{"id":1106,"date":"2023-03-02T11:47:46","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T11:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2023-01-29T11:59:31","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T11:59:31","slug":"queen-of-swords-christine-cazaly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/queen-of-swords-christine-cazaly","title":{"rendered":"Queen of Swords &#8211; Christine Cazaly"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"shariff shariff-align-flex-start shariff-widget-align-flex-start\" data-services=\"pinterest%7Cfacebook%7Creddit\" data-url=\"https%3A%2F%2Findiebooknook.co.uk%2Fhome%2Fqueen-of-swords-christine-cazaly\" data-timestamp=\"1674993571\" data-hidezero=\"1\" data-backendurl=\"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/shariff\/v1\/share_counts?\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-round orientation-horizontal buttonsize-small\"><li class=\"shariff-button twitter shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#32bbf5\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Findiebooknook.co.uk%2Fhome%2Fqueen-of-swords-christine-cazaly&text=Queen%20of%20Swords%20%E2%80%93%20Christine%20Cazaly\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" aria-label=\"Share on Twitter\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; 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background-color:#3b5998; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 18 32\"><path fill=\"#3b5998\" d=\"M17.1 0.2v4.7h-2.8q-1.5 0-2.1 0.6t-0.5 1.9v3.4h5.2l-0.7 5.3h-4.5v13.6h-5.5v-13.6h-4.5v-5.3h4.5v-3.9q0-3.3 1.9-5.2t5-1.8q2.6 0 4.1 0.2z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button reddit shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#ff5700\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Findiebooknook.co.uk%2Fhome%2Fqueen-of-swords-christine-cazaly\" title=\"Share on Reddit\" aria-label=\"Share on Reddit\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#ff4500; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path fill=\"#ff4500\" d=\"M440.3 203.5c-15 0-28.2 6.2-37.9 15.9-35.7-24.7-83.8-40.6-137.1-42.3L293 52.3l88.2 19.8c0 21.6 17.6 39.2 39.2 39.2 22 0 39.7-18.1 39.7-39.7s-17.6-39.7-39.7-39.7c-15.4 0-28.7 9.3-35.3 22l-97.4-21.6c-4.9-1.3-9.7 2.2-11 7.1L246.3 177c-52.9 2.2-100.5 18.1-136.3 42.8-9.7-10.1-23.4-16.3-38.4-16.3-55.6 0-73.8 74.6-22.9 100.1-1.8 7.9-2.6 16.3-2.6 24.7 0 83.8 94.4 151.7 210.3 151.7 116.4 0 210.8-67.9 210.8-151.7 0-8.4-.9-17.2-3.1-25.1 49.9-25.6 31.5-99.7-23.8-99.7zM129.4 308.9c0-22 17.6-39.7 39.7-39.7 21.6 0 39.2 17.6 39.2 39.7 0 21.6-17.6 39.2-39.2 39.2-22 .1-39.7-17.6-39.7-39.2zm214.3 93.5c-36.4 36.4-139.1 36.4-175.5 0-4-3.5-4-9.7 0-13.7 3.5-3.5 9.7-3.5 13.2 0 27.8 28.5 120 29 149 0 3.5-3.5 9.7-3.5 13.2 0 4.1 4 4.1 10.2.1 13.7zm-.8-54.2c-21.6 0-39.2-17.6-39.2-39.2 0-22 17.6-39.7 39.2-39.7 22 0 39.7 17.6 39.7 39.7-.1 21.5-17.7 39.2-39.7 39.2z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<p>\ud83c\udf15\ud83c\udf15\ud83c\udf15\ud83c\udf11\ud83c\udf11<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Petronella, Queen of Epera, must conceive an heir to ensure her famine struck Kingdom&#8217;s survival. But her husband, King Arion, is a cruel, violent man who seems intent on war with their neighbouring countries. When she still hasn&#8217;t become pregnant after ten years of trying, she knows her life is forfeit. Her soul, you see, is tied to the land she rules, and if she can&#8217;t conceive, then the only way for her husband to ensure a legitimate heir is born, is to kill her, so that he may marry anew and coronate a new queen. As Petronella tries to navigate the backstabbing court, her own maidens included, she knows she has only two options. To sacrifice herself for the Kingdom&#8217;s future, or escape and find a cure for her infertility. Will she have the strength of mind to do what she must and accept the forbidden magic that she possesses?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Queen of Swords&nbsp;<\/em>is set amongst a backdrop of courtly intrigue, festering betrayal and morally grey villains. Its heroes and heroines are swarthy, beautiful and slightly stereotyped; damsels in distress, in need of rescue and dashing knights in shining armour types. While the tropes are often over-used, Cazaly does manage to wield them well and with skill &#8211; turning some of them on their heads. King Arion is a despicable character initially; but with artful story-telling, she has managed to make him at least understandable, if not likeable in places. His motives aren&#8217;t black and white; it&#8217;s not necessarily greed which drives him as such &#8211; more of a desperation to succeed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What makes&nbsp;<em>Queen of Swords&nbsp;<\/em>unique, is that it&#8217;s based loosely around the lore and art of tarot cards. Cazaly states that she wishes for the book to &#8216;add flesh to the bones of the tarot court.&#8217; And it does, to an extent. But you have to have some knowledge of tarot to catch the subtle nudges towards it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although artfully and even beautifully written,&nbsp;<em>Queen of Swords<\/em>&nbsp;is some almost too descriptive. Cazaly writes long, flowing sentences filled with intense imagery, which slows the story down to an almost sluggish pace. It&#8217;s a long book, with passages that meander like a lazy river, taking an age to get to the point. Indeed, if the book was an eighth shorter, with a little less description, it would have warranted a five moon review. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of wordy descriptions for every single thing made it a challenge to read. If you&#8217;re looking for a fully immersive read while you have nothing else to do, then&nbsp;<em>Queen of Swords<\/em>&nbsp;is definitely for you. Don&#8217;t be put off by this three moon review, it&#8217;s purely because I prefer a faster paced tale.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>S. A.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First published on <a href=\"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/reedsy-discovery\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"277\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reedsy Discovery<\/a> as part of their ARC programme.  You can read the original review <a href=\"https:\/\/reedsy.com\/discovery\/book\/queen-of-swords-anne-glee#review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can buy <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3XRqUMf\" target=\"_blank\">Queen of Swords<\/a> <\/em>by clicking below or on the name of the book.  It&#8217;s available on Amazon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe sandbox=\"allow-popups allow-scripts allow-modals allow-forms allow-same-origin\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=GB&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=as_ss_li_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=sallyaltass0c-21&#038;language=en_GB&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=GB&#038;placement=B0BBH7RDDZ&#038;asins=B0BBH7RDDZ&#038;linkId=d86b753222c06c91df7da562006c197a&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>* Some links on The Indie Book Nook may contain affiliation.  Your rights are not affected by this, nor is the price.  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But her husband, King Arion, is a cruel, violent man who seems intent on war with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[745,7,120,9,8,256,67,4,267,259],"tags":[15,746,42,18,11,14,20,749,19,747,68,277,748],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indiebooknook.co.uk\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}