MYSTERY- You guess it, it’s the mystery! The reader is given full access to the perspectives of all four queens and additional main characters, Keralie (a 17-year old Torian who makes her way by thievery), Mackiel (a slightly older Torian who runs the black market trade in Toria), and Varin (a 17-year old Eonist messenger). The reader even knows about the murders and how they are completed early on. MURDER- Yep, the title gives this one away. I’ve always felt inclusion of details like these help set the reader up for success, especially those on the younger end. I love when fantasy books include maps and other “insider” information before the book begins, so I was thrilled with the detailed map and rules and well-known expressions from each of the quadrants. Each land had its own specialties (agriculture/trade/technology/arts) and centered around the palace, locked in the middle.

I was, in fact, so hooked, that I had checked out both the physical book from the library and downloaded the audiobook on my Libby app so I could read before bed and while doing household tasks!įANTASY : Set in Quadara, a land divided into four separate areas, ruled by four separate queens, Quadara had been ruled predictably for the last 400 years. While I don’t pretend to read a lot of YA (books designated as appropriate for “young adults,” typically for ages 12 and up) this book is a legit triple threat and had me hooked until the last page. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2019

The four dead queens