3 out of 4 stars
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Celeste by Samantha Eklund is a fantasy novel set in a fantasy world. The battle between light and dark, good and evil, love and hate, wages on in this tale of survival, betrayal, and love.
Celeste is the queen of Vehrys. Kiev is her husband and the son of the vile queen in the neighboring kingdom. Celeste has never questioned Kiev’s love, until he stabs her at her 26th birthday party. He’s vying for power, but could he be doing it alone? Celeste finds herself trapped in no-man’s land between the two kingdoms after her capture and escape. The world has plunged into darkness and all she wants to do is return to her people so that she can help bring back the light. Decomposing beasts roam everywhere killing at will and filling the world with their evil presence. She can’t find her way back home but has discovered a way to fight the creatures that stalk her. Soon, her childhood friend, Scythe, finds her and endeavors to help her return and fight the evil settling in within her country’s walls. He’s always loved her. Could this be his chance to finally have that love returned?
Gohrkrull is the god of darkness. Excaliah is the god of light. Gohrkrull can only be present in the lands of mortals if he’s been summoned freely by a soul of pure evil. Celeste can’t imagine that Kiev has a soul of pure evil and she’s just never realized it before, but who else could have summoned him? Excaliah does all that he can to aid his champion of light and her companions, but there is only so much a god can do.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. There were so many dynamic and unique characters that we got to see develop throughout the book. No one remained untouched by the catastrophe. Celeste started out as a strong female lead but even she grew into a better person, though with plenty of scars. Scythe was a realistic character with easily relatable emotions. Celeste’s friend and general, Mauve, was also an impressive character. Her religious devotion, military ferocity, and unerring motherly love were all things I absolutely loved about her. Her stubbornness was portrayed perfectly, making her extremely lifelike. Several scenes started from one person’s point of view but switched midway to someone else’s. This way, we got to see how others were reacting and perceiving situations. I feel the author did this well by ending the previous section, creating a break in the text, and starting a new section.
Most of the story is action packed, but parts throughout the book moved extremely slowly. Celeste is trapped in the barren land between the two countries for several months. At first, I didn’t like that nothing seemed to be happening during this time. Once I made it through this section, I realized a lot had happened that could not have been accomplished believably overnight. Celeste needed to develop her skills and get acclimated with her newfound powers. Vehrys needed to be overrun by monsters and conquerors. Kiev’s mind had to slip farther and farther under Gohrkrull’s control. None of these things could have happened instantly without the reader questioning the timeline's validity.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of editing mistakes throughout the book. Extra words, missing words, and misspelled words riddled the text, repeatedly breaking the flow. Because of this, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I wish I could have rated this higher but the mistakes were too often to ignore. I highly recommend this book to lovers of fantasy novels, especially if you enjoy character development and love-triangles. I could also recommend this to young adults since there is no explicit material included.
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Celeste (The Dark Queen, #1)
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