In The Lost Queen, Aimee Phan weaves contemporary fantasy with Vietnamese folklore in an intriguing way.

I loved learning about Vietnamese mythology, and I think the reincarnation element with the two sisters added an interesting layer to the story.

This tale, packed with mystery and legends, takes us on a journey to acceptance, belonging and self discovery.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the eARC.

Aimee Phan’s The Lost Queen is a lush and imaginative blend of contemporary fantasy, Vietnamese mythology, and coming-of-age drama that casts a fresh spell on the YA genre. With a protagonist who starts off isolated and uncertain, the story blooms into a fast-paced, magical tale of identity, legacy, and the power of female friendship.

Jolie Lam is instantly compelling—a girl haunted by visions, grief, and the weight of family expectations. Her connection with Huong Pham, the school’s glamorous queen bee, could have easily fallen into cliché territory, but Phan builds their friendship with nuance and emotional weight. As the girls unlock latent powers and uncover their mythic ties to Vietnamese goddesses and queens, the story gains both depth and urgency.

The use of Vietnamese culture and folklore is one of the novel’s greatest strengths. It enriches the narrative without ever feeling like exposition, and gives The Lost Queen a unique cultural anchor in a genre that still too often centers Western mythologies. Jolie’s growing fluency in Vietnamese, her connection to her grandfather’s cryptic prophecies, and the dreamlike journey through portals and past lives all add texture and richness.

The plot occasionally wobbles under the weight of its many moving parts—portals, visions, reincarnations, and betrayals—but the stakes remain high, and Jolie’s emotional arc keeps things grounded. The twists are satisfying, and the central mystery is layered enough to keep readers turning pages.

With strong themes of cultural heritage, found family, and reclaiming inner strength, The Lost Queen is both empowering and exhilarating. It’s a story about girls who dare to believe in their own power—and in each other. A beautiful and thrilling start to what promises to be a memorable series.

Read if you like:

Mythology/folklore
Reincarnation
Vietnamese history
Fantasy elements
Gorgeous writing

My thoughts:

The Lost Queen had so much potential and while it lived up to it in some ways, it fell flat in so many others. I wanted to love this one but I just ended up being confused by much of it.

Aimee Phan’s gorgeous writing is the only saving grace when it comes to The Lost Queen. The writing, while being easy to read and rather simple at times, was absolutely lovely. Aimee Phan painted such a vivid picture of both modern day San Jose as well as historical Vietnam.

The Vietnamese mythology was fascinating but ultimately hard to follow. I admit to knowing nothing about Vietnamese folklore and history so that may have caused some of the confusion. It may be easier to follow if you are already familiar with the story of the Trung sisters. The pacing of the story didn’t quite work either. It felt like there was a lot of buildup only for the big battle at the end to be extremely rushed and anticlimactic.

There was some confusion for me regarding the flashbacks and the stories from Jolie’s mythology book. There were times when I couldn’t tell what was myth and what was supposed to be an actual flashback from her past life.

As far as the characters go, I’m torn. I both loved and hated Jolie. She was so easy to relate to in some aspects, like her family situation and the bullying she was dealing with from her classmates and former friends. However, she was so meek at times that I couldn’t stand it. She let people use her and walk all over her. I wanted her to stand up for herself so badly. She did come into her own a bit over the course of the book but there wasn’t enough growth to satisfy me. The remaining characters were so one-dimensional I honestly struggled to tell some of them apart. The male characters in particular all just blended together. There really weren’t any stand out characters in the book and most of the secondary characters were entirely forgettable.

Don’t even get me started on the magical aspects of The Lost Queen. Most of the magical elements to this story were beyond baffling. The different elements, distributing/sharing the elements, the portals; none of it made any sense to me. This book genuinely made me feel stupid at times because I struggled so hard to follow along.

Overall, The Lost Queen wasn’t for me. I appreciate the idea behind it and I loved learning about the Trung sisters but there were too many confusing elements for me to fully enjoy it.

