Day: April 24, 2019

Holy cow. Amazing.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A divided nation. Four Queens. A ruthless pickpocket. A noble messenger. And the murders that unite them.
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Get in quick, get out quicker.

These are the words Keralie Corrington lives by as the preeminent dipper in the Concord, the central area uniting the four quadrants of Quadara. She steals under the guidance of her mentor Mackiel, who runs a black market selling their bounty to buyers desperate for what they can’t get in their own quarter. For in the nation of Quadara, each quarter is strictly divided from the other. Four queens rule together, one from each region:

Toria: the intellectual quarter that values education and ambition
Ludia: the pleasure quarter that values celebration, passion, and entertainment
Archia: the agricultural quarter that values simplicity and nature
Eonia: the futurist quarter that values technology, stoicism and harmonious community

When Keralie intercepts a comm disk coming from the House of Concord, what seems like a standard job goes horribly wrong. Upon watching the comm disks, Keralie sees all four queens murdered in four brutal ways. Hoping that discovering the intended recipient will reveal the culprit – information that is bound to be valuable bartering material with the palace – Keralie teams up with Varin Bollt, the Eonist messenger she stole from, to complete Varin’s original job and see where it takes them.

Scholte has created a world like no other. While giving off Hunger Games and Divergent vibes due to the separation of the countries people, Scholte allowed for pure motives in the Queens that rule, rather than the typical conniving nature seen in the previously mentioned series.

Keralie is the daughter of sailors who’s hearts belong to the sea, but she hates it with every fiber of her being and chooses instead to become a famed pickpocket and thief, the very best Mackiel has ever seen. Too bad Mackiel is a literal piece of crap.

Mackiel manipulates Keralie and then proceeds to frame her for the murder of all four queens. Brilliant, but stupid. You don’t mess with Keralie.

With the help of Varin and an investigator, they uncover that comm disks that Keralie swallowed were ones from the black market that allow the person who ingested them to be controlled like a puppet.

I don’t want to give away too much more, BUT this book is incredible. It kept me on my toes and genuinely surprised me with it’s twists and turns. After reading so many books, it becomes easy to predict where the plot will go, but not Four Dead Queens.

5 Flower Rating. Just read it.