Thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of this year. I generally love the weaving of mythological fantasy into the modern world. There have been a lot of recent books that have taken Asian mythology and weaved those characters into modern settings and wow-ed me. Unfortunately, this one missed the mark a bit for me. I know it's YA but the writing of the modern setting was actually written like a teenager wrote it. That balanced with the flowery language of the myths made for such abrupt transitions. The story has a ton of bullying, which I'm sure is accurate but it didn't make for an easy read. The second half was better than the first from a mythology standpoint but it still felt a bit predictable.

This book is supposed to be based on the Vietnamese legend of the Trung Sisters. I am not Vietnamese and personally don't know anything about this legend. So I went into this book with a very open mind. For me personally this was a good book.

I loved the main character Jolie. She comes from a long line of fortune tellers and her grandmother keeps having these visions of doom and gloom basically. Jolie is kind of a loner but one day ends up saving a popular student Huong and that's literally when everything changes.

While I am an older adult, this book reminds me of why I continue to love young adult novels. I loved Jolies story of self discovery in a magical way. I feel like in some ways reading this book, I had a better understanding of Vietnamese history in a creative way. I really appreciated that aspect at the beginning of the book.

I loved this book so much that I want to go and research the actual legend and read more about it. I would absolutely love to read more books like this.

Earthquakes, premonitions, and past lives collide when an ostracized high school swimmer befriends a popular transfer student. As they become closer, they unlock secrets reaching back generations. This book falls on the younger side of ya fantasy, and I think this would be perfect for teens branching into the fantasy genre. I liked that in this book the high school kids actually act their own age. Yes, Jolie is starting to experience new powers, but also people are being really mean to her at school and that’s miserable. She’s getting visions and premonitions, but is also failing algebra. I really enjoyed the mix on fantasy elements with modern day San Jose.

I went into this one totally blind, only knowing that it was a YA fantasy novel and the cover was gorgeous! I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this! It reminded me a lot of the Percy Jackson series.

Inspired by Vietnamese mythology, this is truly a story of family rivalry. It toggles back and forth between a contemporary high school setting and scenes from Vietnamese folklore. There are plenty of supernatural elements in the story and I enjoyed all of the mythology, especially since this is a culture I’m not sure I’ve read about before! The first half of the novel felt a little long to me and some of the supporting characters were weak. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about them in subsequent books since this is the first in a series.

Overall, I enjoyed this one a lot and highly recommend it to those that enjoy YA fantasy!

This book is a love letter to the Vietnamese tale of the Trung sisters. Jolie and Huong are teen girls that find themselves navigating growing up and gaining magical powers. A good read for coming of age - and love the Vietnamese culture representation.

A true masterpiece! At first I was skeptical about how this would play out! THE TWIST?! I didn’t see it coming!! The evaluation of Jolie I feel progressed wonderfully and the further in we got the more invested I became with her journey.

First and foremost, thank you to the publisher and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. I loved this story and it was definitely worth the read!

I really enjoyed the way that this story blended the past and the present together. I hadn't heard of the Vietnamese legend of the Trung Sisters, so this was all new to me and it was really compelling getting to see the way that legend and lore was woven into the story. I will say that it took me a while to really get pulled into the story, and I'm not sure if it was the writing or the characters, but I just struggled to get invested in this story. I think that this will be really popular among YA readers, so I'm excited to get our physical copies in at the branch. Also, this story felt fairly complete to me so I'm curious to see where Phan will go with the sequel (this is apparently book 1 in a planned duology).

4.5 Stars

Inspired by the Vietnamese legend of the Trung Sisters, warrior queens who rebelled against the Chinese in AD 40, The Lost Queen is an epic fantasy that blends the past and present.

The story follows Jolie, whose sophomore year could hardly get worse. Her best friends have shunned her and her grandfather is ailing. All Jolie wants to do is hide. Then Huong enters the picture. Suddenly, Jolie is popular. And Huong makes her feel seen.

Jolie is a character that faces a lot of growth throughout The Lost Queen. She literally learns who she was and decides who she wants to be. It’s an incredible journey of self-discovery. Next to her, all the other characters, except morally grey Huong, feel fairly one note.