TL;DR

The Lost Queen presents a fascinating and gorgeously written look at the Vietnamese story of the Trung sisters. A truly unique premise, it unfortunately didn’t quite work in the execution. A lack of character development and some puzzling magical elements made The Lost Queen fall flat and while I enjoyed most of it, I couldn’t fully immerse myself in this story. I cannot see myself reaching for the second book in this duology.

The Lost Queen is a new duology for young adults or middle-grade readers. Its contemporary set in California,  inspired by Vietnamese folklore, Jolie Lam has grown up listening to her family's stories, prophecies, and legends, her grandfather is a fortune teller and although it's a power inherited by men, she also begins to have visions, and an accident will happen that will get her into trouble at school. 

It's like a coming of age with magic. Jolie doesn't know what is happening. Since an incident last year, she has lost friends, she has been the target of bullying, her grandfather has become ill, and more earthquakes are happening in the city. A new popular girl arrives at school (Huong) just when Jolie needs someone, and they soon become friends, just like sisters. 

It is contemporary, it's not super heavy in fantasy, but it was one of my favorite parts. The legend of the warrior sisters, dragons, and their fight against evil is fascinating. Another of my favorite parts is Jolie's relationship with her grandfather; it's sweet, and I like all the knowledge her grandfather has. 

All the incidents that happened last year are no coincidence. Jolie learns more about family secrets, her grandfather's stories are true, and now she and Huong will have to save the city. Jolie trusts Huong completely, but as the story progresses, she discovers that there are still secrets to uncover. She has to trust her instinct and have more confidence in herself.

Its fast passed, kind of messy and that's why it hooks you, its a cool mix between teen high school drama with mythology and adventure, as an adult I think there are things that don't take you by surprise and that you guess, but I think teen will enjoy it and I'm curious for the sequel. 

Thanks to Colored Pages Book Tours, Penguin Teen and Aimee Phan for the copy.

Read it if you like:
Middle Grade or Younger YA Fantasy
Rick Riordan Presents Books
Vietnamese Folklore
Family and friendship

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing the earc in exchange for an honest review.

This book wasn't exactly what i was expecting which is my own fault. I was expecting more focus in the mythology than we got especially at the start.
I did not connect much to the characters which made me enjoy the book a bit less, the story feels incredibly slow and incredibly rushed at the same time.
The writing is really easy to follow and get into and i really love all the cultural bits especially relating to fortunetellers and mythology.

This book was quite fascinating. The writing was really well done for this and I think it helped set the atmosphere in a way. It touches on subjects like bullying and mental health As Jolie tries to figure out whether she’s succumbing to a breakdown like her grandfather and seeing things or if she’s more. I totally get her on this as my late grandfather was also losing his memories and control. Once she starts spending time with Huong, she eventually learns of who she really is. Kind of a self discovery story, this book is steeped in a Vietnamese mythology tale that I didn’t know about. The only thing I felt confused on (and this is probably on purpose), is the transitions from reality to a vision that Jolie experience more and more. I’m reminded a bit of how I dream where I transition from one scene to the next. Reading over those parts, I understood better about it so I think this was on purpose to let the reader experience that. This was a fascinating read and one I appreciated a lot because I got to understand a little bit of a culture through this book. Now having read it, I would read it again to experience it in a different light

The Lost Queen by Aimee Phan is the first in this YA Fantasy Duology and is so freaking cool, wild, and an exciting ass journey!

I love the water aspect and how everything starts in the pool. Between things like the random murkiness of the water and Jolie essentially being in two places at once while swimming in the beginning, it automatically pulled me in!

I also really enjoyed the deep rooted Vietnamese lore mixed in with the more well known style of fantasy. It was a cool way to bridge the two together while also bringing more awareness to Vietnamese culture. I can’t wait to see more things like this coming to the forefront of fantasy, and genre fiction in general. The more diverse, the better. There’s so many stories around the world that want to be told and deserve to be told, so let’s keep sharing them!

