A decent story that absolutely fits the genre references in the synopsis however not one I expect to be as memorable.

“Queen Among the Dead” follows the unlikely rise to power as Princess Neve struggles to find her place in court against the wildness of her spirit but when a series of events puts her kingdom in jeopardy she will have to rise to the occasion and make friends out of enemies in order to protect those she loves most.

This book very much follows the YA formula with both the characters and overall plot which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if both of those components are strong enough to make you forget you’ve read this story before how ever this book never quite manages to accomplish that.

Ronan and Neve respectfully are fine and together again just fine but what I craved was some sort of spark that set them apart from other variations, or even in some cases the background characters themselves, though I was left disappointed. There’s a lot of mythology here that I’m not sure was ironed (no pun intended) out to add emphasis to the stakes of what was to come as well as the villain itself who again was rather anticlimactic once we reached that point.

I think if you’ve a fan of the YA take on Celtic lore you’ll enjoy this but if you’re coming into it without that affinity you may leave it as underwhelmed as I did.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

I throughly enjoyed this novel. In fact, it’s one of the few lately that has held my attention throughout the entire story. While I could see a few things coming, I never felt like rushing though it. I would definitely recommend it to friends.

I really enjoyed this book! It is very complicated at times, but the writing style is unique and I loved the characters. I also loved the Celtic and Egyptian inspired elements to the worldbuilding. Highly recommend!

Received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review

RECOMMENDED FOR READERS WHO:
• Fierce Female Protagonist
• Beautiful lore & world building ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• Action 💥 packed plot sequence
• Enemies-to-lovers
• Raw & Gritty
• Tales of Destiny (Brave style)

Celtic influence
➣ refreshing twist in regards to the YA genre

Pacing, plot, character cast & the ending ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I enjoyed this Celtic YA fantasy adventure set in the ancient Kingdom of Eire and inspired by the first true queen of Ireland.

There are quite a few groups to keep straight at first, but once they become familiar it’s exciting to watch Princess Neve come into her own, mastering her magical abilities, uniting her kingdom and fighting an ancient darkness both in the present world and in the Other Realm. Plenty of tragedy and treachery but also
some good examples of female bravery and powerful leadership. Oh yeah, and a little romance.

Not sure if this will be continued (no obvious cliffhanger), but I’d read another.

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Zando Young Readers for providing the free early arc of Queen Among the Dead for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

I got this book as an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The story is about a princess and a thief that cross paths and are in some way connected and trying to learn more about themselves. I was really excited to read this book after reading the synopsis and I loved the cover.
But to be honest I found this a hard book to read.
There are a lot of weird names for the places, the clans,the people,.. It confused me because I wasn't sure are we talking about a person, a place or a clan. I had a hard time getting into the story and didn't really connect with the characters either.
It's told from 2pov but it switches between them in 1 chapter and that's also pretty confusing.
I'm not sure how to put it all into words but this book just wasn't it for me.. I've seen some other reviews on goodreads that explain it better though.

I think the story is mysterious and I truly pictured myself in a fabled version of Ireland.
I liked the names of the characters and landscapes, pictured glowing runes in my mind and tried very hard to remember all the different folks and their powers. I've read the book until the end, but I just couldn't make out all the different meanings of the folks, It held me back for understanding the complete story. I think it might be me, for being Dutch and not knowing any Irish folklore.

I think this story contains great beauty and I wouldn't want to fault it on my inability to understand it all.

If you are a reader who loves folkore and mythics, this is the book for you! If you're a bit like me, you have to take the reading slow and take notes, for a better understanding.

On a further note: I got the ebook and every first page of a chapter was a bit warped. I read on my kindle app, and the intricate design was chopped up in four pieces every time. Also the first letter of a chapter was somewhere else on the page.

If you like a good tale of fae set back in the day, a wonderful historic fantasy, then this is the book for you.

