In this fantasy novel, humans are attacked by six different spirits: air, water, earth, ice, fire and wood who feel the land belongs to them. These spirits have two instincts: destroy and create. Certain humans have an affinity to control them in different degrees and The Queen is the most powerful and keeps everything in balance and protects the people. Over time though, the Queen can lose some of her power and so they have heirs trained and prepared to become Queen if the Queen dies. The kicker here is that the spirits are the ones to choose the next Queen and they give her more power. The main character is Daleina who as a child demonstrates she has the affinity to control spirits when her home is attacked. She is smart, nice, and determined to learn more so that she can become Queen and protect people from these spirits but do no harm. The Queen must be able to control the spirits, not just wipe them all out because that would wipe out their land as well.
I loved this book so much, I even read it at night to finish it! (I hardly ever read at night.) I got so engrossed in it that was almost late getting back from lunch and had to stop earlier than usual on the bus so I wouldn't miss my stop. It is a fun and interesting read that shows how important good leadership and teamwork are. There is a lot of killing in this book and I felt so bad for Daleina when her friends died. There is lots of action and humor which kept this from being depressing because of the killing. Daleina is such a great character who truly wanted to protect others. She befriends a wolf who proves to be a loyal asset to her and also is chosen to be trained by Ven who brings along a healer, Haman. The three of them work together to do what is best for the land. I really look forward to the next book in this series, Queens of Renthia.
(Karen's review, 5 stars)
In The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst, Daleina is a young girl whose community is torn apart and its people are killed by the spirits. This is not supposed to happen! The Queen is supposed to protect the people. Daleina decides to try out to be a champion. A champion is a person who protects the people and is an heir to be a queen. But the odds are long that she can become one. Is the queen losing her power?
I thought this book was very good. I was into it from page 1 because Daleina is a great character. This has plenty of action and a few twists that I did not see at all. I am looking forward to reading the next two books in this series.
(Gerard's review 12/23/16, 5++ stars)
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