Author’s note: This review of the second book in the Queens of Renthia trilogy includes spoilers for the first book in the series, The Queen of Blood, which is reviewed here. Massive spoilers included in the summary of The Reluctant Queen.

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After surviving the bloodbath that led to her coronation, Queen Daleina is dying. While her loved ones scramble to seek a cure, she seeks something very different: an heir. But as many of the potential heirs were slaughtered just weeks earlier, few are left, and Daleina asks her mentor Ven for one last favor: find a magically-experienced heir.

And he does: Naelin, a nearly middle-aged mother of two who lives in a remote village. Naelin has suppressed her magic all her life, and she knows all that will come of using that power is danger to the children she’d sacrifice everything for. But with Daleina’s life slowly draining away, Naelin is the only woman in Aratay with enough raw power to take her place, and Naelin soon realizes that the only way to keep her own children safe is to become the heir and protect everyone in the land.

When I first read The Queen of Blood, I was utterly entranced. Though I’m not typically an epic fantasy fan, Durst’s careful crafting of the lands of Renthia and the subversion of fantasy tropes hooked me in so hard that I read the entire thing in one sitting, had a good cry after Daleina lost nearly everyone she knew in the end, then immediately started in on The Reluctant Queen.

This novel mainly follows Daleina, who’s been diagnosed with a fatal illness called the False Death, but also follows the perspective of Naelin. Unlike Daleina, whose motive in The Queen of Blood almost entirely consisted of protecting the people of Aratay from the wild spirits, Naelin isn’t motivated to protect anyone other than Erian and Llor, her daughter and son. A few other perspectives pepper the book, including the healer Harmon — Daleina’s lover and the person treating her — as well as Daleina’s sister Arin, whom Daleina summons to the castle to be near her in her final days.

Naelin is one of the most fascinating characters in The Reluctant Queen. While she’s obviously the eponymous character, Naelin’s absolute resistance to what Daleina sees as her destiny makes her vastly different from any of the other women we’ve seen in the trilogy so far, and in fact sets her apart from pretty much any of the women I’ve read in fantasy.

Like The Fifth Season‘s Essun, Naelin’s main motivation is the safety of her children, but Naelin is far more motivated to keep her children safe by completely suppressing her ability. Naelin seems to be in her late thirties or so, and when she meets Daleina, the impact of Daleina’s youth hits her really hard.

While I love a good young adult fantasy as much as the next person, I’m finding myself enjoying fantasy about women in their thirties or older much more, in part because of the rarity of it. Naelin’s life experience gives her an entirely different perspective on magic than Daleina, despite Daleina’s greater experience with magic, and having that perspective makes The Reluctant Queen a fantastic read.

There was really only one element in the book I didn’t really like that much, though I think some of that was by the author’s design: Naelin’s love life. At the start of the book, her husband intentionally doesn’t replace warding charms around the perimeter of the family home in order to force Naelin to use her power to repel spirits. This (understandably) infuriates her, and in fact it also infuriated me, and I almost threw the book across the room in protest. (I didn’t, and I just complained to my friends about him instead.) Naelin essentially divorces her husband, and there’s a romantic subplot involving her that I don’t particularly care for. But this is entirely personal preference, as some readers might like this aspect of the novel.

The Reluctant Queen was a fantastic next installment for this trilogy, providing fresh characters as well as returning to characters from The Queen of Blood. (In fact, my favorite character makes a return appearance, but that’s a pretty major spoiler.) The novel leaves readers excited for more, and with the final installment in the trilogy — The Queen of Sorrow — due out May 15, it’s a perfect time to binge your way through the first two.

4.5 out of 5 stars

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