Review: Cruel Crown

Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First off, technically this is two novellas in one. Plus a bit of the second book in the Red Queen series, Glass Sword, which I read BEFORE this, and I kind of regret it.

The first mini novella is Queen Song, a look at Cal's mother, Coriane. I really enjoyed this story, even though it was so horribly sad.

In the main series, Coriane is shown as having been adored by all, loved by her king, the people, and so on. With some rumours that she wormed her way in, thanks to her power of being a Singer, someone who can get people to do what they want, with some "singing"...

We see her meet Cal's father, Tibe, and their friendship, which of course, ends up as a romance. She never thinks well of herself though, and I think if this book series were to take place in present time, she would have been diagnosed with depression, the poor girl.

We also see how she dies, though I don't want to spoil how it happens, it's very sad, for her and obviously for her son, whose life turns kind of awful for her lacking in it.

All in all, I was hoping to see something about her, and this satisfied the questions I had about Cal's mother. Sad as they may be.

The second novella included, Steel Scars, has a focus on Captain Farley!

This was where I was upset I'd already read Glass Sword, some people (no, not naming names) who died in the second book, are alive and well in Steel Scars, and it made me upset all over again, to see them living without a care, bah!

The pace also changed, and I'm not quite sure what happened. It dragged on, for the most part, until Farley meets up with someone (for the sake of spoilers, not naming names) that spices the whole party up. But that's about halfway through!

I understood the need for the military notes going back and forth, but I honestly mostly skimmed them, unless deaths were mentioned. They seemed out of place to me, especially since there was no explanation for how the correspondence was even happening!

In the end, it was interesting to see some of the behind the scenes work of the Scarlet Guard, but I'm glad it was just a mini novella, versus a whole novel worth!

I rated this 4 stars, but really, I'd have given Queen Song 5 stars, and Steel Scars 3 stars. 4 stars seems a fair trade off!

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