Man, I love a good queer love story with some danger, politics, and secrets thrown in! Fans of Sarah J Maas and Claire Legrand will definitely love this book, as well. Though at the beginning I was wary of the pacing and the way in which these characters opened up to each other seemingly fast, by the halfway point, I was totally immersed and hooked. It was hard to put down. I got to the end and immediately was wishing I had the next book in my hands. Aven and Raena are both formidable in their own ways, and they make such a wonderful pair. I've been dying for more WLW romances in my fiction selections, and this 100% fit the bill.

The politics I also found to be strong. At times, I was frustrated that I couldn't figure out the secrets, and Zander felt awfully one dimensionally villainous -- but Zarana was a fantastic villain (or is she?) that is layered and you can even sympathize with. Once she became a more prominent part of the story and we saw more of her personality shine through, I was more and more intrigued. Despite how her story played out, I hope there is so much more to learn about her and the secrets she was harboring.

And that ending! Whew. I have more questions than ever.

If this could be half star ratings, I'd certainly rate it a 4.5/5 stars and will absolutely be recommending it to everyone. Brava!

3/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Thank you to the publishers and Net Galley for giving me a copy of this book! This is my honest review, all views are my own.
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So, here’s the thing: I’m super divided on what to think about this book. I enjoyed the action at the beginning, I thought the politics were kinda boring but easy to follow, I liked the romance between Raena and Aven but a little rushed, and I thought the multiple points of view were nice (except for the Queen’s, but that’s a gripe I will leave for the end). I wasn’t necessarily entertained by the pacing 100% of the time, but I didn’t think it was terribly paced. There just seemed to be a lot of traveling on horseback, with occasional fighting and info-dumping conversations. It was a nice story, but I feel like it could have been said in a much more concise way, or perhaps written without the point of view of the Queen until the very end? The writing was nice, and I really enjoyed the romance (even though it felt a little rushed)! I’m not very intrigued to read the next book, but a solid 3 stars for this!

DNF @ 40% Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC! Okay so I'm not sure if this was bad or just not my style. Either way, I tried getting through it but it just never grabbed my attention. The romance felt a bit rushed and I didn't feel like the characters had any real depth. I'm also not a big fan of medieval type books, so maybe that contributed.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. There are spoilers below, so read at your own risk.

Raena Schinen has a secret, and even being at the King's trials is jeopardising her closely guarded secret and the life she's built for herself as the Knight Sir Rowan. Raena takes it in her stride, proving her skills as a warrior, but the petty King takes slight- believing she has cheated, he exiles her to serve the beautiful Duchess Avenna (Aven), whom Raena is immediately attracted to.

This book was an engaging and fun read, with some good, well thought out world building. Raena and Aven's relationship is adorable, with a hint of forbidden love thrown in there- but not because they are both women, but because it would be inappropriate for a Duchess who is still in mourning for her late husband to bed a knight. Their flirtation is steamy and exciting, and their reunion is heart warming. They are a good fit for each other- and while I saw someone else call this insta-love, I felt like it was more like insta-attraction, where they know they want each other but they just can't quite act on it until Raena is ready to reveal her secret.

Pearce is also incredibly good at world building, the novel managed to pack a lot of information about the world, society and their cultures in without it being completely overwhelming. This also means that the language used is quite easy to read, with each chapter leaving me wanting more. I also loved the action scenes, Pearce managed to craft scenes that were high in tension and high in stakes, and placed them at the perfect points to raise the stakes- I found myself feeling tense as Raena and Aven made their way to Ediva KNOWING that they were going to be attacked, but just not WHEN.

