Book Review: The Imposter Queen

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Elli was only a child when the Elders of Kupari chose her to succeed the Valtia, the queen who wields infinitely powerful ice and fire magic in service of her people. The only life Elli has known has been in the temple, surrounded by luxury, tutored by magic-wielding priests, preparing for the day when the queen perishes—and the ice and fire find a new home in Elli, who is prophesied to be the most powerful Valtia to ever rule.But when the queen dies defending the kingdom from invading warriors, the magic doesn’t enter Elli. It’s nowhere to be found. Disgraced, Elli flees to the outlands, home of banished criminals—some who would love to see the temple burn with all its priests inside. As she finds her footing in this new world, Elli uncovers devastating new information about the Kupari magic, those who wield it, and the prophecy that foretold her destiny. Torn between her love for her people and her growing loyalty to the banished, Elli struggles to understand the true role she was meant to play. But as war looms, she must choose the right side before the kingdom and its magic are completely destroyed.

Review: I didn't find this book to be that good but I didn't think that it was a bad book. The beginning started off a little too slow for me, as do many fantasy books, but that's not what didn't make me like this book that much. In terms of the plot, I didn't like it that much because I felt like the action kept fluctuating. It was slow in the beginning and then it sped up when she was running. Then it slowed down again when she was comfortable in her new surroundings. It finally picked back up when the priests found her in her new surroundings but that was the end, which I did like a lot.

The characters of this book weren't great either. At first I didn't like the main character because she was such a little kid. This is my personal preference but I love my characters to be strong. She just wasn't that in the beginning but in the ending scenes, I did find her stronger which was great character development. But in majority of the book, I found her kind of boring to follow. As for the other characters, they were just decent. Nothing amazing. The love interest, Oskar, was actually a good character but I didn't like him with her. It didn't feel like they were supposed to be together because I didn't get the feeling that they were meant for each other. It felt like it was just put there because almost every novel has a love interest.

My favorite part of this story was the world. This world was amazing and I think that's what made me continue this book. I liked the prophecy, the magical abilities that some people had, and the hierarchy. This alone would make me want to continue the series.

There is diversity in this book, also. The main character is bisexual, which I confirmed from other reviewers. I almost missed it because of the fact that the girl love interest of the story was hardly there and she just kept talking about Oskar. It would have been nice if she would've ended up with the female love interest, though. There weren't any people of color or people with disabilities from what I could tell but I still give this book full diversity points since the main character was from a marginalized group.

Overall, I enjoyed some parts of this book and I think I'm going to continue with the series.  I would probably recommend this book to anyone new to reading and they want to experience a fantasy. While I don't think that it was a great book, I think people that are looking for a light fantasy read will enjoy this book.

Diversity: 1 star
Plot: .25 star
Setting: 1 star
Characters:.25 star
Enjoyment: .5 star
Total: 3 stars