The chief of a household of thieves, Balthazar Valdaren is about to aim essentially the most difficult heist of his profession: pilfering a jade idol proper out from below the nostril of its proprietor, on the day of its consecration. From that description, a reader would possibly count on this story to be a few crew of con males within the early Twenty first century. Instead, Greta Kelly’s The Queen of Days takes readers to the island of Cothis, in a fantasy realm resembling the seventeenth century. The swagger and the cons are nonetheless right here, however as an alternative of casinos and Twenty first-century know-how, Balthazar and his crew are tangling with gods and demigods.
Kelly begins by introducing the e book’s different major protagonist: the Queen of Days, Tassiel. Tassiel, who will likely be becoming a member of Bal on the job, is one of the Septiniri: half-human, half-Ankaari, a god that may manipulate time. Bal and his crew—his bastard brother, Kai; his cousin Zee and her husband, Edik; and Bal’s younger sister, Mira—rapidly uncover simply how highly effective a Septinri will be. Tass, because the Queen of Days prefers to be known as, fees every crew member a month of their life to assist them with the heist.
After that less-than-happy revelation, the motion begins and doesn’t let up. Balthazar, Tass and their scrappy crew run from planning to preventing to hiding to heisting with a ferocity that makes the e book troublesome to place down. Kelly effectively relays the crew’s historical past and relationships by their interactions: Kai makes an off-color remark, Edik admonishes him, Zee rolls her eyes, then Bal retains the plan shifting. These fast moments of characterization enable Kelly to deal with the beat-to-beat motion with out pausing for exposition. As the outcast in additional methods than one, Tass is the one exception. The chapters from her level of view are way more introspective as she learns new issues about herself and the people she helps.
By the top of the e book, some quantity of heisting has accomplished, Tass has grown and developed in consequence of her time with the crew, and the stage is ready for this motley staff’s subsequent journey. The Queen of Days is a incredible piece of escapist fantasy for readers trying to depart planet Earth for just a few hundred pages.
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