For me, some of the things that prevented it from being a five star read is that I'm a huge fan of High Fantasy as a genre, so at times this didn't quite hit the mark. I generally like the language to be a little more sophisticated for it to be a 5* read for me, but for readers who don't like more complex writing, this would absolutely be one to pick up. The pacing needs a little work, and I bet this is something that will come with practice, as I can see this is only Book One in a series- Zarana's chapters were throwing me off every time, and they meant that we lost quite a bit of development, almost like Pearce was trying to do time jumps without writing the events happening in the jumps (such as the switch to ending the book with Zarana- this was obviously to do the big reveal, but in doing this we lost the entire process of Raena and Aven arriving at Ediva, and how they came to be trusted by the King). We also saw this earlier on, with several single chapters dedicated to Zarana's illness, when we could've spent more time setting up the reader's emotional attachment to the Colby family, as the Boen's raids felt a little less impactful than they could've been with just a little more character development from these early chapters. I will also point out that sometimes the characters know things they shouldn't (Finn knows far too much about everyone's plans), so this is something for the author to keep and eye on for future books in this series.

Traitors of the Black Crown would be great for readers who want to make that jump from Young Adult High Fantasy to Adult High Fantasy, as well as readers who want a WLW fantasy romance that has fade-to-black instead of explicit sex scenes (though what we do get is quite steamy!).

Thanks to netgalley and publisher for the ARC.
Raena was likeable and fun, and the romance was good, once it got going. It is good to see a lesbian character and hero filling this role. I enjoyed the quieter moments of the novel that lingered on the developing relationship most, and I felt like this was where I really got to know who the characters were, rather than just what had happened to them in their life.
The side characters were one of the strengths of the book for me; there were a lot of them, but they had depth and individuality, and I cared about them as a reader.
The world felt like it could be fascinating, and there were a lot of cool ideas, but it felt like they weren’t very well developed or consistent. There is clearly a rich history of the world in the authors head, at least in terms of the points that are relevant to the characters and the plot, but it isn’t tied together to create a cohesive world. It may just be that the first novel in a series doesn’t always show enough, especially when it is limited in the perspective it shows, and the world will come together and come alive in the sequels.
The pacing of the novel didn’t work for me. It felt very slow at the start, and after a strong first chapter I struggled to get into it until about a third of the way through. It picked up after that, and I was glad I’d persevered.
In summary, a lot of potential not quite achieved, but a very enjoyable fantasy romance overall!

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

Traitors of the Black Crown was such a wild ride! I honestly enjoyed this book so freaking much today. Each twist and turn made this book a page turner for me. It was really hard to put down too.

In it, you will meet Raean. She was such a fun character to read about because she was just a complete bad ass in my eyes. Plus her sarcasm and fierceness just made me love her even more. So when she's pretending to be a Knight name Rowan.. I just knew things were going to be very interesting. Also, her bestie Finn was completely adorable and their bantering was very cute.

Then there's the lovely slow burn romance between Raean and Aven. Oh how I loved these two being together. It was just pure and genuine. Made my heart all happy and shit. I'm hoping I get more from these two in the next book because I will riot if I don't.

It's safe to say that you will get a lot of betrayals throughout this book. The reason why it is easy to accept would be Prince Zander's doing. He's a real pain in the ass. A huge conceited asshole who thinks he's all that and a bag of potato chips. Real charmer.. and I wanted him to die a very painful death after our first meet and greet.

After each horrible decision, made my the prince douche, lots of people die. If you have ever watched an episode of Game of Thrones, or read one of the books, think of that being child's play. Mostly because Prince Zander would sacrifice anyone and everyone in the entire world. It's also safe to assume that shit went downhill quickly once he became King.

In the end, that little cliffhanger gave me some whiplash. It also make sense that the little monster is a fake. Now I'm wondering where the real heir is and I have a few theories as to who it could be. I definitely need the next book now and I can't wait for it to become available!

This book was really good and i got criers war vibes from the story. The world building and plot was really engaging and I got quite attached to the characters. The ending was really great i cant wait for the next book. I NEED ANSWERS ARS

Like many other reviewers, I found myself underwhelmed with this book as a whole.. I wanted more character development. I wanted more world building. The romantic relationships were underwhelming and lackluster. The writing was just okay. If you are less character driven or not as well versed in fantasy, you might enjoy this more than I did.

Non-Spoiler Review Section

*slaps top of book* this bad boy can fit so many forgettable side characters in it.

