This book is half historical-feeling drama (village life, betrayal, scandal) and half dark faerie court intrigue —all woven together with timeline jumps that may leave you flipping back a few pages like, wait, who’s who again? Romance? Well… sort of. There’s some spice, but it’s more “complicated situationships” than swoony soulmates. Bess spends a lot of time chasing men, rather than being the fiery feminist the blurb promises.

What really shines is the folklore, fae atmosphere, and gorgeous writing—lush, detailed, and clearly researched. But it’s heavy, melancholy, and slow-paced, so you don’t exactly finish it with a smile.

Thank you netgalley

I did enjoy this book, I was very excited about this but it did take me a while to get into.

I was expecting more of a romantasy but I would still give a 3 star.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

3.75 ⭐️s!

I loved getting a fantasy novel from the pov of the Fae Queen and her evolution during her life. This was so well done and was written beautifully!

Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for thisARC
Overall, this book was fine for me. It does have the love triangle trope which i can be a bit on the fence about, and honestly wasnt the biggest fan of it in this book. It was quick to read. The timeline jumps were slightly jarring to me. The writing was good.
Overall a 2.25 ⭐️

The Changeling Queen by Kimberly Bea is a poetic retelling of the ‘Ballad of Tam Lin’. In an attempt to retrieve Tam Lin from his lover’s rescue, the Faerie Queen tells the story of her early life as a changeling.

The book was beautifully written, with prose that felt reminiscent of the original ballad. The story of the faery queen’s mortal life gives a peak into medieval life for village women and healing practices of the time. However, the pace of the book often felt drawn out and meandering, making it easy to lose sight of the plot and the fight between Janet and the Faerie Queen for Tam Lin. Overall, the book felt well done, but did not draw me in as much as I wished.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

The characters were interesting and the story progressed well throughout the book. The story is based on the Ballad of Tam Lin but with a lot of dark elements to it.

Personally, for me, I found this book hard to get into and to capture me, hence my 3 stars. I actually did not like the character of the Queen and found her difficult to read in terms of my own engagement which made reading the book more challenging.

Overall, for anyone who enjoys darker story development with some feminist twists, this would be a good book and would be recommended.

The Changeling Queen is a lush retelling of the Ballad of Tam Lin with beautifully researched detail and haunting prose. I loved how Bea gave the Faery Queen a backstory, showing her as a changeling girl torn between mortal and fae. The first half, rooted in medieval Scotland, felt especially strong and immersive, while the later fae court added darker intrigue.

The pacing is slow at times and the tone heavier than a typical romantasy, but that worked well for the folkloric feel. If you enjoy atmospheric storytelling, morally complex heroines, and traditional fae lore, this is a rewarding read.

The book is a historical fantasy and it follows the fae queen and how she came to.
English isn’t my first language so some parts of the book was a bit hard to get through.
It was a bit slow paced, but if you know anything about folklore, I would say it would be a bit more captivating.
All in all a good well written book, but just not a favorite of mine.

I really enjoyed reading The Changeling Queen and would recommend it to anyone interested in fae folklore! I wasn’t very familiar with the Ballad of Tam Lin, and I wish I’d brushed up on it beforehand. I appreciated that the story explored both the “good” and the “bad” sides of its world—something many modern fantasy books tend to gloss over.
The pacing was a bit slow at first, which may have been due to my lack of familiarity with the source material. But once the story picked up, I couldn’t put it down!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book early!

If you are knowledgeable and invested in fae folklore, specifically the Ballad of Tam Lin - this book is for you.

It follows a Changeling Queen and how she came to be. The first half follows her in the mortal realm which read more like a historical romance. While the second part follows her as a she returns to the faerie world and accepts who she is and becomes the true queen of the faerie, which reads as a more of a fantasy.

I am not very well versed into the lore so the book was a bit slow to me. But that’s not to say I did not enjoy it. I was expecting more of a romantasy, but it was a nice surprise.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for this copy. This is my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington publishing, and Erewhon books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very middle of the road for me. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either. The plot dragged on and I wasn’t excited to pick it up or compelled to keep reading. This is a very very character driven book but the character that drives the book isn’t that interesting. The main driving factor in the story is internal conflict with oneself. I did enjoy the accuracy of the time period it was set in and the imagery in the book. I have not read the original folktale of Tam Lin so maybe that’s is why I didn’t fully enjoy the book.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read The Changeling Queen. The Changeling Queen is a retelling of the Ballad of Tam Lin. I should have read the poem before picking up this novel. However, the prose was gorgeous and the descriptions of faerie were beautiful. Ultimately, I was hoping for more of a fantasy novel, but for more of a historical fiction. That is, again, not to say that the authors prose isn't beautiful. But I did find myself getting a bit bogged down sometimes with the old English. Overall, if you love historical fiction and faerie, this novel is for you!

I loved this book and I'm so impressed it is a debut.

For me this is how tales of Faery are supposed to be. Full of whimsy and tragedy and mischief and questionable morality.

This simple tale was beautifully told and Kimberly has proven herself a great story-teller. I loved the use of appropriate language from when the story was set and the attention to detail.

This book is for those who enjoy re-tellings of traditional fae stories and those who love all things Seelie and Unseelie.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. Thoroughly enjoyed this one!

I went into The Changeling Queen without much background in faerie lore, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The book reads almost like a historical record, with a kind of old-timey, past-tense storytelling style. It’s clear the author did a lot of research into European folklore, and the world feels pretty authentic and detailed because of that.