The Lost Queen isn’t necessarily a page turner, but the book fairly sings when author Aimee Phan transports readers through time and place. That’s really where the descriptive magic takes place. Overall, it’s a compelling story that keeps you reading to the end. And the story feels complete, so it will be interesting to see where Phan takes readers in the sequel.

I really enjoyed the Vietnamese representation woven with a modern retelling of a story I did not know much about. It took awhile for me to really get into the story and feel a connection to the characters. The pacing and change in the way the story was being told kept pulling me out of the story. I really enjoyed the character development and personal growth throughout the story.

I was interested in the plot but the characters and plot fell short. The pacing was off and I felt no connection to the characters.

Rooted in mythology, this is a story of rebirth and betrayal. Jolie has become an outcast, and when the school’s most popular girl volunteers to be her math tutor, she’s beyond surprised. Jolie has been raised by her grandparents, and her grandfather’s stories and role as a fortuneteller have given her a strong foundation of the myths that she comes to realize she is a living part of.

The more Jolie tries to understand how she fits into the story, the more odd things happen to her. When the truth of who she is, her own personal culpability, and who is behind the various events comes to light, she has to find the strength to stand up for what is best for everyone, not just herself, even when those she most loves are in danger.

The story wasn’t always fast moving; it took me about halfway through to really get into it, but it did come to a satisfying resolution.

Possible Objectionable Material:
Teenage drinking. Swearing. Violence. Bullying. Mythological beings reincarnated. Parental death.

Who Might Like This Book:
Those who like learning about other cultures and mythologies. Those who enjoy reading about family conflict.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for my opinion.

This book is also reviewed at https://biblioquacious.blogspot.com/2025/05/a-good-week-for-readers.html

My first thought is the cover art is beautiful and truly draws you in.

However, I feel a little confused. And I'm conflicted because I'm confused. I don't know how I feel after reading the book. I don't think it was a bad book at all, but I'm not sure it was amazing. I finished it, but I wasn't really feeling anything. I think the writing was great, and the mythology and the concept too. However, I think it needed more work and refining. It felt like a lot happened, but I was confused about how and why and when it happened... sometimes it lacked the buildup.

This book has such potential, with a really promising plot. The start was a bit slow, but once things got going I started to really enjoy it. The characters weren't stand outs, and felt a bit flat. However, overall I did enjoy it.

Thank you to the publisher for sending a copy for review

Thank you to NetGalley, Aimee Phan, and Putnam Books for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Lost Queen is out now! (P.S. Support Asian authors!)

The only thing I can say about it is..."what?! (That's not a good "what," in case you were wondering.) Again, this ARC review will be short and sweet because there's not a whole ton to say about it.

Jolie is an outcast at her San Jose high school. After what was deemed to be a psychotic breakdown at a county swim meet last year where she saw a vision of her friends getting attacked, her friends have abandoned her, she's the subject of cyberbullying, and overall just the laughingstock of her school. When she meets Huong, the pretty, popular, Vietnamese foreign exchange student, she starts to change. She suddenly can speak Vietnamese fluently, her grades started getting better, but most importantly, she starts to have visions of ancient Vietnam...and perhaps a previous life. She quickly realizes that she's meant to be more, and with Huong's help, they discover that they're part of a much larger plan in the world: they're the reincarnations of the Trung sisters.

I’m a first generation Vietnamese American. I thought that reading a book that's based on my OWN culture, my own heritage, and stories that have been passed down for generations and generations of people in Vietnam would make sense in my head. Considering the Trung sisters are such a large part of Vietnamese culture to the point where there's a national holiday celebrated for the Trung sisters every year in February, I would be excited to read this ARC. Instead, I was left confused. EXTREMELY confused.

The only thing I can say I love about the book is the writing and the references and the influence of Vietnamese culture throughout the story. The writing was easy to read and follow along, and I guess that's all I can really ask for. Jolie is 15 or 16 in the story, so I wasn't expecting super sophisticated writing. It was simple to read and follow along, and beginners and first-time readers of stories that are based on Vietnamese history and culture should be able to easily understand what's going on...for the most part. More on this later. (Also, the cover is REALLY pretty.)

