Review: Red Queen

Title:  Red Queen
Series:  Red Queen #1
Author:  Victoria Aveyard (Website | Twitter)
Age Group:  Young Adult
Publisher:  Orion
Publication Date:  February 10, 2015
Source:  Bought

This is a world divided by blood - red or silver.
The Reds are commoners, ruled by a Silver elite in possession of god-like superpowers. And to Mare Barrow, a seventeen-year-old Red girl from the poverty-stricken Stilts, it seems like nothing will ever change.
That is, until she finds herself working in the Silver Palace. Here, surrounded by the people she hates the most, Mare discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy the balance of power.
Fearful of Mare's potential, the Silvers hide her in plain view, declaring her a long-lost Silver princess, now engaged to a Silver prince. Despite knowing that one misstep would mean her death, Mare works silently to help the Red Guard, a militant resistance group, and bring down the Silver regime.
But this is a world of betrayal and lies, and Mare has entered a dangerous dance - Reds against Silvers, prince against prince, and Mare against her own heart . . .

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This is one of those books that we've all been hearing about for months, reading all the early reviews about how amazing it is, and making grabby hands at it because holy cow, I need this now.  With all of that happening, when I finally got my hands on this, I was a little nervous that it had become over-hyped.  When I finished the book, I was happy to realize that I actually did like it quite a lot.  There was a lot of aspects that had me happy dancing as I read.  However, there were also some things that I didn't really like.  That's not to say that, overall, I didn't really enjoy this book because I totally did.

Let's get the not so fun aspects out of the way.  Some of the things I didn't like so much was the fact that there was like, a love rectangle?  Diamond?  I don't even know.  What I do know what that freaking every male character in this book that was around her age liked Mare.  I'm not a huge fan of love triangles in general and I like this even less.  I felt like there were only really two love interests that really needed to play a role in this and even that was stretching it a bit.  It led to some unnecessary teen angst and drama.  It was well done for what it was, especially with the twist toward the end, but still, not my cup of tea.

With that out of the way . . . guys, read this book, please.  It is so full of awesome stuff.  The characters were some of my absolute favorites.  They all had so many layers and interesting aspect to them.  I really couldn't get enough.  The longer I read, the more I fell in love with Mare and Cal and Maven.  Their different reactions and motivations were all so interesting.  I loved that they all had their own stories to share and motivations for doing what they did.  There wasn't a ton of character development in this book but I'm hoping they all learn and grow a lot in the next one.

The plot, politics, and powers in this book were really what had me hooked throughout.  I'm a sucker for fantasy and I loved that the powers or abilities in this one were tied to the color of someone's blood.  It was super interesting!  The different houses within the kingdom and they way they all worked and interacted with each other was super believable and really cool.  I honestly just couldn't get enough information on how this world worked and what the people in it were like.

While this book was hyped quite a bit, it wasn't without reason.  Victoria Aveyard has written a book with a beautiful and terrifying world, layered characters, and an interesting and high-stakes plot.  I'm excited to see what the next book will bring us.

“You better hide that heart of yours, Lady Titanos. It won't lead you anywhere you want to go.”

Four Teapots