I loved this book because of the detailed use of the myths and legends of the Fae in Ireland, a land rich in stories to start with. You have the daughter of the Dadga, a Princess of her People, along with a thief of the normal people that are ruled over by the Dadga. And their tempestuous meetings and growing friendship.

This book is steeped in lore, cleverly used in this tale, one that has the potential to make quite the series. The writing is smooth and easy on the eye, as it were, the language flowing well even with the foreign words. Lesley Livingston has done a wonderful job with this, and I can not wait to see where Neve's story goes from here.

A stunning Celtic YA fantasy adventure set in the ancient kingdom of Eire, inspired by the legend of the first true queen of Ireland, perfect for fans of Shelby Mahurin and Adrienne Young.

A great Celtic story with great action and an amazing protagonist. Neve was amazing and her adventures were captivating. And now I'm reading more Celtic mythology because this was great! This is a story that follows Neve, an Irish Princess, on her journey of self discovery and taking over a kingdom. I loved watching our heroine grow into herself. Our antagonist is someone who always knew what she wanted in life and consequently reached out and took it. With great force! I also found myself constantly rooting for our underdog Ronan as he, too, grew into and learned to embrace his own destiny.

Livingston has written an engaging book that, despite being historical fiction, I could sell to my students as action or fantasy (it's an easier sell for most of them). While the ending felt rushed, the rest of it was an absorbing adaptation of Irish mythology.

Pretty cover and a premise about royalty? Check marks for me! However, the book needed more work. Perhaps another few rounds of editing to work on dialogue and pacing.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving this ARC, and this does not influence my review. This book had a gorgeous cover, and was a very big book (as compared to the usual ones I get on NG). The fantasy world-building was great, and I liked the romance even though it seemed a bit slow. This was also a 3rd person dual POV. The female was bada** which I like.
Tropes: enemies to reluctant allies to lovers

This is such an absolutely thrilling read.
I knew immediately that I wanted to read this book because who doesn't love Celtic myths I truly think that there should be more fantasy novels based on them.

Like all good epic fantasy, the beginning always has me completely confused and going back and forth between knowing what's going on and having zero clue. I love this type of writing because it is without the info dumping and instead throws you into the action which is amazing.

Ms. Livingston does an amazing job of world-building. Everything she wrote makes me want to visit her world. The characters are absolutely minding blowing!

I can't say too much without spoiling everything... but I loved this book and can not wait to own it in paperback as well as see more from this author.

I loved:
- the mythology
- the gothic, dark setting
- the intriguing magic system
- the creatures

I didn't like
- the attention to detail (for example: on one page a character is wearing 'beaded sandal' and on the next page they are wearing 'leather sandals')
- the hurried plot (for example: character mentions her mother was rumoured to be taken by a wraith and then on the next page one appears and attacks her)
- clumsy writing in places

The premise of this book intrigues me but unfortunately it feels like it needs more editing to be a feasible read. Thank you.

I picked this up purely on the mention of Celtic mythology as mythology from across the world is a growing interest of mine and my students. It was an enjoyable story that also learnt into Eastern European mythology at times that I think my students will adore (reflected in my rating)

I started this book three times, but could never quite get into it. I did get 67% into on one of the times. The characters are fine, just the world building and plot are too all over the place.
I can definitely see some of my students liking it and have already mentioned it to several of us. It just wasn’t for me.

"Queen Among the Dead" was an enjoyable story. I liked how the author incorporates traditional Irish/Celtic mythology and near Eastern (Egyptian and Scythian) mythology. The story focuses on Neve, the younger daughter of Ruad Rofhessa, the Dagda (Good God) of the Tuatha De, the ruler of Eire, and Ronan, a former Druid's apprentice turned thief. They had a life-altering encounter as teenagers, when Ronan saves Neve from a ban sidhe demon, and then Neve saves him from the fuath demon he summoned to defeat the ban sidhe. Neve and Ronan will not meet again until seven years later. The encounter with the fuath demon has changed Ronan, for which he blames Neve. Their encounters are tense, as neither one really trusts or understands the other. However, a series of internal and external threats will force them to work together and will result in them discovering unexpected things about themselves, including that they both possess great magical abilities and that they are more alike than they realize. The story has plenty of action and intrigue, with some rather good surprises.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

