The Queen’s Blade by Evelyn Ward is the first book in a two-book dark romantasy series with a dangerous mystery in a world of witches, magic, and warring factions between supernaturals.
Fey is a Queen’s Blade, one of four assassins tasked with killing on behalf of the witch Queen, a tradition that goes back to the start of the Eternal City. These four lethal witches are a sisterhood, and when one of them dies, trials are held to find the next Blade.
Alice, one of Fey’s sisters, has been murdered, and while the remaining Blades train her replacement, they are also on a mission to find out what happened to Alice.
Fey’s search leads her to a nightclub, owned by Alastair, a sexy and dangerous vampire. Their irresistible attraction keeps drawing them together, while secrets are revealed that threaten to tear Fey’s world to shreds.
One of my biggest issues with this book lies with the characters. Throughout the book, they feel generic. Nothing really makes them memorable or fully fleshed-out characters. I kept wanting the author to go deeper into Fey and Alastair’s lives and heads, but the book just kept skimming the surface.
The spice between these characters is definitely there, but again it suffers from being rather generic. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about the steamy moments here.
This world is strangely modern, with security cameras and nightclubs existing alongside palaces and assassins. Readers find out later that this is a futuristic story, set long after the demise of humankind, but before we know that, it’s presented in a way that feels disconnected and jarring.
That said, the magical system here was fascinating. All the witches have some kind of elemental power, and it’s simple and easy to comprehend. I really liked the idea of royal assassins, and I love a female main character who is vicious like Fey.
The Queen’s Blade also suffered from a very slow start. It did not immediately capture my attention. The whole book feels very surface level, and while the pacing improves significantly in the second half, I was still left disappointed by a book I so badly wanted to love.
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