This review can also be found on Bookstacked: https://bookstacked.com/reviews/book-reviews/the-queens-assassin-melissa-de-la-cruz/

The Queen’s Assassin by Melissa De La Cruz opens up with the history of Renovia in the form of a journal entry, then the prologue sets up the plot. Both of these are well written, and I was very interested in what would follow.

With the first chapter, however, the novel begins to lose structure and integrity in several important ways, one of which being the writing. It’s entirely too descriptive, which slows down the pace and adds details that have little to no bearing on the story itself. It’s also particularly jarring to switch between 1st person and 3rd person POVs which made it hard to immerse myself in the book.

Shadow comes off as a Mary Sue whereas Cal is The Brooding Hero, and the little chemistry between them made following their romance boring. The twist at the end was both predictable and not as clever as it was trying to be.

I saw it coming from the second chapter and the way it's dealt with at the end is kind of meh. Shadow emphasizes that she has to be careful with what she says in order not to reveal her status, but 1st person POV means we also get access to her inner thoughts so not revealing it to the reader from the beginning wasn't clever, it was just annoying

The best thing about the novel is the inclusion of secondary lgbt+ characters, without making their sexuality the center of their story arc. Since Shadow’s aunts are her guardians, their relationship is never explicitly mentioned. While the second couple is more explicit, they only appear for a few scenes. It was refreshing to have lgbt+ characters treated so casually, and I appreciated the gender-neutral terms used by the second couple.

I’ve enjoyed Melissa De La Cruz’s books in the past, and her writing style. I don’t believe this book does her credit.