The Exiled Queen is the second book in the Seven Realms series and follows on with the adventures of streetlord Hans 'Cuffs' Alister and Princess Raisa and how their separate journeys continue to evolve and interlap as political situations in the country continue to be fraught in turmoil and uncertainty.

I really, really loved this book and I think part of it is Cinda Williams Chima's writing and that I just love it, but I also just love the world and how she develops her characters. All the characters in this story are so well-rounded and have so many different sides to them and because of that, just seem really human and real. One of the things I loved about The Demon King was how Hans Alister would change between Hans, Hunts Alone and Cuffs and he was so lovely and complicated. This continued in The Exiled Queen except Alister was trying to just be Hans and leave Cuffs on the street but still finding ways he needed to be Cuffs in order to survive. Princess Raisa also developed as her alter-ego Rebecca Morley and we saw much more of her instead of just spoilt, closeted princess.

I loved that we got both magic school and warrior school in this book but neither of them were as simple as you'd think. I really enjoyed seeing how Raisa had to learn finance, history and geography as well as fighting and horseriding as a cadet and Hans needed to know about healing and amulet making as well for his future as a wizard. I thought it was done really cleverly and expertly and made Oden's Ford a lot more realistic in my mind.

I think I might have liked a bit more about Alger Waterlow again and how it will be effecting Hans. I feel like there's still a lot more to the story we're not getting and would have liked a bit more of a deep dive.

Kind of wondered if Crow could somehow be Alger Waterlow? But again, I don't know if Alger is suppose to be good or evil?

I enjoyed seeing Hans and Raisa finally have more interaction and I loved how that went.

I'm so excited to read the rest of this series. It's so good. Also sidenote: I need a novella or something about Fire Dancer because I love him.