Rashika, The Book Owl

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Sarah Fine is one of my favorite authors and so far, I’ve read 5 books by her (and need to read a bunch more to complete series but I am not ready to say goodbye because that’s how I roll.) The Impostor Queen is hands down my favorite book that Sarah Fine has ever written. This book is AMAZING and shows how much Sarah has grown as a writer. She always crafted amazing worlds and fantastic characters but she goes above and beyond with this book. The Impostor Queen, simply put, blew my fucking mind. This book has magic, diversity and awesomeness. What else could I want?

Elli is our wonderful, clueless, naive female lead. Or at least that is what she is at the beginning of the novel. She has blindly followed the Elders of Kupari, and never questioned them. That is, until her powers don’t manifest when the Valtia dies. She is forced to flee (or die) when this happens and leave her first love, Mim behind. She has no skills though and no way to fend for herself and there are consequences for this (which is great because I am so tired of clueless MCs magically surviving the wild without any injuries.)

Over the course of the novel, Elli blooms and develops as a character. She steps outside of the privileged world she was raised in and adapts to the new world she finds herself in. Her transition is so fantastic and I LOVED seeing her try to figure out her place in this new world.

The world of this novel is beautifully built. Sometimes, with fantasy, it feels like you are re-entering different variations of a similar world but I never felt that way with The Impostor Queen.Sarah took the world and made it her own. The way magic works in this world, the prophecies, the hierarchies, EVERYTHING.

You might know me as the kid who is impatient and tends to like fast paced action but Fine is just fabulous (I feel like a broken record right now since I’ve said this so many times.) The way she paces the novel is wonderful. The plot develops nicely and there are enough things going on at any given point, enough mysteries to figure out that the book pretty much had my full attention from the start until I turned the last page with my emotions overflowing.

Also, because I love diversity, I AM JUST SO HAPPY that this book features it. Fine has always done a fantastic job of featuring diverse characters in her books (which is also why she is amazeballs) but this is the first fantasy I’ve read that featured an MC that wasn’t straight (I have read fantasies that feature lgbtqia+ characters but never the main character...unless of course, I am forgetting a book in which case, oops?) I know there are a bunch more out there but it is SO important to have all sorts of diversity across all genres and I am glad that diversity is starting to show itself in fantasy. The only real qualm I have is that I wish Elli’s relationship with Mim was explored a little bit more.

That said, the romance in this book is wonderful. Oscar is a cute little gruff and I have feels. He is a little rough around the edges but he cares deeply for those that matter to him and he is never an asshole. Yes, we do have a winner here.

If you are a fan of fantasy, this book is 100% worth checking out when it comes out next month. It is well written, well developed, and remarkable. It’s definitely a favorite book of the year and one I won’t fail to recommend and push at people’s faces.

Note that I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review