Review: Queene of Light

Queene of Light by Jennifer Armintrout

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I've had this book on my to-read shelf for a year. I bought it during the clearance sales when my bookstore was closing, and it got a bit lost in the sheer quantity of books I was buying at that time. The first time I picked it up, a few months after I bought it, I couldn't get into the story very easily.

This time, I got pulled right in.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the ride as much as I wished I would.

This is the story of Ayla and Malachi. Alya is half Fae, half human, and works as an Assassin for the Fae court. It's her job to go into the Darkworld and kill those that would endanger the Fae. Malachi is a Death Angel, and when he attacks Alya, he makes the mistake of touching her. Since she's part human, the touch of her skin is enough to cause him to Fall and become mortal.

Ayla, to obey her vows to the Fae court, should kill this Darkling. Malachi, out of revenge for his Fall, wants nothing more than to kill the girl. But neither one can do it--instead they find themselves drawn together by a much different emotion.

Queene of Light is the first in a trilogy, and I'm not sure that I will read the rest of them. This book was OK, but it tried to be too many things, and it wound up being unable to be any of them. It wanted to be an urban fantasy, but since humans are almost completely absent, that didn't work. It wanted to be a fantasy focusing on fairy politics, but the characters' motivations were always obvious. It wanted to be the romance of Ayla and Malachi, but neither one had enough character to truly drive a story, and their attraction to each other made very little sense.

While I would not say this was a bad book, it did fall flat for me. I might change my mind about it if I choose to read the later two books, but right now, I don't recommend this book.



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