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Giveaway: The True Queen

Giveaway: The True Queen

Two Malay sisters wake up with no memories and have to deal with magic, Regency England, the fae and dragons to discover their past. 

That’s a heckuva summary and it did its job: I was intrigued enough to check out the sample, even though I was in the middle of another busy few days and work and didn’t have the time to actually read a whole book. But the sample was a great and quick read, only whetting my appetite for the whole book and whenever I got any breaks, I just could not stop reading. 

This is the second in a series but focuses on new characters, so while the main characters from the previous book do feature, it’s not necessary to have read it, as I didn’t. We start with the two sisters waking up on a Malay island and while it’s not important to the story, they are Muslim! There are little mentions and nods to that throughout the book, woven in with the fact that magic is commonplace everywhere, including among the Muslim community. 

The sisters are taken in by a respectable Malay witch but to help them break the curse that took their memories, she sends them to her friend, the Sorcereress Royal in England. Things happen and then happen some more, occasionally a bit predictably but nothing that detracted from my enjoyment. It was just a super fun read.

Don’t take the Amazon rating to heart, there’s a bit of homophobia skewing it down. That’s right, the book has f/f! I won’t spoil it, it’s also not a major part of the story but was quite nice to have.

I have two digital copies to give away and as always, if you don’t win one and can’t afford or don’t want to buy it, you can still help support authors by requesting it from your library, checking it out, and leaving reviews on Amazon.

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Piggy backing off that anon talking about the first kiss and then the awkward looking at each other cut, I’ve always been so confused by the Valle house scenes after Lucho/Sergio catch them. How do they go from the couch to Val drinking on the floor? Then, how on earth do they go from forming a pact and looking somewhat happy again to Val staring out a window mad and upset and drinking again?

Ah, that first anon brought up the kiss in reply to my tags on a post about them in Valle precisely BECAUSE I was like, how did this even come about?

I can understand the first moment, draw a clear connection between Val being worried, reassured by Juls on the sofa but eventually standing up and being like, I need a drink and then ending up where we see them next. That’s a a reasonable enough jump. But then we’re supposed to believe she does literally the same exact thing after being the one to reassure Juls? Why didn’t she just stay drinking seated where we first saw her? And how did her mood go down again so quickly? 

It’s not that I find it an impossibility, it’s just that it was an important part of the story and character and relationship we missed.

And another anon:

thank you for giffing angry val at valle for me. i know it isn’t the most fun of moments but overall i don’t think val gets that angry very often so it stood out to me. plus, that outfit was a+.

It was no problem! Hmm, when I think on it, my reluctance wasn’t so much that it was an uncomfortable moment, it’s because, like I said above, I just didn’t really connect with it in the same way I did other angry Val moments, like in the second kitchen scene or talking to Juls about Sergio or after the breakup when she was still a little miffed. 

It’s not that I can’t stand Val being angry at Juls, obviously I don’t love it, but I kind of like seeing that side of her and it’s not about her being right and Juls being wrong, the best writing is when both sides are understandable and justified, but that one bit did not particularly feel earned to me from the show. I got what they were going for, they actually handled the resolution of it quite well, it being clear it was far more about Val’s fears of being outed than how she felt about Juls, but they could have written more in. 

As always, the answer to every issue I’ve had with Juliantina is: more screentime! 😛

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Not sure all the details, but Juls DEFINITELY avoided eye contact. She probably just avoided everything. Like those phone calls where Val would say “Te quiero” and Juls would just be like “bye.” Haha.

Lol, y’all are so harsh on those moments! Half the time the moment was all wrong, and she’s just careful! A novice! You can’t expect her to be returning comments without some careful thought. And that last time, on the phone, the okay was so grateful, so heartfelt and moved! 

But yeah, she totally everything in that moment (after the pool kiss), she literally ran away while Val was gone for a second. Can’t deny that, heh.

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I always wonder about the first kiss then cut to awkward scene next. Like did they say anything to each other? Did one of them stop the kiss? Did Juls pull away because she remembered Val was in a relationship and shouldn’t be kissing other people? Or because they’re both girls? During the kiss they both seem into it, and right after it seems like a mistake. But then Val keeps daydreaming about it? I need to know what happened, lol.

Eggg ZACTLY! Who pulled back first? Did anyone try to say anything? Was there awkward laughter? Avoiding eye contact? How did they get out of the pool, who followed whom? Did Val lead Juls over to sit down in the awkward positions we then found them in? 

It’s definitely one of those moments where it’d be so difficult to write it to get from one spot to where they needed them next that they just skipped it, lol. Like, you can’t imagine they wouldn’t have found a way to break the tension in the journey from the pool to the seats. I cannot imagine there wasn’t some laughter or an apology or something, with these two. If there hadn’t been, what a horribly excruciating journey it would have been. No wonder Juls ran away, lol.