Queen of All is a moving and imaginative debut. Jena’s journey is beautifully written—her loneliness, courage, and growth are deeply relatable. The prose is lyrical, the world-building vivid, and the representation (queer, plus-size, Jewish) feels authentic and seamlessly woven into the story.

The pacing and emotional depth kept me engaged throughout.. Overall, it’s a powerful, heartfelt YA fantasy that leaves me eager to follow Jena into the next chapter of her story.

This sounded like it would be an interesting fantasy, but the writing didn’t click for me and I couldn’t get into it. Just a case of being the wrong audience for the book, and not something wrong with the book itself.

There was nothing really "wrong" with this book,--it's just that nothing really was great, either.

I think the main issue, from which everything else stemmed, was that the main character had exactly zero impact on the plot until the last 40 or so pages. Things happen TO Jena, or AROUND Jena, but never BECAUSE OF Jena, and it makes for some very bland reading. You can skim almost the entire book and still get every single plot point (of which there are still not very many).

It's well-written, and there's a great premise, and the end shows a lot of promise for the next book in the series--but this book could be about nine pages long and still lose nothing of value or relevance.


***Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book to review.***

This story is a Fantasy filled adventure that explore traumas and the complexities of friendship. With the whimsy of young-Adult, the story weaves together past and present hurts that reveal how the inherited pain shapes relationships with friends, though also offering a glimmer of hope for healing.

Published: 06.09.2021

Overall Ratings:
4/5 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I forgot to posted this previously. When I did finished this book, it tried to hooked me in the beginning. I think it did picked up the paced a bit after a couple chapters. Our main FMC (female character) is named Jeni and her cousin invites her to a ball. This is where Jeni finds herself in a self discovery of love, friendship and adventure.

This story is a Fantasy filled adventure that explore traumas and the complexities of friendship. With the whimsy of young-Adult, the story weaves together past and present hurts that reveal how the inherited pain shapes relationships with friends, though also offering a glimmer of hope for healing.

As the story unfolds the characters draw us into their lives, uncovering the layers of pain, magic, and love that coexist within their relationships. The author is a master who captures the nuances of family dynamics, loyalty, jealousy, magic and a sprinkle of love.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to read this early. Review has been posted on Waterstones and Amazon.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I finally got a change to finish Queen of All. It had a strong beginning and I felt really interested early on in the story, but it fell a little flat as nothing really happened. Also would have appreciated some romance in the story! Overall was just an OK read but if it not for receiving an ARC, I wouldn’t have finished.

I didn't enjoy this book that much it fell a bit flat. character development and worldbuilding weren't all the way there, and I got a little bored halfway through.

Such a great book! I enjoyed reading this one so much! I highly recommend this book. Side note: the cover!!!!

Hard hard pass. This was just for me... The characters felt boring and no growth. Stuff happend but, it was just... meh?

The writing was beautiful and the characters felt very realistic. It portrayed unrequited affection well, and I definitely do plan on reading the sequel! Personally, however, the book fell short with its plot, pacing, and world building (or lack thereof). Certain unimportant things felt very dragged out, but conflict was resolved too quickly. I would also love for the world to be explored in more detail in the sequel, because there wasn’t much for us to work off of. Overall, I’m glad I read this book, even if it did have some flaws.

I am so grateful with Net galley and Gen Z Publishing for giving me this ARC in exchange of an honest opinion.
This book has a story that take me a lot, or for me, it was so difficult to end the reading. But it is entertaining. Really entertaining.
The story is about this girl that lives on kind of like a province or something like that. One day her cousin gets a letter from the prince. They make a journey to the palace and get there. There Jena explores a new world in the palace.
What I liked a lot is this story and the way the author narrated it. The story contains a little adventure, romance, emotions. What more can I say? I liked it a lot.
3.5 STARS

If you like magic, unrequited love, turmoil and an evil prince then this book maybe for you. This is basically a coming of age story it follows Jena and Sisi growing into women. Jena struggles with her unrequited love towards Sisi. I think this is a really great story. I really enjoyed the story development and world building. I would recommend to anyone that is looking for a coming of age story starting a lgbtq main character. Its a great read.

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

In the Kingdom in which Jeni resides, there are two types of houses: those that are Numbered and those that are not. Those who are Numbered are those who are eligible for succession to the throne, like Jeni’s best friend and cousin Sisi. But Jeni is just an average farm girl with no thought that she’d ever get close to the royal court — until Sisi is summoned by the crown prince to the City, in what seems an attempt to woo her. Jeni and her Aunt Mae travel with Sisi to the royal palace, where Sisi, suspicious of the prince’s intentions, enlists Jeni’s help in learning about the prince’s role in the death of Sisi’s parents. But when Sisi does fall in love, Sisi must decide how far she’s willing to go to help Sisi’s dreams come true, when those dreams no longer involve Jeni.

This is a YA fantasy that follows a well-known path — a young and stunningly beautiful women with humble upbringing meets the prince and fall in love. But in this book, we get the story of that woman’s best friend, who is grappling with her sexuality and romantic feelings for her best friend. There’s a particular scene with Jeni and her aunt, as Jeni is starting to understand her feelings for Sisi, that was I really loved. It also highlights that queerness is relegated to the shadows in the kingdom. I was intrigued by Jeni’s story, especially once I learned about her mother’s strange departure from her life as an infant.

The pacing of the book felt somewhat off — a lot of time passed through the book with nothing to mark the changing of time. The author may have had some key milestones to meet but was unsure of how to put them together. While Jeni and Sisi (and their aunt, to a degree) had strongly developed characters, the rest of the characters were more like line drawings than full fleshed characters. Additionally, this book seems to be more of a set up novel for more action-packed sequel(s). That being said, I enjoyed the book, and I’ll likely read the next installments!

I really enjoyed this fantasy read, the characters were really well done and I enjoyed the world that was built in this book. Loved getting to know Jena and Sisi.

I LOVE WHEN AUTHORS GIVE PLUS SIZE REP IN BOOKS! That was my main pull to read this one! This is a great YA, LGBTQ+ novel that has wonderful story telling!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book was such a beautiful story, and look at the cover, I love it so much. Read this book, you won't be disappointed.