Reviews

Queen of the Blazing Throne by Claire Legrand

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amybraunauthor's review against another edition

5.0

A great, tragic addition to this dark fantasy saga, one that does not hold back in its brutality. Obritsa has a ruthless, sad past that twisted her character in ways I could barely comprehend. But watching her use her magic and struggle with right and wrong made for a compelling read.

The book is filled with drama and magic, all written in Legrand's beautiful style. I found her to be very complex and interesting, despite how short her story is. There were plenty of familiar faces, and it became clear how deeply connected Obritsa was to the main heroes of the story.

This is a great companion piece for anyone who loves this dark fantasy story and wants to learn more about its world!

jackie_of_all_books's review against another edition

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3.0

Although this book was a short 100 pages I would recommend reading it when you read the emporium triology. It was a good addition to the books. We got a greater insight into what Corian is plotting and we also got to see the behind the scenes or Obritsas. She is mentioned by Rielle and Ludevene in Kingsbane. They had went to her home to visit and in the night she had been visited by Ludevene. We knew this because we had gotten Ludevenes perspective in kingsbane during this part. Now we get to see how Obriska was raised by someone named Sasha to be a part of the revolution, she was the destroyer. She was a Marque but they had attacked her back to make her look like a normal girl. No one knew she had any powers she wasn’t a typical elemental. Ardem had been her guard all those years and the one who had changed her bandanges when she was being beaten and abused. Ludevene asked Obriska to go figure out what the angels are planning. We knew this part. We also had known that Obriskas men who are supposed to obey her have been seen helping abduct the children. Ludevene helps Obriska remember this considering she had been drugged to forget. Arden is angry that Obriska agreed but he will not let her go alone. When they get to the village they can hear the screams but don’t know what they’re from. That night Obriska drugs Ardem so she can go back alone and investigate, she is trying to figure out how to get inside where the screams are coming from when a boy tells her not to scream and to follow him. His name was Leevi and his dragon was named Valdis. Obriska got to meet her first dragon. Leevi told her he had tunnels that would get her to safety and away from this place and that has has saved 15 children in the 4 years he’s been there. Obriska begins to quiz him for information. She finds out that the angels are rapidly breeding the dragons and that they are taking over the elemental children and magically bonding them to the dragons. The dragons can’t live without the drugs that the angels have. Levi’s town was attacked (he’s a dragon keeper) and his fellow dragon keepers and dragons were brought here. They know the keepers won’t leave as long as the dragons are there. They are bonded. Obriska agrees to help Leevi. She breaks into the room where the medicine is so that Leevi can fly Valdis away with the medicine and go back to his village and tell them what’s going on in hope there is a village left to go back to. Obritsa watches them fly away and is about to go back to Ardem when he appears she has herself in his embrace when he changes and she knows he’s been taken over by an angel. When she awakes it’s to Arden’s awful screams. Corien put a different angel inside Ardem and he is torturing him badly. Corien tells Obritsa he needs her marque powers and it would be best if she does so without needing to be over powered. She agrees at the end due to the pain Ardem is being put through. We know that she is how Corien gets to Rielle and Ardrics wedding and ruins it. Corien tells Obriska him and her are the same, making their decisions out of love. From this story we were able to see why Corien was stealing elemental children and what the camp he was building was for. He’s building an army. We had never got to completely piece this together in the other books so this information was handy. This book wasn’t great and it was short but I definitely feel as if it was a good addition to the series.

midnightisquiet's review

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3.0

This was ....fine, I guess? Half of this is scenes that we already saw from a different characters POV in book 2 and I'm not sure seeing them from Obritsas POV added anything significant. So... meh. Dragons are nice, though, I like dragons.

bibliobrittish's review against another edition

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5.0

What an incredible gift this novella was to read. Obritsa's POV something undeniably special - a window into the world of Avitas I feel truly lucky to have experienced. She is so strong, and she knows it, and that sass is legendary. Once again, Claire gets at what it means to have those around you trying to use your power and make you believe you're less than you are. I could read Avitas novellas like this all day long if I could.

avybear_16's review

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Was good loved the extra background on the world conflicts

polyanna_nas's review

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adventurous dark sad fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

Loved it more than I'd expected!
Even though I couldn't remember most details about the Empirium-universe, the story was easy to follow (having read the trilogy beforehand) and so good that I just wanted to keep reading.
Might even start to re-read the trilogy because it was so cool to meet some familiar characters and get to know others better :)

Also, this story did not include a lot of the trilogy's cons (lengths, unnecessarily explicit sex scenes, hard-to-follow descriptions...), which improved my reading experience so much! Great read, I'm almost sad it's so short (even though that's the point of it lol)