Books and the Bees

The Queen Must Die, Chronicles of the Tempus by K.A,S Quinn

Posted by Sadie , Wednesday, May 26, 2010 4:22 AM

So what do you do when you get transported from your room and wake up in the Royal Palace, under a sofa, 160 years out of place?

Katie Berger-Jones-Burg has been transported, but why is she under a sofa in Buckingham Palace? with her two new friends Princess Alice (daughter of the queen) and James O'Reilly (son of the queens doctor) they go on a wild ride to find out. Starting with magic sofas and twists even my crazy mind couldn't think the reader ends up transported along with her.

What stood out to me in this book was the characters, Katie doesn't automatically fit in 160 years out of time, she has to work at it which makes her a believable and realistic heroine which I can like. Also her supporting characters, who aren't all that supporting all the time, I loved Princess Alice, she is the perfect mix of princessy and mothering behavior of that girl we all knew as a child who wanted to play teacher and student and always wanted to be the teacher.

And the plot? well it is kinda fantastic, like one of my other favourite authors Richard Newsome (see: Billionaires Curse) this has the right mix for the young fiction/Young adult level of mystery and pace. Not only is Katie running from everything, she cannot be seen by any of the household members, but she is being hunted and there is the mister DuQuelle sinisterly watching her when on one else should has spotted her yet, so the question is, is he a friend or foe? While hiding Katie and her new friends need to find away to get her home and back to Mimi (her mum), and when all hope seems to be lost and Katie starts to settle in, the pace picks us back up again and sets us on a roller coaster before we get to the end.

The Queen Must Die isn't too young or too old for children from the ages of about 10-16, there is no content in this which screams inappropriate, quite the opposite in fact. The Queen Must Die, proves to be a nice bridge between the younger fiction for those girls who want to go into the older young adult but are still to young to follow the twilight supernatural craze. The Good news is that is also a part of a series The Chronicles of the Tempus, so we can watch out for more by K.A.S Quinn

My Score: 7/10
(why: in my copy, which happens to be an advanced reading copy, there are a few factual errors here or there, which hopefully will be sorted out before it goes to print)