Review: Red Queen (Red Queen #1) by Victoria Aveyard

Don’t judge the book by its cover

Title: Red Queen
Series: Red Queen
Author: Victoria Aveyard
Publisher: Orion, UK
My ratings: 2 out of 5 stars
Released: 10th February, 2015
Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen had been on my radar since I laid my eyes on the exquisite cover and intriguing synopsis. Unfortunately, that is where all the good things end about this book.

Mare Barrows lives in a world which is divided by the colour of your blood. The royals and the aristocrats have silver blood which gives then super powers while the commoner like Mare have red blood. However one day completely by chance it is discovered that Mare, who is a Red has a power like a Silver. Soon after she finds herself engaged to the younger Prince and living at the Palace. Jealousy, rivalry, first love and rebellion arise and it seems that the red blooded Mare is destined for more.

A poor commoner who turns out to be ‘special’ who goes and lives in the Palace. Sounds familiar right? Well, it reminds me of The Selection but familiarity aside, I found Red Queen boring. While the premise excited me at the start but I found myself unmoved by Mare. She was foolish, conceited, selfish and somewhat annoying. I found it hard to sympathize with her or even connect with her character.

The romance was cheesy and I found it hard to like the love interest Cal. I like my YA boys to be a little bad and the straight-laced Cal proved bland and boring to me. In fact he was already engaged to Evangeline who was hated Mare through-out the story.

The plotting and the rebellion felt forced to me and the fact that Mare could not trust anyone, made it absolutely clear that she was going to be betrayed and I knew straight away who that will be.

I had no problems with the writing as it was ok even if the plot was slow. The world was slightly under developed but that can be expanded in the forthcoming books.

It was the story and the plot which failed to impress me. The characters and the story on which the whole book and the series is hinged simply did not hook me and I found myself uninterested and indifferent.

I was disappointed with my reaction to this book as I really wanted to like this book and the raving 5 star reviews made me feel that I book will be The Book for me in 2015.

I’m sure other readers will enjoy the story and the dystopian with a Cinderella type transformation of the heroine but it wasn’t for me.

  Review copy provided by Orion via NetGalley.