Amy 
Lynnie 
fantasy, young adult (?)
In The Queen of the Tearling, Kelsea has been raised in hiding by surrogate parents until her 19th birthday and she must now claim the throne of Tearling, a country which has been weakened by the lack of infrastructure, good medicine, and the Red Queen of the neighboring country.
Amy's Review
I really, really enjoyed this novel! It’s got adventure, action, good vs. evil, girl power, and magic. It even has a mysterious masked man! As a bonus, it was published a few years ago and the related trilogy follow-ups have already been published. In my library system, some branches have classified it as young adult (due to the age of the heroine, I assume) while others have not. I am of the non-YA opinion due to themes of rape. But, it could be YA for the right young reader.
The story is obviously set in the future after some portion of American and British citizens made a “crossing” to some other land. However, the story does not provide the reason for the departure from their homelands nor the location of the new lands. Apparently, the ship that contained most of the doctors and nurses did not successfully make the crossing. Plus, there is no modern electricity in this new world. The people in this novel are living in a medieval-type of environment ruled by monarchs. It’s unusual and creative, which I truly appreciate. But, I would like to know what happened in their past to put these people in this situation. And what happened to the people of the world from other countries? I do hope the author addresses this in a future novel.
This book did give me a bit of frustration. First, it’s inconceivable that Erika Johansen conveniently disallowed Kelsea to have a true, complete picture of the situation for which she was being prepared. Her surrogate parents, while raising her to rule as queen, did not give her a history of her mother nor a true picture of the political climate into which she would be placed and expected to lead. This is so nonsensical as to bother me immensely. Obviously, the author felt that the story would have more impact if the girl had to discover these mysteries for herself. But, I never like feeling manipulated by an author—especially when the manipulation sacrifices the realistic basis of the novel. Additionally, she’s been raised in an isolated environment, never able to communicate with anyone besides her surrogate parents. Yet, she is able to discern body language and get vibes from people regarding their intentions. She’s a bit too people-savvy to be believed, given her upbringing. Otherwise, it was a spectacular story and I loved it.
Lynnie's Review
First of all, I've heard that this is a YA book, but in my opinion it's not. High school & up would be appropriate but I found the book oddly & unnecessarily lewd at times which always made me glad I wasn't reading with a young teen or tween.
The story itself was fascinating though; I really enjoyed the characters and the political intrigue of the plot. Kelsea makes a very compelling main character, but even more so I was drawn into the secondary characters- The Fetch, Mace, Pen... I wanted to learn more about them & I suppose I will in future books. Johansen has created a very interesting world and I look forward to reading more about it.
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