Queen of Shifting Sands is a slow read. I feel like I've been reading it forever, and that's its most significant problem. This book featured a lot of creative ideas, but I wasn't a great fan of how they were executed. The curse component was very interesting, and it's one of the things I'm looking forward to seeing more of in the future book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Whimsical Publishing for this advanced copy! You can pick up Queen of Shifting Sands now.

Kaitlyn Carter Brown did a fantastic job creating complex characters, an intricate world, and a gorgeous magic system. I love how we were introduced to these characters and their struggles and appreciated how their healing journey played out. I'm ready for more books in this series and from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and Whimsical Publishing for the ARC of this fantastical novel.

Already from the description I knew this book would be interesting. Curses, royalty and a slow-burn romance? Yes, please. I was also pleasantly surprised to fin out that the MMC was in a wheelchair. It was great seeing that a disabled character still can be strong in a fantasy novel. We need more of that!

This book started off strong but lost me as it neared it’s end. I loved the first third of the book, where we meet our main characters and the situation that leads to their forced/arranged marriage and the curse. Elerek and Lystra are seemingly opposites who are forced into a political marriage, which starts their relationship, which for me developed a little too fast considering her former betrothed was his brother. I think if there had been more scenes showing their romantic development it would’ve been better, but a lot of their chapters were repetitive monologues about saving Instanolde from the Jarkin’s attack and how they couldn’t love each other because of the curse, which got old after a while. Speaking of protecting Instanolde, there was so much build up and talk for like 3 chapters of an attack, one of which barely showed action and all were too easily ended and felt anticlimactic. I wished for more action in a battle that’s been discussed and planned for throughout the whole book.

Overall, this book started out good but left me wanting more

Read if you like…
•arranged marriage
•curses
•slow burn
•disabled mc
•dual pov

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted ebook!
I really liked this book. The story felt really immersive, and I was constantly trying to guess what would happen next. The pining had me in a chokehold. I’m glad I decided to read the prequel before this, since I believe it made it easier to get into the book and understand the world/characters.
One thing I wish I understood more was how/why Lystra was so beloved by her people. It was repeated a lot, but we were never really given a how or why. Reading the prequel didn’t offer any insight into this either. So that aspect of the story felt more “tell” than “show.”
I’ll definitely read the sequel whenever it’s released!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. I truly enjoyed this book from start to finish. The world building was fantastical and beautiful. The plot was filled with intrigue, and I love the main character. This book had adventure, fantasy, and a slow burn romance, Fantasy readers will love this one.

This is the first book in the new romantasy series “Instanolde Chronicles” and is filled with unique ideas with a desert setting. It has a dual POV and a slow pace, but it compensates with the worldbuilding.

We have complex heroes and despicable villains while we discover secrets around every conner. The story made me feel like I was in the heat of the desert feeling grief in the start of it to an impossible fear of the curse that was threatening to end the promises of new love.

I wish the pace was a bit faster, but I enjoyed the story and would recommend it especially for those who thinks disabilities don’t belong in the fantasy world.

Thank you, NetGalley & the publisher, for approving me to read this arc and write this review.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley, Whimsical Publishing and Kaitlyn Carter Brown for allowing me to read the ARC to "Queen of Shifting Sands" in exchange for an honest review.

A crownless queen. A cursed prince. One summer to live.

This book was rather slow in the beginning, I will not lie. I will let everyone straight away that at the beginning, you might will not find yourself as taken as you wish to be, but I do promise you, it does get way better, way quicker and by far more intense. What I thought to be a flaw at the beginning, did expose itself to be a beautiful representation of the main trope, a slow burn. Because me and the book, too, had a slow burn love for one another and yet, now it runs deep.

Political schemes, fantasy, a curse and love all merges into a fantastic story.

The world building is outstanding, it was so vivid and so inimitable, you could swear sometimes you feel the wind or water brush your skin during the read, that is the power the author possesses.

