I had never heard of this author but after reading this one, im excited to read more of their work. This book had the perfect percentage of bad ass female mc, romance, action, plot twists and magic. What a beautiful book.

Reader, this may be the book that redeemed YA for me. It’s a Celtic lore based fantasy novel about Neve, the youngest princess, and Ronan, an ex-Druid’s apprentice turned thief. When the two meet at children, they never expect to see eachother again, but through a series of at least mildly magical events, they come together.

I liked this book a lot, I thought the plot carried itself well, and the world-building was wonderful. I love how Neve’s story parallels that of her ancestors, and how that melds into the story. Despite feeling slightly rushed at times, Livingston produces a great story that is well-worth reading.

Rounded to 3.5 stars.

CONTENT WARNING: violence, blood, death, grief, murder

While I’ve always found Druids and Celtic mythology to be fascinating, I never really learned much about it. Naturally, I was thrilled to get a copy of this book, and see a whole fantasy novel built around it, and hopefully learn more about these intriguing stories.

Throughout the book, it felt as though I was reading a cross between historical fiction and fantasy. The way the author incorporated a historical landmark that still exists as a central focus of the story made it feel more realistic. However, I found it difficult to keep track of all of the different terms, and frequently flipped back to the list in the beginning of the book that kept track of the different folk of Eire, although some of the terms weren’t defined, and I struggled to understand what some of them were. While the world-building was beautiful and vivid, I did wish that the magic system was explained better. The Druids were mysterious and unexplained, which I expected, but the way that the magic worked was never explained, and we never learn what the limits are or why some people are able to access magic while others can’t.

I loved Neve’s character. She’s the fierce female protagonist that is easy to identify with, for me at least. As a female who is expected to be quiet and demure and work behind the scenes, Neve doesn’t fit into the box that’s supposed to define her. She’s rowdy and unruly, and prefers to be out riding in her chariot, learning how to fight, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, with a sword, her double headed axe, or with a bow and arrow. Neve is a warrior princess in a time when that is not socially acceptable, but she never tries to hide who she really is, and the people closest to her fully accept her for who she is.

Ronan was orphaned in the unrest that swept through Eire when he was young. He apprenticed with the Druids, but when that didn’t work out for him, he left and makes his way through the world as a thief. When his path crosses with Neve’s, things don’t go well, and they don’t exactly hit it off well. When they meet up again in the future, their second meeting doesn’t go any better. However, they don’t quite fit into the “enemies” category. They’re forced to work together, and there’s something going on that connects them, so it’s more like an uneasy truce rather than enemies.

It takes a long time for the underlying plot to actually appear, but once it does, I was sucked into the story. The book is fast-paced, and there’s a lot of action, right from the start. I found myself fully invested in the story rather quickly, despite the issues mentioned above. I did enjoy the story itself, and even though I predicted a few of the plot twists in advance, more than a few blindsided me and kept everything exciting. Overall, this was a good story set in a fresh setting that kept me intrigued and reading avidly straight until the end.

I try very hard to be positive. I have no doubt this book will find a happy home in many hands but I am not one of them. I found the fantasy muddled (I honestly couldn’t tell who the bad guys and the good guys were, and what was the significance of the fight against magic?) and the romance unconvincing (their chemistry was not based on anything believable, it just happened at convenient moments). I made myself finish “Queen Among the Dead” and for that, it gets 2 stars.

While I appreciated the opportunity to read and review this, I tried but just couldn't get into the story.

I felt like this book was very slow moving for the first 65% but finally picked up towards the end when everything started to make sense. There's lots of world building And I think if there is another book it will definetly be faster paced amd easier to get hooked into. The characters are likable and the storyline is there but it's a book that I had to keep telling myself to finish and not one that hooked me and wouldnt let go

Hello and welcome to my three star review of Queen Among the Dead! First off, I want to put out there that this book was <i>fine</i>. I liked it well enough, but it just didn't hit all the right notes for me.

I am a huge fan of Celtic mythology. It is some of my favorite, and I find it so interesting. I had very high hopes for this book, and while it was steeped in mythology and written overall well, I did have some issues with it.

This one is not the authors fault, but the formatting (for kindle) was so bad it made the book almost unreadable. I was going a bit cross-eyed trying to read it. I know that'll be fixed in the final edition, so I didn't take points off for that because I ended up switching to the NetGalley app (which also irritates me lol)

I enjoyed Neve and Ronan as characters, and I liked the way the mythology was interwoven. This book is essentially your typical YA mythology fantasy. I wouldn't say that it adds anything new to the genre, but that didn't make it less enjoyable. It was generally predictable, but well written.

There was nothing about this book that bothered me, or I overly disliked. It's a book that I liked and feel like I don't have a lot to say about? I know that sounds bad, but it isn't!

Overall, I think this is a book that I would definitely recommend to people who like mythology and are looking for a nice YA fantasy to read!

Some great celtic mythology and world building. A solid first chapter that draws you in and I personally would’ve liked the continuation from there but we have a time skip and end up moving along into a different story than expected. Pacing could get a little slow at the start possibly to introduce all the lore which may be difficult to get through at first. It may have been a better read for me if I knew more of the mythology to begin with but that’s no fault of the author’s who does take the time to explain things (even if it’s between characters who should already know this stuff).

I want to start off my saying I LOVED this book. I love Celtic mythology and this book was rich with it. The imagery and story telling was wonderful and there was also an air of mystery to it. The one thing I wish the book had, and maybe tine final edit has it and ARC did, is a glossary of terms, Because this story is steeped in Celtic mythology, I got a little bogged down with the words and pronunciations. I wished there was something to help with that. I was about half way in when-reading got a little smoother. All in all though, I loved this story and I’m kind of hoping the author delves more into this world.

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!

This was such a cool and interesting read! I will have to go and find more books on the first true queen of Ireland because if the legend is as interesting as this book was I will be a happy camper.

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.