The Reluctant Queen: Book Two of The Queens of Renthia

Written by Sarah Beth Durst

Narrated by Khristine Hvam

Filled with political intrigue, violent magic, and malevolent spirits, the mesmerizing second book in Sarah Beth Durst’s Queens of Renthia epic fantasy trilogy.

Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . .

And those spirits want to kill you.

It’s the first lesson that every Renthian learns.

Not long ago, Daleina used her strength and skill to survive those spirits and assume the royal throne. Since then, the new queen has kept the peace and protected the humans of her land. But now for all her power, she is hiding a terrible secret: she is dying. And if she leaves the world before a new heir is ready, the spirits that inhabit her beloved realm will run wild, destroying her cities and slaughtering her people.

Naelin is one such person, and she couldn’t be further removed from the Queen—and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Her world is her two children, her husband, and the remote village tucked deep in the forest that is her home, and that’s all she needs. But when Ven, the Queens champion, passes through the village, Naelin’s ambitious husband proudly tells him of his wife’s ability to control spirits—magic that Naelin fervently denies. She knows that if the truth of her abilities is known, it will bring only death and separation from those she loves.

But Ven has a single task: to find the best possible candidate to protect the people of Aratay. He did it once when he discovered Daleina, and he’s certain he’s done it again. Yet for all his appeals to duty, Naelin is a mother, and she knows her duty is to her children first and foremost. Only as the Queen’s power begins to wane and the spirits become emboldened—even as ominous rumors trickle down from the north—does she realize that the best way to keep her son and daughter safe is to risk everything.

Sarah Beth Durst established a place of dark wonder in The Queen of Blood, and now the stakes are even higher as the threat to the Queen and her people grows both from within and beyond the borders of Aratay in this riveting second novel of the Queens of Renthia series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Jul 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9780062681638

Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of fantasy novels for children, teens, and adults. Winner of the Mythopoeic Award and an ALA Alex Award and thrice nominated for the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, she lives in New York. Visit her at sarahbethdurst.com or on Twitter: @sarahbethdurst.

Reviews for The Reluctant Queen

[Billie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this second book of The Queens of Renthia we pick up close to where the first book had left off with the new queen on the throne and now facing a new challenge, she is dying, and if she does before she finds an heir, the spirits will kill her people.

While the first book centered on the viewpoints from only a few people, and time jumped, this one had a lot, sometimes overlaid with the previous, or jumping just a little into the future, but it never jumped months or years, it stayed to the point and moved along a lot quicker.

At times it was a little hard to realize who, and exactly when it was taking place, especially when it overlapped with the previous, but I was listening to the audiobook through Scribd, so maybe it took longer to hear the changes. (Listening to the words is A LOT different than seeing the words!) But the narrator was really good with her voice changes so I could tell (most of the time) when different characters were speaking during dialogue. She has a good range!

I feel this book was better than the first, but then again, most of the characters were already developed and the new ones contrasted wonderfully with them. The world and its background were also established so the author was able to spend a little more time expanding it and its other human inhabitants.

I liked the twist and the 'threat' at the end. Thankfully the third book is out there so the questions that the threat created will hopefully be answered!

Four stars!

[Selina Cooper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very good series! I am surprised that it doesn’t have more of a following. I thought the first book was good, but this second one is really great!! Looking forward to listening to the third book coming up.

I cannot say enough good things about the narrator! She is so talented with a wide and very fun range of voices. Her spirit voices in particular are so much fun to listen to, and she does a fine job with the children’s voices as well. Overall, her narration makes an already good story really pop!! ?

[Giada Vancini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved as I loved the first one. Very consistent without being trite.
Thanks

[jennybeast · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Generally, I am a huge fan of Sarah Beth Durst's work, but for some reason this series really isn't doing it for me. I found this one almost impossible to get into as a regular book, so I finally switched to audio in order to get through it, and I got through it is about how I feel about the story.

I think that bloodthirsty elementals in a treehouse world is a very exciting and original starting place, but the pace is a slog, and it's just so darn repetitive. Repetitive in plots, repetitive in language (if I never hear Aryan... and Lore, Aryan... and Lore in a dramatic voice again it will be too damn soon) (also blood, blood, blood - are they vampires? just staaaaaap, please), very flat characters that never seem to become as interesting as they potentially could be and the thing just drags on. And on. And on.

Have zero interest in reading book 3. It looks like it will be the same plot (path to queenship) repeated yet again. I kept waiting for there to be some kind of breakthrough in how the human-elemental relationship works, but sadly, I'm just going to keep waiting.

