The True Queen / Book Two of Sorcerer Royal // Book Review

US Cover

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.

 Book: The True Queen (Sorcerer Royal 2) by Zen Cho
Release Date: March 21st 2019
Tags: Fantasy / Historical Fantasy / Adult / Regency / Magic School / Matriarchy / Faerie Court / Faeries / Dragons / Serpents / POC / Black / LGBTQ+ / Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual
Other books in this series I reviewed
Sorcerer to the Crown

 

When sisters Muna and Sakti wake up on the peaceful beach of the island of Janda Baik, they can’t remember anything, except that they are bound as only sisters can be. They have been cursed by an unknown enchanter, and slowly Sakti starts to fade away. The only hope of saving her is to go to distant Britain, where the Sorceress Royal has established an academy to train women in magic.
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If Muna is to save her sister, she must learn to navigate high society, and trick the English magicians into believing she is a magical prodigy. As she’s drawn into their intrigues, she must uncover the secrets of her past, and journey into a world with more magic than she had ever dreamed.

The True Queen is the sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown, one of my all time favorite books. I know many think this is a companion novel as the book focuses on different characters based on the synopsis but beware that you are best to read this after having read Sorcerer to the Crown. In ways it deals still with the backlash of what happened in Sorcerer to the Crown and we get a lot of relationships and characters from that novel in this one.

UK Cover

With that out of the way, The True Queen is an altogether different book from Sorcerer to the Crown. Where in the first book we dealt with Zacharias and Prunella’s places in society, in this book we deal with two sisters who don’t even know who they are. It is a different story about finding out who you really are.  I didn’t love this as much as I loved Sorcerer to the Crown but overall it is still a really good book.

One of the reasons why I didn’t end up loving this book is because I guessed the plot twist very early on. And at about 75% I was about ready to bash everyone’s head in for not having guessed it yet. Clearly they needed more of Zacharias council but he was very much on the sidelines in this book (one that I am sad about).

Another reason is that this book switches around in point of views a lot. Some characters only having one, maybe two point of views throughout the whole book where I wondered if it was really necessary to get their view on those situations.

Having said all that however I just really enjoyed being back in this world. I loved seeing a bit of Janda Baik at the start and I would love to see a book set there (but then this series is called sorcerer royal so bloody unlikely). I loved seeing Prunella being petty with all of the English magicians and throwing in their face her position of Sorceress Royal.  I loved getting to know Henrietta more and seeing a slight focus on her relationship with Prunella.

Muna was interesting though it took some getting used to her. I found her sister incredibly grating and I was glad she wasn’t there for most of the book . I loved the relationships that Muna build with those around her, especially Henrietta. Her priorities shifted throughout the book, and I was pleased to see that at the end she still retained that new bit of her.  And hey, that last chapter, totally on board for that!