Review: Protect the Prince (Crown of Shards #2) by Jennifer Estep

Title: Protect the Prince

Series: Crown of Shards #2

Previous book in this series: Kill the Queen

Author: Jennifer Estep

Genre: Adult, high fantasy

Publication date: July 2nd 2019

Published by: Harper Voyager

Source: Review copy from author/publisher

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Synopsis:

Everleigh Blair might be the new gladiator queen of Bellona, but her problems are far from over.

First, Evie has to deal with a court full of arrogant, demanding nobles, all of whom want to get their greedy hands on her crown. As if that wasn’t bad enough, an assassin tries to kill Evie in her own throne room.

Despite the dangers, Evie goes ahead with a scheduled trip to the neighboring kingdom of Andvari in order to secure a desperately needed alliance. But complicating matters is the stubborn Andvarian king, who wants to punish Evie for the deaths of his countrymen during the Seven Spire massacre.

But dark forces are at work inside the Andvarian palace, and Evie soon realizes that no one is safe. Worse, Evie’s immunity to magic starts acting in strange, unexpected ways, which makes her wonder whether she is truly strong enough to be a Winter Queen.

But Evie’s magic, life, and crown aren’t the only things in danger—so is her heart, thanks to Lucas Sullivan, the Andvarian king’s bastard son and Evie’s... well, Evie isn’t quite sure what Sullivan is to her.

Only one thing is certain—protecting a prince might be even harder than killing a queen...

My rating: ★★★★★
Long live Queen Everleigh!


Actually, not so much. She may have overthrown her murderous, evil cousin, but the people of Bellona are still unsure about Evie ruling over them. Everyone is trying to either marry her off or kill her, there is no in-between. Lol.

Someone always wanted to kill the queen.

On top of that, Evie is trying to fix the bridges her cousin burned down after the massacre and her short reign. Evie heads down to Andvari to see if she can make amends, but trouble follows her wherever she goes so now she must unravel a scheme and protect the prince (see what I did there 😉).

Evie never wanted nor expected to be queen, but the girl handles things pretty damn well. It made me so happy when she put the nobles in their places and didn't let them try to dictate her life. I loved every second of it! She may not feel like a true queen, but she just cares too much to not do the best she can for her kingdom.

I was only queen by chance, by accident, but I was queen, it didn't matter how I had gotten here, only what I did while the crown was on my head. And that would always be protecting Bellona and her people—and fuck Heinrich and anyone else who was stupid enough to doubt me or tried to keep me from doing my duty as queen.

And she's damn good at giving speeches! I found myself cheering for her so much! I adore her! I especially love her sass and that black humor of hers. I also like that we discovered a but more about her immunity magic. I always found it intriguing so it was nice to learn more about it and see her use it in different ways. So cool!

And then there's her relationship with Sully... It's... Complicated. We do travel to his home, Andvari, so we get a bit more of his backstory—his relationship with his family, him being bastard prince... the latter being the reason why he rejected Evie in the last book. It's just so sad and heartbreaking. But he and Evie do have their sweet moments which, just...

No spoilers (those are later on 😉), but that ending was the cutest thing ever! I melted! I knew it was coming, but just seeing it... It was so sweet!

Another relationship I really enjoyed was Alvis and Evie. He mentored her back in Bellona before the massacre and... It's just the sweetest! I also loved Gemma and Grimley! Gemma is Sully's niece and the girl Evie saved the day if the massacre. I loved seeing her again! She is very perceptive for being so young. And Grimley... Best surprise! He is awesome!

My only gripe with this book might be a me thing, but I figured out who the person was behind all the scheming at the Andvarian palace. I noticed the foreshadowing and put things together just over the halfway mark in the book. It didn't make the book less enjoyable, not really. The twist was very interesting, but by the time we got to the reveal I was like, "Yeah, duh."

Dahlia, Sully's mother... I suspected her and her overpowering perfume at 57% into the book. Evie found it strange that she had basically bathed in the stuff, but that's it. I was like, "Nah girl, there's more to this. She must know about your enhanced sense of smell." And by the 65% mark I was positive she was the traitor! All these little things she did were just so obvious to me! So when the reveal came at 83%... Yeah, duh Evie. So many duhs!

Talking about bad guys, Maeven and Evie had some very intriguing talks. I loved the way Evie made her squirm. I'm really excited to see how things between them play out in the next book. I'm sure things will be... interesting.

Overall, I loved this book! You might be surprised because I don't read a lot of fantasy. In fact, in the last 3 years I've read 3 high fantasy books (including this one). But You shouldn't be surprised because I love everything I've read by Jennifer Estep... And I've read 30 of her books! The descriptions were amazing, especially the Andvarian palace. It just sounded absolutely stunning and I wish I could see it in real life! And the action was great as always. The fights were very exciting—especially when they included magic! So if you love fantasy and fights and magic and fights with magic, you'll love this!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)