I’m so excited for more people to dive deep into this amazing story!

If you love a good retelling with a deep rooted Vietnamese lore, magic, and mythology, then this is for you! Not to mention the aspects and of course the entire thing being fantasy. There’s so much going on in this story and it’s waiting for you to experience it too!

I know this just came out, but I’m so ready for book 2!

*This was an honest review for a complimentary copy of The Lost Queen from Aimee Phan via NetGalley

The beginning is very slow in my opinion. I had suspicions of what was happening but there was little to no advancement of the characters for a while. The pace picks up after the halfway mark and keeps going until the end. The end left a bit to be desired and quite a few questions. I do like the lore behind everything and the use of power. I don’t like that the only closure we get are for Jolie and Huang, we don’t know what happens to any of the minor characters.

DNF at 33%. This is just not for me at this time.

The premise is really cool: the Vietnamese legends, the Trung Sisters, are reincarnated into two modern-day high school girls. They don't know that yet, though, and are beginning to see mystical traits emerge from within them. Jolie, the MC, hates this, as some of these traits and visions have ostracized her and caused people to bully her. Huong, the other girl, is saved during a swimming accident by Jolie one day though (Thanks to Jolie's visions) and they strike up a friendship.

To me, this book was written in a much younger perspective than it should have been. Jolie is a sophomore in high school, around 15, but talked and acted like a middle schooler. The scenarios all seemed extra far-fetched, and even for an urban fantasy, I couldn't get into it. The plot, pacing, and scenes are really confusing to me, where one moment we're in a vision, the next, we're driving somewhere with people who seemed to appear out of nowhere, in the vision, except in reality actually? If that sentence confused you, yeah, that's where I'm at too, which is why I needed to give it up, at least for now.

I just was not hooked and had no desire to keep going. Which I hate, because the Trung Sisters are really cool to learn about, and I love mythology-based books. Others might love this though, so give it a try if it sounds cool to you!

Thanks to Netgalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for the e-ARC!

✨| A blend of the past and the present. This was a heartfelt story of self-discovery in a magical way. Reflective. Lyrical. Rich with culture. The layers of this story unfold slowly but meaningfully.

I was hooked from the beginning!!
It was amazing and engaging.
I was instantly sucked in by the atmosphere and writing style.
The characters were all very well developed .
The writing is exceptional and I was hooked after the first sentence.

I loved the Vietnamese mythology and lore in this one! With elemental magic, time travel, lost memories and dragons, the mythology was rich and captivating. It did take a while for the story to really capture me as we spend a lot of time in the high school setting dealing with high school drama. I wish we’d spent more time immersed in and understanding the mythology. At its core, this is a story of the complicated relationship between two sisters made more consequential by the fact that they’re dragon queens. Jolie’s character arc into becoming more confident in herself and recovering her memories was enjoyable. The villain brothers we don’t actually spend much time with and their characters were pretty surface level. And maybe that’s the point, that these gods are shallow and don’t deserve the elements. The parts after Jolie’s friends became involved really captivated me and I’m excited to see how everything plays out in the second part of this duology.

Thanks to Colored Pages Tours and the publisher for the review copy, thoughts are my own.

✨✨Tour stop✨✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

If you loved Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao then go get this book immediately! This book much like Iron Widow has a strong willed FMC and epic battles! There is also some beautiful Vietnamese mythology in this book as well!
I practically swallowed the last 60% of this book whole with how quickly I read it. The whole time I was reading this book I had a bad feeling about a certain character and quickly realized I was totally right about how deceptive they are!
I highly recommend this book! Thank you  @coloredpagesbt @penguinteen & @aimeephanwrites for gifting me this book in exchange for my honest review and for having me as a part of this book tour!  #TheLostQueenTour #coloredpagesbooktours #books #bookreviewer #arcreader #booktour #yabookstagram

YA Fantasy with imaginative Vietnamese lore and world building. If stories with High School drama, Bullying, building alliances and finding your inner strength appeal to you then this book will be right up your alley. I enjoyed the first part of the book which is loosely a retelling of the legendary Trung sisters; queens who led the Vietnamese army against the Han warriors, but it lost momentum towards the end of the book and felt a little rushed. A lot of information to digest but the author made it work.