I had to address something early for the meme but I have to be honest, that's not the worst part of the book. Actually it's hard to tell exactly what the worst part of the book is. Is it Raena's random and confusing sexism? Is it the insta-love arc? Is it that the main characters are personality-less voids? Maybe it's the painful misuse of the word fussock or the prevalent pro-coloniser themes in the second half of the book.

The 1-dimensionality of the primary antagonist doesn't help either. I'll dive into these and other components of the book and its questionable origins in the Spoiler Review section but for now let's just run through the general premise.

Raena Schinen is a nobleman's daughter whose entire house was killed when she was a kid, to protect her she was raised as a boy to be a knight by Duke Sylas. Avenna is a butcher's daughter turned duchess whose main character flaw is that she has no discernible character to find a flaw in. Zarana is a queen with poorly executed and exceptionally random dementia, and by exceptionally random I mean it seems to magically turn on and off when the plot requires it.

This book was marketed to me as gay medieval romance with and let me quote from the goodreads popular asked question:
Hi, I see Traitors of the Black Crown shelved as LGBT+, could someone tell me what specific rep it will have?

Thanks for asking, Kate!
There are three female main characters (with POVs). 1 is lesbian. 1 is bisexual.
There are also prominent side characters who are LGBT, 1 is asexual.
There is also a prominent character who is bisexual but it's not on-the-page.
Finally, there is an on-the-page F/F romance.


Okay, I can see the lesbian and bisexual because they have a love story but WHERE ARE THE OTHER ONES? Oh are they "not on the page" well guess what if it's not on the page... it's not rep! It's the equivalent of JK Rowling trying to add in representation after the series is done except this author got a neat headstart.

You know what, if the romance was in any way compelling this book might have gotten 2 stars, but it isn't compelling. It's some kind of instalove that makes it look as if this was a much bigger book that had random parts cut out of it, I've read bad fanfiction that went into more detail about the emotions involved in romance and gave me more of a feel for the characters' personalities than this arc. Which makes this even funnier considering this book is meant to be Twelfth Night fanfiction.

As I've already mentioned the side characters are very forgettable and tend to blend together (with the exception of Sir Allyn, my personal favourite character). I can tell character deaths are meant to be meaningful but at the point they occur my eyes are glazed over because I'm tired and want the book to end.

Other than that, the only thing I can tell you is that there are terrible pacing issues. The author will skip forward 100 days in 3 pages and spend 2 chapters on something that's meant to be occur in about 20 minutes. It's all over the place and it's packed with bland and meaningless dialogue that all in all means I have more of a feel for the exact plant species of East Shore and the main exports of Hawk's Keep than the personalities of the actual characters.

There's also some weird sexist dialogue and vibes from characters we're meant to like, so that's not fun.

The rest of my goodreads review is linked below, it includes very specific problems I had with the book itself but it includes spoilers:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4024744718?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Perhaps it was fated I would struggle my way through Traitors of the Black Crown. I don’t know what it is, but I lose interest a lot quicker in fantasy novels than I do any other genre and that was… so very quickly the case here. While the concept sounded interesting, not much else of it was to me.

Possibly the biggest issue I had, in terms of enjoyment, was the writing, but since that’s a personal thing, I won’t dwell on it, only say that it was alternatively dry and info-dumpy, and overdramatic. I ended up skimreading fairly early on.

But writing aside, I think I could have liked this more still, if I had felt at all engaged with the plot and characters. Firstly the characters. Not one of them has stuck in my mind, three weeks or so after reading this book. I couldn’t even tell you their names (although, to be fair, this isn’t a wholly unusual phenomenon). Even so, they were somewhat bland during reading too. I get it was supposed to be the whole white knight and princess trope, where they’re both women, but it was just… boring.

Add onto that the feeling that the plot had very little drive to it? I mean, they’re supposedly organising a rebellion, for crying out loud! And yet, I felt like they were just romping around the countryside with no care in the world. Give me some tension at least!

