The Queen's Gamble
by Nicole Sanchez
Self-Published
Book 2 in the Game of Gods Series
No matter what move she makes, there will be consequences.
Daphne Hale has transformed from pawn to queen. Or has she?
Daphne's caught once more between the man she loves and the man who seeks to own her. Estranged from Essos and forced to cater to Galen, Daphne fights to navigate the dangerous waters of the Trials as she moves closer to the seemingly inevitable endgame - marriage to the man who murdered her.
As the Underworld itself trembles with unstable power and Daphne’s own magic weakens daily, every move could be her undoing. To protect those she loves, Daphne must go along with the charade. But no one ever won a game of chess by resigning.
This reborn goddess may be in check, but it’s her move.
Genre:
Before I start, I want to thank Nicole Sanchez and her team for sending me an arc of The Queen's Gamble, in exchange for a fair and honest review. I would also like to apologize, because I missed the deadline for this review. The Queen's Gamble was released back on March 18th, and ideally, I like to have my reviews done before release, or on release day. Of course, March 18th was smack in the middle of me having no internet until a wonderful guy climbed a twenty foot pole in the middle of a cold winters day to rerun fiber op lines that were damaged by melting ice. Seriously. A hero to my family. It was a long few days in my household, especially when my normally too much for me to use data plan was being abused by the seven year old who just HAD to watch unboxing videos on YouTube.
I'm rambling. Par for the course here. In this hassle of getting internet back up, spring cleaning, working, and parenting, The Queen's Gamble deadline slipping my mind, and now here I am ... April 4th, and begging forgiveness.
I need to admit, I'm not sure what my feelings are on The Queen's Gamble. I was hoping after sitting on it for some time I would figure that out, but it's been weeks, and I'm still not sure. Just like I mentioned in the last book review, I really enjoy the story. It's probably the most original greek mythology retellings I have come across. Nicole has managed to take the most well known greek mythology characters, and make them her own. As the reader, you know roughly who represents who, but otherwise, these are Nicole's characters. The characters are written clearly, and it's very easy to like a character, and hate them. The only character I had trouble connecting with was Daphne - which is the problem I have with these books so far. I just couldn't understand why Daphne was going along with everything. I mean, towards the end, I understood her reasoning in regards to protecting her human friends, but otherwise I just didn't get it. Everyone knew she didn't want to marry Galen. So why pretend in private? I guess I just expected more resistance from her, and because there wasn't a whole lot until the end, I had a hard time connecting with her. Aside from that, my only other complaint of this book was not enough Essos.
Despite being frustrated with Daphne's choices throughout the book, I did enjoy the overall plot - and plot twist at the end. Now that we are getting to the last book in the trilogy, and we have some answers to the current cast of characters, I am excited going into the third book. I do hope that I will connect with Daphne more in the last book.
Coming Soon!