Jolie Lam’s life has changed a lot in the last year, and not for the better. Her beloved grandfather has developed dementia. And after she hallucinates at a swim meet, she becomes a social pariah and loses her closest friends. But when Jolie saves her popular and beautiful classmate Huong Pham, everything changes. As she and Huong grow closer, they discover psychic powers, and Jolie becomes fluent in Vietnamese for the first time in her life. But these new powers are accompanied by danger as well…

I see a story inspired by Asian mythology with a cover by the inimitable Kelly Chong (afterblossom_art), and of course I want to read it. I know very little about Vietnamese legends, so this was a pleasure. I found Jolie’s story personally very moving as well. I’m also the child of an immigrant, and I’ve never become fluent in my mother’s native tongue or passed as a full-blooded member of her culture. The Lost Queen is a beautiful, touching portrayal of what it feels like to have a parent or parents from another land, feel isolated from those roots, but then to instantly and gloriously be fully embraced.

Charmingly, this is also a young YA book that’s written for ages 13 and up and feels like it (why does it seem like YA is being taken over by New Adult?). This means I’m solidly out of its target demographic, and I think it’s unfair to judge this on the same standards as an adult fantasy. So while I have some minor qualms (I wish that some of the plot resolutions weren’t quite as tidy, the twists weren't as predictable, the exposition was a little more distributed, and this was a standalone), I doubt those issues would trouble younger readers.

The Lost Queen is a multi-layered novel that explores themes of identity, and family legacy. The story is told from multiple points of views and timelines and that really helps bring everything together. Phan’s characters are flawed, real, and each carrying burdens. Phan also does not shy away from the messiness of family ties, resentments, and secrets. The pace at times does move a little slow but overall this is a great read about understanding our past and finding a path forward. Thank you Colored Pages Book Tours and Aimee Phan for sharing this book with me!

I was initially very excited to read a fantasy novel that features myth and lore from another culture. There are very few YA books denoted to Vietnamese history, etc. And while I did enjoy those portions of the book, overall I found the writing to be rushed and often times confusing. Unfortunately, I also did not enjoy the FMC who is noted as a "heroine like no other". She is very much like many heroines in this genre. In the onslaught of YA in this genre, I believe this title would be lost in my collection.

3.5/5

The Lost Queen opens with a moment of genuine unease: body horror, swimming pools, and surreal visions. It had a “Chlorine" by Jade Song vibe right off the bat, and I was in. That stopped pretty quickly, but it was an easy and compelling hook into the story. Jolie is immediately compelling: an isolated girl with a strange past, an equally strange family, and no idea how deeply her grandfather's stories will change her life.

This book is such a unique blend. It has Vietnamese folklore layered over a very modern high school setting. It balances the grandeur of the Trung Sisters and ancient prophecy with friendship drama, family secrets, and awkward teenage tension. That contrast really worked for me. I loved how the folklore was lived-in and personal.

I genuinely enjoyed the mystery of this one and I was surprised at the twists. There’s also no central romance here, and I really appreciated that! It’s rare to find a YA fantasy that centers on friendship and family, and this story sticks to that focus. Jolie’s bond with her grandfather and the larger threads of ancestral memory gave it emotional depth, even when the pacing wobbled.