From loss, grief, guilt, to slow burn and love triangles, the story delivers and it only goes uphill --- and it does not ever go down, instead, the books end with a cliffhanger THAT I ABSOLUTELY NEED TO HAVE RESOLVED ASAP.

I received a review copy through Netgalley

Unfortunately I realized I am unable to get this book on my kindle app to read and I can't read long books like this on my computer, so I am unable to read this book at this point.

This is a decent book though perhaps too long winded and lacking in impetus. It feels like a prologue that was elongated into an entire book; one where the author wanted to spend a LOT of time developing the characters. As such, the characters do have nuance but the plot and placing did suffer a lot as a result.

Story: The country of Istanolde teeters precariously on the brink of war. The previous king was a vicious war monger well hated by both hisecountry and its neighbors. His son and heir was just brutally murdered in a desert ambush by a foreign country. And now all that is left to hold the country together is a disabled prince and the former fianceé of his brother. Together, Elerek and Lystra will have to unite a country, prepare for all out war, and scramble to find allies amidst nobles and neighboring countries who bear ill will to Elerek's throne. But unknown to either enemies or allies is that Elerek bears a curse that could destroy them all.

Admittedly, it felt like most of the book was Elerek bemoaning his curse and the effect it has on those around him (if he touches someone, they will eventually die a horrible death) and Lystra bemoaning the loss of her beloved fiancé prince, Elerek's brother. The rest of the book was the politics in preparing for a war. It doesn't mean the book isn't decently written; rather, it is that nothing much happens except for a lot of inner dialogue (whose sole purpose was to show that the characters are good people who care about others).

I appreciated that we had a very able disabled protagonist. The politics were somewhat interesting and certainly we could feel the very loose grip Elerek has on the Kingship since attaining the throne at his brother's death. Quite a bit of this first book is about Elerek's curse and his deadly touch; so much so that Lystra's POVs felt almost superfluous at times. That said, I appreciated that time was given to develop the characters so they were not wooden cardboard figures.

I will likely pick up the next book in the series since there is promise here. Hopefully, the pacing is a bit tighter and we get fewer chunks of soliloquys and musings by the main characters. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

This was a fantastic read, I really enjoyed it though it took me a little while to get into it. World creation is immersive and characters were realistic and relatable. The representation was good to see as well.

- Great world building
- NA Fantasy
- Well written
- Interesting plot
- Romance sub-plot
- Romantasy
- Fast-burn
- POC rep
- Disability rep
- Vivid characterisation
- Dual POV
- Arranged marriage
- Found family
- magical creatures and world

Queen of Shifting Sands was such a fun romantic adult fantasy. The world building was extremely well done and the storyline kept me reading well into the morning hours. I cannot wait for the sequel!

This was a beautiful read! i havent read the prequel! I love the premise its set on, I understand the pain Lystra goes through and what she does for her people! I like how we see a differently abled main character! I love the slow burn between them, the tug of war to realise their goals and the journey they go through! Looking forward to the next one!

This book was so good!
I don’t want to spoil anything so I’ll just summarise.
The world building was beautifully done
The plot was so interesting, I really couldn’t put this book down
The cover of this book as absolutely stunning!
The cliffhanger….
I need more.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!!!

I enjoyed this book quite a bit and will be very eager to read the sequel when it comes out next year!

I liked both Lystra and Elerek, and I liked them together. On the other hand, it did feel maybe a touch fast for them to both catch feelings, with them both being hung up on other people.

Without spoiling… Certain aspects of the resolution near the end with Razhar I found a bit confusing and am hoping the sequel will provide some clarity on, but other than that, I found El’s curse really compelling both for plot advancement and for providing sort of a never ending sort of trauma for him.

Lystra’s grandma reminded me of Margaery Tyrell’s grandma in GOT! I loved the rest of Lystra’s family, and El’s found family. It was an interesting choice by the author to never show us Cormek directly - makes sense in that the story is about Lystra and El, but also puts a lot on the reader in terms of trusting that this larger-than-life persona will translate through their memories of him… it sort of prevents us from truly seeing what they lost, I think, but at the same time, I don’t know that I would have done it any differently.

