A review by cece_rants_raves_reviews
The Queen of Traitors by Laura Thalassa

4.0

This is one of my favorite re-read series and its purely for the MORALLY GREY CHARACTERS, where my fan girls at?



Serenity wakes up — captured and doesn’t remember a goddamn thing.

“As the ache grows, I realize it isn’t fear or sadness.
It’s rage.
Other people got me into this mess; they’re not going to get me out of it. I will.”

Not a personal fan of the amnesia plotline but please continue with the bloodthirsty heroine.

The characters

Montes the Undying King and Serenity his vicious Queen



It feels stupid to say this but this book really focused on Serenity's character more as the MC instead of incorporating both as much as I felt the first one did.

Sure twas entertaining seeing a balance between Serenity the fighter who wants to manipulate like the “big kids” vs Serenity the victim who has constantly gotten fucked-up, betrayed and abandoned

But whole time I just wanted more Montes.... sorry not sorry

The sequels continues to feature the same love-hate dynamic between these two and it was frightfully entertaining reading the angst and tension between them

“What did Estes say to you to put that expression on your face?” he asks as we descend the stairs.
“The truth.” Isn’t that what hurts us so much?
“My queen doesn’t run from the truth. She leaves only after she’s threatened someone.
So what did he say?”

awwww he knows her so well

While parts did feel tad redundant with them still arguing like newlyweds haha, you just get sooo into the character's argument, sass, and attempts to be self-righteous while both know they are just different kinds of monsters.

Where the first book focused on the wickedness of Montes's court and rule, this sequel focuses on Serenity embracing her own monster-like tendencies

“All you have to do is eat a little and nod to people you don’t know,” Montes says, misreading me. “Oh, and don’t stab anyone in the eye with the utensils.”
“Montes, I’m not going to stab anyone with anything.” That’s what my gun’s for.”

There were moments I was concerned Montes was losing his edge with Serenity becoming more ruthless created a disconnected from the ruthless Montes that first took over. BUT THEN, holy fucking shit, that ending definitely reaffirmed Montes as the same goddamn narcissistic arrogant son of a bitch that first took control of the world

The secondary characters definitely take more of a side-only information boosting, even more so than the first one. I honestly think it was because none of them were remotely interesting *ah burn*.


But honestly...

Will and the General have pretty lost all sense of dimensions for a just label bad guy label who only pop up once and a while to fuck more shit up

“But the reality of your situation is that your life is no longer in your control.”
“Was it ever?” I ask, searching his eyes.
I genuinely want to know. Did I choose to do wrong by these people, or was I forced into it? The distinction matters.
The general hesitates. “No,” he finally says, “it wasn’t.”

Marco gets 0 unique features or really background bout how one even becomes right hand man to king of the goddamn world

and that's literally all the people I remember that we interact with more than once.

The plot

Looking back I recognize that the plotline probably isn’t as strong developments wise as it should’ve/could've been. And its mostly due to the beginning memory issues that caused everything to be reverted to the similar status of the first book



But don't worry kitties, we still got some political mayhem with Serenity learning the court, the continued civil war waging around the love bubble, and honestly just a lottaaa political betrayal and chaos happening with Montes’s court

It is definitely within the last 5 chapters that everything gets even more intense

The writing grabs you
The plot twist shock the FUCK outta you
And Montes is starting to reveal his master plan

I was literally GAPING like a goddamn idiot that are gonna have MAJOR FUCKING CONSEQUENCES AND SERENITY GONNA KICK YO ASS AGAIN, MONTES



It is is SICK and TWISTED and brilliant exactly how I like my morally grey characters to be

Overall, I see why some people might not enjoy the morally questioning alpha King and his rebel Queen. The end of the world vibes make everything more dramatic but I can also see why it creates some fuzzy good vs bad disturbing plot set-ups that some people don't enjoy reading and that's totally fair haha

Re-reading this series, it is clear to see some of the hidden info drops from the first that are woven throughout the series. The writing was great, detailed, planned out, and definitely captured the psycho couple vibes she wanted. Expect to be disturbed. And to totally enjoy it. Thats the only way i can think to describe this series cuz if that not ur thing then i wouldn't try to force it haha