That said—there is a bit of a lull in the middle, and the ending rushes through revelations that I wish had more time to breathe. Jolie, too, sometimes fades into the background of her own story. She’s reactive more than active, especially when the stakes heighten. This feels like a younger YA book—less intensity, more of a gentle unfolding—and while I was hoping for something with a bit more bite, it was still a satisfying, easy read.

If you like reincarnation stories, hidden histories, or books that blend cultural heritage with supernatural twists, this is a great way to spend an afternoon. Quietly magical and a fresh spin on stories of legacy and power.

Thanks so much to Colored Pages Book Tours, Penguin Teen, and the author for the complimentary copy. This review is voluntary and all opinions are my own.

It’s hard to believe that despite being of Vietnamese descent, I only learned about the Trưng sisters a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve read about them in non-fiction and historical fiction novels, and I was excited to see how they would be reimagined in a YA fantasy series. Sadly, I was disappointed with The Lost Queen. Read the rest of my review here: https://wordsofmystery.substack.com/p/book-review-the-lost-queen-by-aimee

This was a nice younger YA take on the Trung Sisters of Vietnamese folklore and history as well as a reimagining of them through Vietnamese mythology. While the beginning was a bit too slow and the ending too fast in my opinion and the magic system did take some time to get into and understand, I still had a rather good time in this story and cast of characters. Please know that while this review might sound a bit negative, it’s really more a heads up for those who are looking into read this book. ❗️

The story follows Jolie, a young sophomore in San Jose, California who has been ostracized by her friends, school, and community. She is lonely and desperate for the connection that she felt with her former friends who have turned their backs on her and are the instigators of her ousting and bullying. While I understand that teens can be brutal to each other and have also been on the receiving end of bullying during my high school days, I felt like it was taken the extreme in this story and felt like something that could be seen more in a Netflix dramatization of American high schools (ie. Thirteen Reasons Why for example) than something that happens in real life. Again, this is my guess so please don’t take me for granted on this since I haven’t been in a high school setting in over ten years and teens might’ve gotten even more abusive since then. 🤔

In the story, Jolie finds herself drawn into the circle of the most popular junior in school, Huong, who changes her circumstances as well as outlook on life. I felt like the bond that forms between the girls (and later leads to other realizations that I won’t spoil here) was at first sweet and very well done only for it to suddenly take a turn into emotional manipulation. It’s further explained why Huong is the way that she is and why she did what she did, but I still felt like this could’ve been handled a bit better for the characterization of her, but it just rubbed me the wrong way half the time. 😒

Story wise though, I did think was done very well, but I did wish that it picked up the pace a bit sooner than say about 40% in. While I don’t mind a slow build, since it’s a contemporary fantasy, I did assume that it didn’t need that much of a build up (and this is probably why I’m not a fan of contemporary/urban fantasies in the first place). On the opposite end, the ending did feel rather rushed and I wish it could’ve made a bigger impact on the reader than a sudden change of heart for both sisters. The other little tidbit that I think might throw some reads for a loop is that it reads a bit immature for a fifteen-year-old teen. Sure that age is a weird period in life, but I would put this book somewhere in the older middle-grade/younger YA section because of its narration style. Now this is in no ways a bad thing, I just think if you are going into this expecting a mature teenaged girl who can kick-ass while still studying for her chemistry quizzes, it might lead you to a rather frustrating read. 🤭

But really though, once I switched gears to an older middle grade/younger YA mindset, I think it was a pretty decent read! The focus on the Vietnamese diaspora community and its recent immigrants was done very well in my opinion (and again, take this with a grain of salt since I’m an adopted Chinese-American so someone who is Vietnamese might say something otherwise), and I really liked the heavy focus on the country’s folklore and mythology throughout the book. 🪷

Thank you goes out to Penguin Teens and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest (and very late) review! I’m interested to see where the story goes in the second book since the ending was a cliffhanger! ❤️

Publication date: May 6!

Overall: . . . I’m rounding it up to a 3.5/5 ⭐️ for the entire reading experience