Not to mention the ending, which came out of nowhere, and felt like it made very little sense. (I mean, who even are these people? You didn’t even mention the possibility of their existence before and suddenly there they are?)

Turns out the least of my problems was people using slang like “oi” and “git” and “nah” but no contractions in their speech.

I had some really great expectations but unfortunately, I was let down. Pretty badly actually. I mean, after reading this I began to feel like may have set unrealistic expectations.

All I wanted was:
A great Sapphic romance, with enough yearning and all the slow burn it can offer
Great worldbuilding
Unforgettable characters
Consistent and greatly paced plot....
Is it too much to ask for??

I don't know what exactly ruined the experience for me? Was it the slow and predictable plot or the feeble attempts at foreshadowing or the trashy characters or the instalovey romance??

If you asked me these questions, I really couldn't answer it as I am way too confused to even think it through!

This book which is a retelling of the Shakespearean Twelfth night, follows Raena Schiden, a girl whose family got murdered by the throne under allegations of treason. She alone escapes it with the help of a family friend. She is forced to hide her identity by training as a knight and taking up the identity of a man. She grows to be an outstanding knight, however, she has one major goal....To seek revenge for her family's death and she will stop at nothing to achieve this. Killing the queen who is the source of her sour childhood will be her only vindication.
Many things happen along the line, secrets are exposed, people die, mistakes are made and love blossoms.

Now, who would read this and expect nothing less than an amazing story?? NO ONE!!
So imagine my surprise when I didn't end up loving this as much as I wanted to,

I didn't like the pacing of the plot at all! It was inconsistent, it'll go from really fast in some places to horrendously slow in others. I couldn't keep up!

The worldbuilding, what worldbuilding?? I barely understood the world. I didn't get the whole layout and I had some unanswered questions. However, I won't criticize it yet as this is just the first book in the series. I hope it does improve in the second one because I really do want to love this story.

This book is not so terrible for a debut but it could have been better.

I enjoyed the overall reading experience and I'm giving it 3.5 stars because I liked the ending way more than I'll admit I did. Its not the worst thing out there but I must say, WE DESERVE BETTER SAPPHIC FANTASY BOOKS!!

I liked the smutty scenes a bit and I would have preferred if we had more of those. I mean, why else would I endure trashy instalovey romance to not get to read explicit smut scenes??!! If I had more smut this would have been a 4 star read but oh well...

I would recommend this, but if you like Twelfth night, I'm not sure how you'll feel reading this as it shies away from the original idea a bit.

I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher, for approving an ARC of The Traitor of the Black Crown for me to review. One my of favorite things in fantasy is politics, this book focused on politics and world building which I loved! I really enjoyed Rowan/Raena’s character, i liked the relationships and banter between characters. The main character is a lesbian pretending to be a man, to be a knight in order to get revenge on the queens royal guard for assassinating her entire family. This multi POV story was so good from the time I picked this up until the time I finished it, I enjoyed every minute of the book. I would absolutely pick up the next book just to find out what happens in the new empire that they’re in. The plot twists and reveals in this book were great and definitely were worth it in the end. I’m so happy I got to this book and loved it as much as I did.

this book was just fine.

there was nothing i loved about it, but at the same time, there was nothing i strongly hated. it just felt painfully average.

the characters were interesting enough. I did like the three main characters, and I think they were fun perspectives to read from. im a little stumped over the queen though because it felt like she had no motive and I couldn't figure out what she doing. the romantic relationship was probably one of my favorite parts, although it did come off as a little insta-lovey. the villain was especially horrible, but I think that's a good thing. I just wish he was shown more often, because he was in like 5 chapters, and that he had more development.

that leads me to my next point- this book did not flow very smoothly. by that, I mean the characters were inconsistent and often forgotten about for chapters and then randomly brought up again. the dialogue felt forced at times. the plot was also all over the place. there was a 4-5 month time jump all in one chapter, yet by the next chapter, it felt as though nothing had changed? it was like never talked about and just completely brushed over. the setting was inspired by a very basic European medieval time, but the world building was confusing. the ending was abrupt and it just felt like too much happened but I still didn't understand why?

overall, this was definitely disappointing. good ideas, but the execution was stilted and messy.