That said, I had a hard time staying focused in parts. Some of the character names were really similar, which made it tough to keep track of who was who. And overall, the story felt kind of sad and heavy. The writing style just wasn’t quite my thing—it’s not bad by any means, it just didn’t really click with me.

I think this book would probably be a better fit for someone who’s already into faerie mythology or enjoys a slower, more reflective kind of story. It wasn’t a bad read, just not quite for me.

Kimberly Bea writing is beautifully immersive. The language the characters used was authentic for the time-period. The details were obviously researched. As a former history student who spent two years essentially creating indexes for medicinal recipe books, the treatments Bess, the changeling, used sounded like they were pulled straight from old recipe books. I applaud Bea for the amount of research she must have done and her attention to detail.

This book is thought-provoking as it explores what it means to be human or mortal. The story follows a changeling’s life among humans and her decision to return to Faery. It’s a retelling of the Ballad of Tam Lin, but as I am unfamiliar with that story, I cannot compare this book to the original. The slow loss of humanity felt similar to Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Swab. If you liked that book, I would recommend reading this one as well, especially if traditional fairy folklore interests you.

The conflict in this book is mostly internal. Bess turned Fia must make decisions about she wants. There is some politics, but there is not a strong opponent. The book progressed slowly for me; I believe because there wasn’t an external force or strong villain creating suspense and conflict. I have no doubt this book will be a favorite for others, though.

Thank you to Net Galley and and Kensington Publishing | Erewhon Books for letting me be an ARC reader.

The Changeling Queen brought me back to when I first fell in love with Faerie. The story of Tam Lin, Janet, and the interruption of the Faerie Queens ride was one of the first stories about Faerie I read as a young girl, and this version did not disappoint. Told by the Queen of Faerie we finally get to see the story from the Faery Queens point of view. Full of rich descriptions of Faerie and the towns of which the story takes place readers can expect to be fully immersed in this beautiful world. The language used can take some getting used to if readers are not familiar with the time period and country in which the story takes place, but once you do it brings the characters into reality. For me it shows the care and research that author Kimberly Bea put into creating an accurate and beautiful story. The story touches on topics of love, unexpected pregnancy, expectations of women in days past, child loss, loss of love and family, and loss of humanity. These are just some topics to be aware of when picking up this book. Overall this is a beautifully written updated version of a classic.

The Changeling Queen is a retelling of the Scottish folklore tale “The Ballad of Tam Lin”. The story centres around The Faery Queen as she tells her story of growing up as a changeling child in the mortal realm, in order to to justify her requirement of a mortal sacrifice on Samhain night to keep the Faery lands alive.

The writing style did take a few chapters for me to get into, but follows a consistent tone of voice and is skilfully executed. The story is set in medieval Scotland—and I’m not an expert on the time period—but the writing *feels* historically accurate. With so many fantasy books currently using a modern vernacular, this did stand out for me in the language use, and it certainly seemed like this is something the author is genuinely interested in keeping true to.

Ultimately, while I mostly enjoyed reading it, it wasn’t entirely my cup of tea. If you enjoyed Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince, but want more of a medieval flare, this would be right you your alley.

Thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing and the author for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy to review.

I liked the ideas of this book more than the book, and I liked the two halves separately more than I liked them together. Bess’s story felt so real, and I imagine a great deal of research went into it. Her world — the loss of her mother, her relationship with her brothers, with her village, with her lover — were interesting but a little shallow, because this was only the first half of the story. But I would have loved it to have been the entire thing, with more village life, more time in the manor, more of the uncertainty of whether or not she was hearing voices in the forest, weather the skills and healing and power at her hand was hers or someone else’s.

The second half, in the realm of the fae, had a nice edge to it. The sharpness, the danger, the complicated politics — and obligatory and somewhat lifeless romance — was all nicely done, but it wasn’t as strong as the first half of the book. It felt like, because the author was so intent on the ending they wanted, Bess/Fia was never given a choice to be anything else, never a choice to do anything else. The ending also left me a bit nonplussed by how … well, boring it was. There was no emotional weight to it, no catharsis, no punch.

It just … ended, and I’m supposed to feel sorry for someone who was never really their own character, just an idea presented by the author. Again, the first half of this book would have been an easy 4 stars on its own, the second a solid 3.5 — maybe a 3.75 … but in combination they both suffer.

Thank you very much to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

I thorughly enjoyed this book. as it's well plotted, fascinating world building, and entertaining. . I liked the good storytelling
Highly Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The Changeling Queen is a mystical faerie tale of the faerie queen’s life and how she came to be. The first half of the book follows her as a changeling in the mortal realm and the second half follows her as she returns to faerie after realizing and accepting who she is. It follows her choices and how she loses her mortal self and embraces becoming the true queen of faerie.

The story is beautiful, the writing is descriptive and snares you up and brings you into its world. I loved the Scottish accents coming through the pages in the first half of the story. I found myself connecting with the queen and also questioning her choices and distancing myself from her. Is she a villain or is she doing what anyone would do in her shoes?

It was a lovely book, but it was very slow. I struggled to really get excited about the book or have that drive to dive in and find out what happens next. I think it needed more of a story arc and connection with the characters. Overall it was still a lovely story. Would love to watch this as a movie.

Thank you to the Author Kimberly Bea, Kensington Publishing | Erewhon Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. Opinions are my own.