Review: The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine

The Imposter Queen by Sarah Fine
pub Jan 5, 2016 by
Margaret K. EcElderry Books
Young Adult - Fantasy
Received by publisher via Edelweiss

There’s nothing better than being immediately reeled into a story from the first page. It’s especially hard with fantasy because there’s this fine line between giving the reader what they need to understand and jumping into the action. Sarah Fine handles this effortlessly though and I knew early on that The Impostor Queen was going to have everything I wanted in fantasy. An impressive and vivid world, a heroine I connected with and a squee-worthy romance (!).

In Fine’s world, the queen is known as the Valtia and she possesses powerful ice and fire magic. From the moment a Valtia rises to power, her successor is immediately identified — usually as a child — and raised under the care of the queen and her priests to prepare said successor for the day when she will rise to the throne and be filled with the same ice and fire magic. Enter Elli, the current sixteen-year-old successor who’s destined to be the most powerful Valtia ever. So what happens when the queen suddenly dies and the magic never materializes within Elli? Let’s just say she doesn’t stay long enough to find out and flees to the outlands, where the banished reside and who are known for being criminals and against the priests who counsel the Valtia. It’s here, under a secret identity, that Elli truly comes into her own.

One of my favorite parts of any book, fantasy or otherwise, is watching a heroine discover who she is. In Elli’s case, she’s been told all her life that she was going to be this powerful Valtia and when it doesn’t happen, her world is very literally turned upside down. What happened? Who is she going to be now? Where does she belong? She faces each question head-on with faith, strength and an understandable amount of fear. I felt for her as she tried to find her footing in the outlands discovering a whole new way of life. And in the process, she meets people who open up her mind up to family, love, the meaning of magic and destiny and what it takes to be queen. I was absorbed in every step of her journey, each person who became a part of it and all the clever details that made up her world.

(No) reservations

None! But if there’s no sequel, that would probably be one reservation because I definitely want more!

Do I recommend?

I do! This was my first Sarah Fine book and reading The Imposter Queen has inspired to check out the author’s backlog. I was very impressed!

Collaborative feature with Alexa! 

Would I want to wield fire or ice magic?

If I’m being honest, wielding either magic doesn’t sound particularly appealing based on the descriptions in the book but if I had to pick one, it would be fire. And I’m choosing this solely on my preference to hot weather over cold. I am definitely a summer and warm weather girl which makes me perfectly suited for fire magic.