Lesbian knight disguised as a man??? I am totally in!!

This is a multi pov story following a knight on the run, a peasant turned duchess and a queen with a very dark secret.

The writing style is very accessible if you are new to the fantasy genre. I caught a lot of Game of Throne vibes while reading. It read almost like a Game of Thrones fan fiction novel. I would recommend this to anyone looking for that vibe but in a more PG setting. You do get a few steamy bits but it’s more suggestions and heavy petting.

I loved jumping between the pov of the heroes and the villains. Stories like this always make you feel something for the “villain” that ultimately makes you question your own moral compass.

There were some slow bits in between the battle scenes but I think the author did a very good job at using those moments to weave in more character building.

This is a great start to a new series and I am very excited to read where the author takes these characters!

3 stars

I must say that I enjoyed this book. Did it have some flaws? Yes, but overall it was a very solid read.

The romance was sweet and refreshing. All of the yearnings were well done. I felt Raena was a well-rounded character and it was fun reading her through the pages. Characters that are driven by rage and vengeance are always appealing to me. The female representation was really great and it's always wonderful to see strong females in books.

So, what this book about?
Our main character is Raena who is a woman disguised as a knight named Sir Rowan. The queen slaughtered her family and Raena is out for revenge. She wants to kill the Queen and the spoilt prince but she gets banned from the kingdom and is sent to become a guard for a Duchess named Avenna. She intrigues Raena but is also very loyal to the queen.

I was expecting an action-packed story, but it reads a lot slower and more intimate. The book focused on romance, which was fine, but I guess I wanted a little more of the politics and battles. I felt that the book's first half was solely just trying to prepare the readers for the second half. There were many info-dumps and it was really slow. But once you power through that area, the pace picks up and it gets a hundred times more interesting.

All in all, this was a sweet book but I guess I just expected more.

A thousand thanks to Netgalley and Hansen House for giving me this ARC

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

Traitors of the Black Crown by Cate Pearce is a fantasy novel set in times of Kings & Queens. Hidden away and masking herself as a male knight, Raena (Sir Rowan) plots her revenge against the Queen who slaughtered her family. She is suddenly thrust into action when forced to take part in the trials led by cruel Prince Zander.

I enjoyed this book but felt it could have been split into two books or just spread out a little better. There were parts of the book that were slower than others and important sections that felt like they weren't explored enough nor had enough of an explanation. .

I loved the idea of the book and the story behind it though and given that it finished on a cliffhanger I will probably read the next one!

The premise of this story was so interesting but unfortunately this was not the book for me.
I really enjoyed getting to know the characters but the pacing was off and the book was just a bit too long for me.

I got an arc in exchange for a review! unfortunately dnf.
the writing style is... weird. it feels like the author read a lot of asoiaf and nevernight and decided to emulate both styles. it didnt fit. the plot sloughed at points and went too fast at others. weird choices. sorry. didnt enjoy it. 2 stars tho I think the premise is cool

I have such mixed feelings about this book. There are parts of this book that I liked. I honestly did like the characters a lot and the basic premise of the story is interesting. I just feel like it wasn't executed quite well. There came a point where I just felt like the book was dragging a bit too much. I understood the need for setup in order to understand why things are the way they are in the book, but far too often I felt like I was being loaded down with too much information, especially since every character knows a different side of the same situation.

Despite these issues, I still liked where the story is heading and the relationship developments between some of the characters were handled nicely. I do think the book ended poorly, even knowing ( I'm pretty sure anyhow) it is going to continue in the next exactly where this one left off.

I didn’t know what to expect from this but Raena and Aven stole my heart a little.

There were parts of the story that felt a little slow and over complicated.

I got lost in the plot at times. But the characters kept pulling me back in.

I think overall, despite some of the pacing problems, this was a really well done fantasy story about a complicated world.