book and was very upset once I finished it. The plot was interesting and very easy to connect to, as were the characters. I did not lose interest at all while reading and found myself cheering for the characters (Klara is a total badass).

My one critique is that I wish the world, history, and characters were more established. The novel jumped right into plot and failed to set up the novel in the way I hoped. Although this did not negatively affect the plot, I do believe that the novel would have been enhanced if the author spent more time at the beginning really painting a picture of the world. I hope the sequel explores the history of the worlds more.

Overall, I am very impressed with this novel and the author. I tagged the author in my instagram story, she dmed me and was super sweet. I am happy to continue to support Kate and the Hellish series.

**Thank you NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review


I've just finished the last page and I have that glow you get from reading a really good story but also that disappointed feeling of having it end so soon.

I picked this book as I liked the blurb. I wasn't prepared as to how invested I was going to get in the protagonist and her journey.

The reader gets dropped into the action and world straight away. It had had me hooked from the get go. It was an engaging introduction to a dark, intriguing world - packed with fantasy creatures. It was hard to put down.

We meet Klara. None other than Lucifers daughter; being raised by three Queens (Abadan, Lilith and Eve) in Malum.
She is heiress to the throne of Hell but she doesn't want it. She wants to be free of her responsibility and harshness of her reality but that doesn't stop those who would kill her to seize it for themselves.

The author builds the world well and I didn't feel lost as some fantasy books can make you feel. So that helps to maintain momentum and understanding of the story.
The characters were well developed- I liked Klara a lot. She had different layers to her. She's neither demon or fae. She's a mix and we learn with her about who she is. She comes up against some challenges and has to work through her own. She's tough, determind and a little headstrong. But she also shows compassion which sometimes surprises herself.

Frendall was very interesting. Commander in hell; Klara's friends childhood and love interest. From the moment we meet him I was left unsure as how I felt about him. I didn't trust him inittialy but his role becomes more apparent as the story progresses. I liked his character development.

Crowned a Traitor is unique in concept and plot. Mix in some quirky and likable characters; villains you love to hate and you have a deliciously dark fairy tale.

A protagonist needs her friends on a quest. Cue Arthur the Warlock, Wolfgang and 7 year old Lottie who are Lichaons. Initially, Klara doesn't want them with her. She can and should do this herself. They will only slow her down. Or so she tells herself.

The plot twists, revelations and conclusions were very satisfying. I can't wait to read the second book.

Would I recommend this? Yes. Yes I definitely would. To those of you who like a dark and fun fairy tale.