The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Kelsea was sneaked out of the castle as a baby to be raised by two weathered and very smart people. Her very life was threatened by her uncle, thus her being raised away from court in secrecy, and when her nineteenth birthday comes calling her late mother's guard knock on her door to escort her back to her throne. Assassin's are out to get her and she must win the heart of her people if she wishes to rule her country successfully.. if she can survive.

The Queen of the Tearling is a thrilling debut novel by Erika Johanson and I'm sure this novel will gather a tremendous fan base!

Based in a dystopian setup, this high fantasy novel was pretty original! My only problem with this novel though is that the details of what they call 'the crossing' are a bit hazy. People were forced to leave the old world behind and crossed an ocean by boat to get to this new world. They couldn't bring over much technology, nor medicine and they find themselves in medieval times. It's not all that clear what happened to make them crossover, and it seems to new world is in another dimension or something, I honestly don't know, which is a big flaw.

Despite this major issue, the plot is very interesting and engaging. Kelsea is first brought to the castle, and not without action, mind you!, and starts her Queen life with a bang. She then has to strive hard to take the right decisions for her people, dodge assassin attemps, and build her Queenship from scratch. I was honestly riveted to the pages and I loved watching Kelsea grow from a young innocent girl to a queen in a matter of weeks. I also appreciated her bodyguard/adviser.

I usually love my novels with some romance and surprisingly I enjoyed the fact that here is none in this novel. Ok, Kelsea has some kind of crush on her kidnapper, but it's irrelevant to the story and barely worth mentioning. The focus is all about how she will overcome to obstacles to break her people free and I enjoyed it.

The Queen of the Tearling is kind of a long read but I wasn't bored one minute and even though I disagree with the “The Hunger Games meets Game of Thrones" promo line, I would suggest this novel to fantasy fans. I can't wait for the next installment!