Title: Cruel Crown (Red Queen #0.1 - #0.2
by Victoria AveyardPublishing Info: January 5, 2016 by HarperCollins
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Dystopian
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: March 7, 2016
Related Posts: Red Queen (Red Queen Trilogy #1)
Two women on either side of the Silver and Red divide tell the stories no one else knows.
Discover the truth of Norta’s bloody past in these two revealing prequels to #1 New York Times bestseller Red Queen.
Queen Song
Queen Coriane, first wife of King Tiberias, keeps a secret diary—how else can she ensure that no one at the palace will use her thoughts against her? Coriane recounts her heady courtship with the crown prince, the birth of a new prince, Cal, and the potentially deadly challenges that lay ahead for her in royal life.
Steel Scars
Diana Farley was raised to be strong, but being tasked with planting the seeds of rebellion in Norta is a tougher job than expected. As she travels the land recruiting black market traders, smugglers, and extremists for her first attempt at an attack on the capital, she stumbles upon a connection that may prove to be the key to the entire operation—Mare Barrow.
Plus a Glass Sword sneak peek!
An exclusive excerpt of the hotly anticipated second book in the Red Queen series, Glass Sword, transports readers to the world of Silver tyranny, a Red dawn rising, and one girl’s resolve to break down the system that will hold her back no longer.
I wanted to check out CRUEL CROWN before I started GLASS SWORD as a sort of memory refreshed and to throw me back in that world. Even though I had only liked RED QUEEN and not loved, I still found myself sucked in that world so I figured it was a great opportunity to read the novellas! The two novellas in this bind-up (in my case, audio bind-up — thanks, HarperTeen, for the review copy!) were QUEEN’S SONG about Coriane, the first wife of King Tiberias and STEEL SCARS which was about Farley.
QUEEN’S SONG ended up being incredibly interesting but it did have quite the slow start for me. I felt like it took a little bit to really establish what the overall plot of the novella was and me and my bad memory didn’t quite remember what had happened to Coriane as we had learned it in RED QUEEN. I remembered the gist but I had a hard time remembering details so this was actually a great chance to see things from Cori’s POV. I really liked her a lot and although I didn’t connect with her personality as much as I had hoped, her story did keep me hooked the whole time. The ending was really interesting and I loved how there was a little twist there.
STEEL SCARS did not go as well. I had an incredibly hard time getting into this story at all. I wasn’t sure where it was going and I just really didn’t care about Farley’s story at all. I felt like not a whole lot was happening and to be totally honest… I didn’t even bother to finish it. I didn’t feel like it was important to the overall plot of the RED QUEEN series and I was just so bored.
I’m glad I ventured into the novellas but I also don’t feel drawn to pick up more should more come out. I guess that could change if I end up loving GLASS SWORD but now I’m sort of meh about starting GLASS SWORD too. Kind of a bummer that the novellas ended up having the opposite effect on me than I had hoped.
Kept Me Hooked On: Dystopian. Technically this series is more fantasy than dystopian but it always has that dystopian feel for me. I’ve really fallen out of love with dystopia lately but the RED QUEEN books have had me hanging on.
Left Me Wanting More: Plot. I just felt like QUEEN’S SONG took a while to go anywhere and STEEL SCARS didn’t have much going on at all.
Addiction Rating
Skip them
Unless you’re a BIG fan of the series, I wouldn’t really recommend these two novellas. They didn’t really go well for me and I just wasn’t as hooked as I had hoped.
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1 thought on “Mini-Review: Cruel Crown (Red Queen #0.1 – #0.2)”
Yeeeep totally agree. I did generally like Queen’s Song but you’re right – it took forever to get interesting! Steel Scars…nah. Skipped. haha.