oh nooo get back here.... i was only given a sampler of this book and I NEEED more!! I have soo many questions. When do i get answers what do i do in the meantime? work? ewwww... I need the book release

First of all, thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a sneak peak of this book, I’m always grateful for the opportunity to give my honest opinion.

This is another novel which has me utterly gripped, one concept I really enjoyed from the excerpt I read was, the idea that magical imprints can occur of past, staple and crucial events. Whether or not this can be seen by all of the kingdoms people or just the protagonist, I don’t know but I honestly can’t wait to get my hands on this book!! 

It’s so immersive and picturesque, you can see the scenes in the book so clearly in your mind, and I adore books who enable you to delve into your imagination.

I am interested to see how the rest of this book reads, as I had some real Sarah J Maas vibes when reading the sample, and I love ACOTAR and the TOG series! With that being said, I do feel like it was quite similar to other YA fantasy novels I have read, so I am excited to see if that changes at all, as it was difficult to tell with just reading the sample.

***will update review if/when I get the rest of the book***

I made the same mistake twice. I would love to read this book, but the version I download is simply selections from the story. As I don't like spoilers, I will look for the final book rather than reading these selections.

While I have heard great things about this series I must admit I struggled a lot with this book. While the book certainty picks up near the second half, the first half has a lot of parts that feel unnecessary and tedious. Bottom line is you have to get through a lot of filler before you get to the good stuff which was tough.

The Queen's Assassin begins in a fantastic nation called Avantine, under the tyrannical reign of Phras. Before long the narrative switches to an eighteen-year-old named Shadow. It is a fight between good and evil, the Hearthstone Guild and the Aphrasians. The Aphrasians have been conquered but are they truly squashed or have they been simply taking their time?
My favorite character was Shadow. She's a smart, magical girl with a strong will. While the characters didn't seem to really come to life for me, they are still not bad. I really liked the queen's introduction. It's one that makes you  try to guess. It didn't seem smooth enough for me though. I'd recommend this book for older teens as the main character are that age, not neccessarily is it inapropriate, though, so it can still be read by younger teens.

Right off the bat, the world building is really well written and helpful for giving me that foundation moving forward into the story. The characters all do come of the page quite nicely and there’s enough information to keep me moving along with them at a good pace. I’m excited to read more.

I was provided with an ARC excerpt in exchange for providing an honest review. At first I didn’t realize it was just the first portion of the novel and was so disappointed I have to wait now to read the rest of the book when it comes out! 🙈📚

I’ve had other books of Melissa De La Cruz on my TBR for a while so when I stumbled across this on my NetGalley I couldn’t pass it up. The parts of the book I had the pleasure of reading were straightforward and an easy reading level for me. It’s a YA fantasy novel geared towards a younger audience but was still a fun read. The book has a great setup with a lot of history upfront and the characters seemed interesting! Recommend for anyone looking for an early-SJM (aka Throne of Glass) feel with assassins, romance and forbidden magic. 


My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝐄𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 ✔️
𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐌𝐞 
𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 / 𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭 ✔️
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 
𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠  ✔️

hovering between 2.5-3stars.

The Queen's Assassin was just OK for me; the plot was alright but fell flat..... there was something missing....something that could have taken it closer to a 3 or even 3.5-star rating. I've been trying to figure out what was that missing thing and I think that there wasn't enough development of the plot and characters because I had trouble connecting to the characters...maybe because there were so many POVs and not enough follow-through?

The cover is gorgeous though; I really do appreciate beautiful cover art.

This was a sample provided of the book. I enjoyed the beginning of this book and will definitely be buying to finish!

Fantastic start to a book! I have just finished the sampler with the first couple of chapters and I must say, I am intrigued! I like where the storyline seems to be going. I will have to pick up a copy of this for myself so I can see how the story unfolds!

It was good, but I'm honestly just more confused than anything right now. There was a lot of information packed into those 30-ish pages, most of which never actually got explained. I understand it's a fantasy novel but throwing readers in blind isn't the greatest move.