On the flip side, I feel like the last 30% of the story was EXTREMELY rushed. Granted, I read an ARC, so things may have changed in the final copy that went out in stores yesterday. I was perfectly understanding everything in the first 70% of the book, I swear! By the last 30%, it felt like I was reading a foreign language. There were so many things that were thrown in at the last-minute that had NO buildup, no context given prior, and the entirety of the last scene felt so unorganized, messy, and not thought-out. I wish I could go further into this, but it would be a massive spoiler. Even as someone who is 100% Vietnamese, I had a hard time following everything that was involved in the last third of the book, and it made me feel as if readers who aren't familiar with Vietnamese folklore and history would have an even HARDER time understanding what was going on at the end. The ending made me feel as if you needed prior knowledge of the Trung sisters' story and Vietnamese history to figure out what was going on and why certain things were present and whatnot.

(THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FOR THE OVERALL PLOT, BUT.... that random part in the story where Huong is talking to Jolie about her sex life gave me the ick. I can only hope that part of the story is removed in the final draft because it came out of nowhere and was totally unnecessary.)

Overall, while this was a good idea in theory for a book, I think it fell flat in execution. It seems like this is the first book in a series and the ending was semi-cliffhanger-like, so I think I'll be picking up the next book to figure out what happens next, if there is a second book.

I absolutely loved this book. This was an amazing fantasy novel. The characters were likeable. The storyline was well written and kept me engrossed in this book until the very end. I haven't read anything like this before and I can't wait to see what's next. This was my first time reading a book from this author and I'm so glad I was accepted for this ARC. I will definitely be reading more from this Author.

Reading Fantasy feels like the vibe for me at the moment, getting to let things slow down in real life and just escape for a bit. If there are layers, that's an added bonus for me. Well, when I came across the blurb of this, I had to jump on it.

For context, Jolie, a high school sophomore, is drowning feeling alone in her life, thanks to her bizarre accident at a swim meet, and her grandfather loosing his head with his psychic imaginations. Suddenly things change when she saves Huong, a senior, navigating into a shared history with mythological origins with their powers. The story progresses on with its own set of shocks and heart rendering moments of sisterhood, family, friendship and character development.

This book was not what I expected, especially with its fusion of American and Asian elements, clashing and crisscrossing with bright flashes of color literally, that I was hooked to it. The folklore elements were really beautifully highlighted , and the writing made it a treat to read.

I actually felt some different vibes of Huong, and Quentin a bit early on, but then the way the story culminated, I was completely enamored at it, bringing me back to why I really enjoy reading fantasy, for all its whimsical but heart warming connections between the characters.

Rating - 4.25 stars.

Book Recommendation - Definitely, to add a bit of fantasy cultural flair with heart to your life *wink*

The Lost Queen is a tender yet melancholic exploration of family, identity, and the weight of cultural inheritance. The story centers on the complexities between siblings and generations, woven delicately with themes of diaspora and loss. Phan’s prose is quiet and thoughtful, often reading like a slow burn of emotion rather than a plot-driven narrative. While the novel offers deeply moving moments, especially through the lens of memory and fractured relationships, it sometimes struggles with pacing and cohesion, leaving some emotional beats underdeveloped. Still, the raw vulnerability and gentle storytelling make it a reflective, bittersweet read, especially for those drawn to intergenerational stories and the quiet ache of remembering.

This was a very good fantasy book! While it is set in modern times, there are fantasy elements. I think this set up the duology very well. Additionally, I think the book took a little bit of time to set up, but I think it was needed for this YA book. I am invested in the characters and their chances to either continue their fate, or make a change for the better. The premise was cool, and I will definitely be picking up the second book when it comes out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the ARC!

This was an interesting read! I enjoyed the story in this one I haven’t read too many Vietnamese inspired books so I enjoyed seeing a retelling of one of their legends! I did struggle for a good chunck of this book to connect with the character but once I did around the halfway mark I was sucked in! Overall an enjoyable read that I definitely recommend checking out!


3.25 out of 5 stars!