[yvonnekins · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed Queen of Blood and gave it 4 stars, so I was excited to get to book 2 in The Queens of Renthia series. Unfortunately, this book falls flat in a number of ways. So many ways, in fact, that I will not be continuing on to book 3.Let's start with the characters. Daleina's on the throne, and her in the role of queen was what I was most excited for in book 2, and I did like what we got of that but unfortunately... we did not get enough. The introduction of Hamon's mother was an interesting little side thing that I also enjoyed, and even though she felt one-dimensional, I liked the concept of a woman with no morals other than the pursuit of her potion-making and knowledge related to that. I like Arin a lot as well in this and really liked the agency that she was given.I didn't really enjoy any of the male characters in this unless Bayn the wolf counts. I think there was too much focus on too many different POVs and plot lines of the different female characters for any of the men to really shine. Unfortunately, that includes Champion Ven, who was my favorite character in Book 1. It seemed like he was demoted in this book to a love interest for our new main character despite the lack of tension or chemistry between them... which made me really not enjoy that "romance" at all and I ended up skimming a lot of their scenes together. As for Hamon he just seemed to be... kinda there....? Other than introducing his mother he didn't really have a lot happening. And then there's Renet, our new main character's husband who becomes her ex-husband basically at the beginning of the book, and the fact that that relies on the incompetent father trope just made me feel kinda.... eh.... I wish that there had been more tension and nuance in the relationship before her decision to leave him. There was a great opportunity there to show how married life isn't all sunshine and rainbows and it was largely missed.Finally, our new main character, Naelin. Most of the reviews of this book seem to love the fact that she's a mom going on a fantasy adventure and like... that's all well and good conceptually, but I didn't connect with this character at all. Part of that is definitely how she's written; she doesn't feel super well-developed. (Nor do many of the other characters, if I'm being completely honest.) But it's also due to her lack of ambition in general; she doesn't want more for her life than to be a mom and live in her small town, and that's gonna be a hard #can'trelate from me. I don't necessarily need to be able to relate to the main character to enjoy a book, but for some reason, Naelin just annoyed me to no end on every page. On top of that, her children were mostly just obstacles and annoyances more than anything else. Now, I am not a mother, nor do I ever want to be, however, I do actually like the children that I know in real life. But the children in this book made me want to reach through the pages and just delete them from the whole thing.As for the plot, it's mostly a rehash of book 1, but now Naelin is training and Renthia needs a new heir stat because Queen Daleina is sick and may not have too long to live. I felt bored through most of it, and I think the constant POV switching didn't really help it very much. Book 1 had some POV switching, but we spent most of the book in Ven or Daleina's POV. In this book, we have Naelin for a good chunk, Daleina here and there, Ven in about one chapter, Arin in a few chapters, and I'm just wondering whether so many POVs were necessary in this book. It definitely demoted Daleina to a side character, which is unfortunate because I really liked her POV where we got it and I liked her a lot in book 1.Book 1 was a fresh new fantasy series unlike a lot of others I had read, with great crossover appeal for YA and adult audiences alike. This book feels stale. It doesn't bring anything new into the world except for the new main character... sidelining the character the followed throughout book 1 in the process.

[kayceel_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So good and sooooo dark!

[quondame · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book just didn't have what I like in a fantasy - a way to connect to the wonders of the imagined world through characters that maintain positive connections to the unusual aspects of the world. Also the pacing just didn't hit the marks. The reluctant queen is the only character actually given development, much of the rest of them being holdovers from The Queen of Blood, a much better read. It is as if, backing up to start The Queens of Renthia with The Queen of Blood, Sarah Beth Durst stripped all the fun parts - riding the wires, school days and friendships, out of this book and left the awkward gaps, grim determination and family dysfunction.

[jdifelice-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Diving back into this world was great! I really enjoyed the world and the plot of this book, and getting back to Deleina and Ven and continuing their story on.

I did however find that the characterization in this book was a little off. It was lacking in the first book, but I still enjoyed getting to know Deleina and seeing her journey. In this book, we are introduced to Naelin, who is a woodswoman, hiding her gift for controlling spirits, she has a family and just wants to protect her children. And honestly, this aspect of her personality, really just annoyed me. It may be because I am not a mother and don't have that instinct, but I just wanted to punch her sometimes. Her being a mother, was all she way..she was flat as a pancake personality wise. I'm super okay with having a strong woman as a lead and having her as a mother. She was fiercely protective of her children, but so much so, that in got in the way of some pretty common sense shit. (rant over)

Other than the bland characters, I still enjoyed getting to know more about this world and seeing how things have developed. I quite enjoyed the plot and I will be reading the next book!

3.75/5 stars

[ladycato · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This second book in the Queens of Renthia series can stand well on its own, but also works as a strong sequel to The Queen of Blood. At the end of the first book, Daleina has survived a bloody massacre of warring nature spirits and become queen of Renthia. However, it soon becomes clear that she is deathly ill. As the nature spirits rally against her and political woes increase, Daleina must accept that she may be dead within months--and Renthia needs a new candidate for queen. A major problem, since all of the other candidates died in the massacre.Enter Naelin, a fantastic protagonist, the sort I'd like to see more of in genre fiction. She's a mother of two young children, married to a disrespectful lout... and all her life, she has done her utmost to hide her powers over nature. When her skills are outed, she makes it quite clear she does not want to be queen.I found this to be a fast, delightful read. The feel of it is different than the first book, which had more of a YA coming-to-age vibe. This one spoke more directly to me; Naelin is my demographic, minus the whole magical skills thing (alas). The world-building here continues to amaze me. I'd love to visit Renthia with its cities-in-trees.

