Book review: Traitors of the Black Crown by Cate Pearce

Review in 10-ish words: Promising synposis and story idea that sadly fell flat.

Flash Synopsis:

I was excited by the story outline which I think is creative and has a lot of potential. Raena has disguised herself as a man, a knight in fact, and is deadset on avenging her family by killing the Queen Zarana. Things go wrong at a Knight’s trial and she is essentially sentenced to serve at House Colby, where she meets Lady Avenna.

My thoughts:

I unfortunately found this read really slow to read with a plot that at times I wasn’t sure was there.

I didn’t connect with any of the characters, the dialogue wasn’t engaging and the story was super politics heavy. I enjoyed some aspects of Raena and Avenna’s relationship but it was a little insta-lovey (BUT some people love that, so each to their own).

The world was interesting and would probably become more fleshed out in the second book. My favourite scene was probably the knight’s trial, I really liked seeing Raena and Finley interact during it and it was a decent action scene. I found Zander to be a very 2D villain.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review