From my sampler, “The Queen’s Assassin” details an ambitious girl named Shadow who aims to join the Guild despite her aunts. While exploring, she comes upon Caledon Holt, the Queen’s Assassin. Like his father, he is obligated to discover the missing Deian Scrolls.

While I do love the premise of this book, I did not enjoy the “information dump” that came my way in the prologue explaining Renovia and the Aphrasians. I found it difficult to follow because of the names’ unfamiliarity, so I had to constantly reread passages. As for Shadow, I admired her bravery but would prefer more character depth into her history and aspirations for the rest of the novel. I also noticed that there was a lot more “tell” than “show” to describe her emotions and feelings in the narration. Overall, a good read!

I was only give the first few chapters to read from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review so I'll try as best I can. 

The things I did like? The whole beginning. The Queen in trouble alone because the King is dead and she's afraid for her child so she makes a magic promise to her assassin? I love that. I wish the whole book had been that and continued from there instead of jumping ahead. 

I felt like Violla was stale and boring the bit I got to read of her. She didn't do much but seemed to know everything in order for me to catch up to the jump ahead in years. The whole 'living in the woods away from Queen mom because of the evil people coming to get me' is very overdone in my opinion. 

I don't think I'll look for more of this one.

I loved the preview of this book! I was sucked in and now I can't wait to read the whole book! The story line sounds great and I can't wait to find out what adventures are to come!

I really, really wanted to like this book. I just finished up Alex & Eliza by this author and honestly really enjoyed it, so perhaps I came into this one with my hopes a little higher than they should have been. 

First of all, while I can tell the story has promise... much of that promise feels like a rehash of so many other titles that have recently been in the spotlight. The book starts off with a history lesson that, to me, is painfully reminiscent of the opening to The Fellowship of the Ring - by which I mean tedious and a wee bit dull, with far too great of an information dump all at once with seemingly little reason other than, 'hey, have an excerpt of a book within a book'. Honestly, that part was so difficult for me to get around, it made the first bits of the actual story a little bland, because... How did I wind up in history class? It was just really off-putting to be painfully honest. While I was somewhat interested towards the end of the sampler, I was not invested enough to go out and spend my money on what feels like essentially a recycled mashup of recent best sellers. Sorry, but I'm going to have to give this one a pass on further reading - or maybe wait for it to hit library shelves.

Okay so I had low expectations for this book. I wasn’t fully sure what it was about and hadn’t heard about it much before. And wow did it exceed every expectation I had. Let’s start off with the female main character rescuing the male....I mean what more could I ask for? Oh wait the TWO LOVE INTERESTS AND ONE BED!! ~sexual tension~ 
Altogether the banter, romance, and storyline were great and I can’t wait to read the next book!

The Queen's Assassin - 4 Stars

One of my go-to types of novels is anything that has to be with royalty, and when I saw this title - I knew I had to try it out. I'm upset that the entire book isn't out as the sample had a lot of information that I feel would be very important to remember for the rest of the book. Starting with the history of the world and moving towards the king's death during a battle, we meet Queen Lillian, who asks Kings Assasin if he will make a vow to her. Over 18 years later, Shadow is introduced who wants to be apart of the guild after being taught by her aunts while her mom was on the queen's court. Caldon, now the queen's assassin, starts a journey to find the Deian Scrolls, find the magical history, along with Shadow. and then the sample ended.  I will be added this one to TBR. 

I was provided this sample of The Queen's Assassin for my honest opinion. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for this sample.

AHHHH

Oh my gosh!!! This sampler was soooooo good!!!!! Even though it was only a few chapters, it engaged me so much and made me want to read the actual book when it comes out. I've read and heard of a few other books by this author so I was very intrigued. After reading this, I can't wait till February Second and I can't wait to learn more about this world and the characters. (I loved the characters so much as well)

I can tell that this is going to turn out to be a fantastic series.

I mean, the title!! THE TITLE!! I love books with assassins, haha.

Anyway, once this book comes out, I highly recommend it. (at least from what I've read in the sampler :)

Even though this was only just a sample... it has left me craving more!! 

I have read the Blue Blood series by this author before years ago, and I can already tell that this book is most likely going to be so much better!! 

I can not wait until the book is released so I can read the entirety of it!