[pwaites_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While you can theoretically read The Reluctant Queen as a stand alone, I suggest reading Queen of Blood first.Six months ago, Daleina became queen after all the other viable heirs were killed by the spirits. Now, she’s dying. A diagnosis of a fatal disease gives her three months to find an heir — but none of the girls in the academies are ready. Ven ventures outside of the academies to search for a potential heir in the wilderness and small villages, and he finds Naelin, a middle-aged mother who has no desire to use her great power. While she may be reluctant, she’s the only hope for an heir strong enough to protect the country from the bloodthirsty nature spirits.First off, I want to talk about how much I like Naelin’s character. She’s outside the mold of the typical fantasy heroine, and it’s wonderfully refreshing. I generally want more diversity in fantasy female leads, including things like age and parental status. Surely books can acknowledge that women still have stories worth telling once they hit thirty? In Naelin’s case, her being middle-aged and a mother worked so well for her chosen one plot line. It gave her so much to lose and so much to fight for. I think she’ll be one of the more memorable characters of the series because of it. Oh, and like Daliena in The Queen of Blood, Naelin had a romance subplot but it was pretty minimal.Also like it’s predecessor, The Reluctant Queen includes multiple significant female characters. Obviously, both Daliena and Naelin are important, but the book also has a female poison master and Daliena’s younger sister as playing influential roles in the plot. Plus, Merecot returns! And she’s ambitious as ever. I want to know more about what she’s up to, but I think that’ll have to wait until book three.The Reluctant Queen is a fast read. The story’s pretty light and the prose isn’t dense, part of what makes it a good YA crossover. The pacing’s such that I finished it in little over a day. It’s got some plot twists I didn’t see coming and others that I picked up the clues for. Overall, it was another fun read from Sarah Beth Durst. I can’t wait for the third book!Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. I received an ARC in exchange for a free and honest review.

[krau0098 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the second book in the Queens of Renthia series. I absolutely loved this book and have loved all the books in this series so far. This is a fantasy series; while it is appropriate for YA it features a lot of adult characters. I love the world and the characters in here. The writing is easy to read and flows well. I have a really hard time putting this book down and ended up reading it very quickly. I enjoyed seeing Daleina on the throne and struggling through her reign. However, even better was the new character of Naelin. Naelin is an older woman with two kids and a rather childish husband. I don’t read a lot of fantasy featuring women in their 30’s so it was a fun change. I loved watching Naelin try to balance her responsibilities with her children. I also love how she stood up for herself and realized that she didn’t have to stay in her loveless marriage. There is some nifty magic in here and I adore this world where the nature spirits are out to rid the world of humanity. The fact that humanity is constantly in a struggle with basic spirits of earth, fire, etc adds a lot of urgency to the story. I also enjoy how each Queen and heir deals with controlling these spirits in a slightly different way. Overall I absolutely loved this book; I love the characters and the world and how beautifully it’s all written. I am finding that Sarah Beth Durst is becoming one of my “go to” authors when I want a solid and well done story. I would definitely recommend this series to fantasy fans.

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book blurb gives a very good picture of the plot. This was an engaging epic fantasy novel. I love the world building. A world where spirits inhabit nature and want to kill all humans is intriguing. This story begins with Daleina as queen and still grieving the loss of all her friends at the Coronation massacre which led to her being the only survivor and the new queen. She is trying to get used to that despite her fears that her powers are are not strong enough to keep control over the vengeful spirits when she is diagnosed with a fatal disease. If she dies before finding an heir, the spirits will run wild and kill everyone.While Daleina's friend Hamon searches for a cure, Ven and the other Champions need to scour the land for candidates who might be able to be the heir. This is complicated by the fact the so many died in the massacre. Ven searches in remote areas and finds Naelin. Naelin has great power but she is used to hiding it. She doesn't want to be a queen. She is a mother of two and happy with her life. Protecting her children is her main goal. Naelin is a wonderful character. She's a great mother. She's fiercely protective of her children. It takes a lot of convincing before Ven gets her to come to the capitol for testing. The plot gets even more twisty when it is learned that Dalein was poisoned and is not naturally ill. Now the rush is on to find an antidote to an unknown poison. Complicating things even more is that a fellow student of Daleins is now the queen of a neighboring country and seems to be planning to invade Dalein's. This was an excellent story. I loved the action which was non-stop. I loved the characters especially Hamon's unique mother and Naelin's children. I loved Naelin's budding romance with Ven.