The Queen of Blood

This is a preliminary review. I read it for a book club that will discuss later in the month. Maybe the discussion will affect my opinion?
I went into this book excited because I read another book by this author in 2021 and was obsessed with it. Unfortunately, this book didn't quite meet my expectations. The prose was very smooth and kept me turning pages. It never felt particularly draggy/slow. The magic system mostly made sense. The beginning of the book was very intense and probably one of the best parts. And there were several scenes when there were big reveals etc. that I enjoyed. I loved the wooden balls of death. Those scenes kept me on the edge of my seat, metaphorically. Having this adapted in an animated style could be very cool. Unfortunately, this book also had several weaknesses.

The biggest issue for me was probably how the tropes were handled. I know tropes exist for a reason, but these never felt particularly creative or subverted. I may be slightly biased because one of the main tropes used is one of my least favorites. I also wish that some of the characters had gotten a little more characterization. This book could have easily been 20 pages or so longer and let us get to know the characters better so we were more invested.

I've known about this book for a long time but never really looked into it more deeply until I participated in the bingo card challenge from the r/fantasy on reddit. I read this book to fulfill the prompt: book set entirely in the forest.
I felt the story was very quick moving and it kept me very engaged. The audiobook was a great format to experience it through. The narrator did sound the characters a bit younger then I would have thought they would sound, so if that is something that bothers you, skip it.
The strongest point of this book is the magic system for sure. If you are a reader that needs a well fleshed out characters (main and side characters) that come of the page - maybe try a few chapters before buying the book. Even though I liked exploring the world through their view, they aren't the most compelling part of the story for me. The first third of the book makes a lot of time jumps. The focus is definitely on the world and the two main characters.
The ending was a bit predictable but I didn't see it going as dark as it did. I heard that the other books in the series expand the world even more to the other regions. Hoping to get to the sequel by the end of the year while it still fresh in my memory. This could possibly be a new comfort-read author for me.

I absolutely loved this book! I am a big fan of fantasy with the school/academy trope. I also love following a character from the time their abilities first manifest to adulthood. This book had a lot of my favorite things. The magic is great. I loved this world. I can just imagine the towns in trees with connecting bridges. I can't wait to read the next one!

Actual rating: 3.5 ★

Not really liking the pacing, it makes the book feel like a 500+ page read while in actuality it's really not that long. The characters are also kind of flat and all the time skips aren't really helping either, though I'm hoping it gets better in the next books. The writing, the world-building, and the politics are where this book really shines at, so much that I wish the characters at least share half of that charm since it'd make the book a lot easier to love.