I chose Queen Among The Dead for its beautiful book cover and the fact that it spoke of Celtic/Irish folklore. I'm no historian of Irish/Celtic mythology, just a fan, but the book's synopsis alone had me hooked.
Livingston tells a dual perspective from Neve, the main character, the King's youngest daughter, feisty, fierce, and dubiously determined to make the realm better for her people.
Since her father, the King, has outlawed magic and deemed it dangerous, spells are still being marketed and sold unbeknownst to the King. So while the King's Druids are resurrecting a temple on the King's behalf, his Kingdom is suffering without magic.
Neve, the ever-restless child of his, goes into the village and bumps into a thief, Ronan. Ronan is a smuggler of spells who just happened to be expelled from Druid school. So now he wants nothing more than to see the Druids gone from power.
Unlikely allies as the two may be, Neve and Ronan set course on the journey to save the people of Eire and, more importantly, extricate the Kingdom and its return to practice "MAGIC" because, without magic, the Kingdom is "DOOMED."
Livingston delivers a cleverly crafted Y/A novel with a breathtaking and imaginatively impressively descriptive world.
Livingston's characters are ambitious and likable, especially her main character Neve, with her heroic female role.
Livingston's word-building is thought-provoking and engaging; readers will be thankful for her glossary accompaniment.
You get a slow burn, enemies, to friends with a compounding stellar ending.
The deciding factor is that the excellent storyline will look for the author's future novels.
Kudos to Livingston!
"Great JOB"

Thank you, NetGalley/Lesley Livingston/ Zando Projects.Zando Young Readers/ For this eARC, for my honest review. My opinions are of my own volition.

This was very enjoyable. Both familiar, in that the myths should always feel like we knew them deep down, but with plenty of twists that made sense, even if I didn’t see them coming. The narrative itself is cyclical as most myths will be, but has some beautiful symmetry that gives the entire story the feel of a an epic poem or ballad, which I suppose, at the core, is what it is. While the plot fully resolves, it leaves the door open for further adventures, and I feel like Neve and the gang will be doing much more for the bards to sing about.

DNF: 26%

I was drawn to this novel for two reasons: the Celtic mythology and the comparisons made to other prominent young adult fantasy authors. Unfortunately, I could not finish reading this novel. From the first page, this story was riddled with story construction issues that I could not overlook; if anything, they were distracting as I wanted to fix everything I was seeing.

First, I could tell that Lesley Livingston has a deep love for fantasy novels and for Celtic mythology. The passion for both was dripping off the pages of this story. However, that passion did not translate into the greater story. From page one, I was incredibly confused about the world-building and the trajectory of the plot. Both proved to be fatal flaws for the novel.

Looking at the world-building, I can’t deny that there was a great amount of it. But the amount doesn’t necessarily equate to clarity for the reader, which was the case here. The world-building was often dumped on the reader (at least one dump per chapter, by my count) and was always delivered in the same way: through paragraphs of summary storytelling. By chapter nine, I was craving other means to get the world-building by, such as, through dialogue. I also wanted more explanation for the Celtic names and terms; a glossary would be an asset for this novel.

Bigger than the world-building issue was the plotting. By the 26% mark (roughly chapter nine), I had no idea of what the story trajectory was. The characters did not have goals they were moving toward—which means they have no agency as well—and there was no clear antagonist. Without the character agency and story stakes, the story fell flat and felt empty. This story was floundering as it attempted to find its footing, but the fact that it never found it within the first 25% was discouraging. By that percentage mark, the story should have been heading into the second act after an inciting event had taken place.

While the synopsis presented a standard young adult fantasy novel, the story failed to live up to those expectations. With clearer world-building explanations and better characterization, this book would have much to offer a reader.

Thank you to Zando Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.