All in all, this was a solid YA fantasy that ends on a cliff-hanger. Looking forward to seeing where it goes!!

Queen of Shifting Sands definitely left me wanting more! The book had a well developed plot with some SLOW burn romance. The world building was noteworthy as I could easily envision the scenes the author was portraying in the writing in great detail.

The first half of the book was a bit slow; I had to stop to look up a few things which made it harder to get into but once I was to the scene with Corsha at the night markets I was invested. I thought having both perspectives gave a lot of depth to the characters and story.

The use of starlight (hope) and a few of the quotes are memorable and whimsical but I felt there were times the writing was repetitive or a phrase was overused.

Razhar was one of my favorite characters and I feel there is so much left to learn about him and his story and I can’t wait to see where the author takes these character next. I also loved Sama!

I was very impressed seeing a cursed character/ disabled character shown with strength and in a leadership role! This is something you don’t see often and was giving some Chaol vibes for my Throne of Glass fans but in an entirely different story. His coming into his strength and the choice to finally live was so inspiring.

Thank you NetGalley and Whimsical Publishing for my first book selection in change for an honest review!

I wanted to like this more than I did since the premise was so interesting. I think the way the curse works in this world was actually really unique and I liked the desert setting. I will say that the characters were just okay for me and the story itself moved too slow to the point of dragging. I don’t love how much Lystra compared Elerek to her dead husband (even though they are brothers).. it just didn’t sit right with me and I don’t think I’m that interested to continue, even though I didn’t hate it.. It just fell flat to be honest.

Let me start off with saying this book is available, and you should be making this your next read. The writing style is whimsical and the author does a great job of transporting you into the story. There’s not a moment where you question where you are or what something looks/feels like. You feel the sand blowing on your face and the heat surrounding you as you move into this world. There’s grief, war, curses, political struggles, conflict, slow burn romance, delightful banter, and more to this tale.
Lystra is such a well developed character. I never got bored of her and liked the progression of her personality. She embodies what I believe a young queen would be going through, that constant struggle of “what is best for me or what is best for my people.”
Elerek, our poor cursed man is the 1st MMC I’ve read in a long while that has a disability and I thought how his character was written was BEAUTIFUL. I cannot speak from any sort of knowledge on being disabled in such a way but I really thought it was done well. He is strong, sensitive, and devoted to the position he was never meant to take.
Both characters form their bond over a terrible grief and are duty bond to their kingdom/people. I was hooked from the moment I started reading. The book leaves on a cliff. This is no hanging you’re plummeting to the ground at the end of this book. But, I like pain so I found the ledge to be fun jumping off of. Cannot wait to see where this author takes the story.

This book is about Lystra and Elerek who get married after Elereks Brother and Lystras fiancee Cormak (I don't even know if thats his actual name) gets murdered.

First of all: I couldn't have cared less about what happenend in this book. I neither cared about the characters nor the plot.

This is Romantasy but I didn't felt like there was much Romance or Fantasy. The only magical aspect we get is Elereks curse and we know not basically nothing really about that. I honestly feel that making the curses widly unknown was a missed opportunity. I'd love to read a book in which everybody curses everyone.

I also have basically no clue about the world, we know a little about Istandole (?). Shouldn't existing in a desert pose some chanllenges for these people?

The writing was nice but nothing special and the pace was very all over the place: it takes them 100 pages (of 355) to get married and the invasion the entire book has been building up to is like 3 chapters.

I also feel like the book would have benefitted from more perspectives (Myra, maybe someone who joins their army (?) I'm not even sure if they have an army)

4.5/5 stars
First of all, can we talk about this cover? Absolutely gorgeous!
This was such an amazing book, the story of two people who suffered so much, and yet found companionship, understanding and love in each other.
I can’t wait to read how this story continues and to learn more about the world in this book. The cliffhanger destroyed me! I need the next book right now!
Thank you NetGalley for the arc!