The Queen's Assassin

By: Melissa de la Cruz

Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Will Damron, Hillary Huber

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

A New York Times and Indie Best Seller!

Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Red Queen, this is the first novel in a sweeping YA fantasy-romance duet about a deadly assassin, his mysterious apprentice, and the country they are sworn to protect from number one NYT best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz.

Caledon Holt is the kingdom's deadliest weapon. No one alive can best him in speed, strength, or brains, which is why he's the Hearthstone Guild's most dangerous member. Cal is also the Queen's Assassin, bound to her by magic and unable to leave her service until the task she's set for him is fulfilled.

Shadow of the Honey Glade has been training all her life to join the Guild, hoping that one day she'll become an assassin as feared and revered as Cal. But Shadow's mother and aunts expect her to serve the crown as a lady of the Renovian Court.

When a surprise attack brings Shadow and Cal together, they're forced to team up as assassin and apprentice. Even though Shadow's life belongs to the court and Cal's belongs to the queen, they cannot deny their attraction to each other. But now, with war on the horizon and true love at risk, Shadow and Cal will uncover a shocking web of lies that will change their paths forever.

©2020 Melissa de la Cruz (P)2020 Listening Library

Critic Reviews

“de la Cruz’s trademark tight construction, detailed world building, and action-packed romance are all at work in this sure-to-be-popular new series.” (Booklist)

"A classic plucky heroine fantasy in the vein of Tamora Pierce and Kristin Cashore." (Kirkus Reviews)

“The action-packed narrative captures readers’ attention from the start, expertly weaving plot twists, betrayal, magical elements, and traces of humor throughout.” (School Library Journal)

DNF

It opened so strongly with a prologue full of magic and lore, and then as soon as the protagonists had to interact, it all seemed to fall apart. Tried to stick it out. Couldn’t. The characters are juvenile fools, not skilled assassins or spies. Apparently someone thought a bit of romance and a “twist” could salvage this rough draft of a book. It didn’t end up being enough for me.

Ugh.

The main characters are absolute idiots and basically just kids playing grown-ups.

Female protagonist is selfish, prickly, and combative over EVERYTHING. I can't count how many times I've heard the term "I bristle" while listening from the female's point-of-view. The Male protagonist is immediately smitten just because she's pretty/he's lonely. He is a complete pushover from the get-go and subjects himself to her tantrums and irritations (plot twist: she's always irritated).

The female narrator is too breathy for my taste, though I did enjoy the male narrator.

cliché in every way

While I usually enjoyed Melissa's books, this one fell flat for me.

First, the story arch was super cliché. Everything was predictable. From the very beginning, I could see what was going to circle back around and say "surprise!" later, even though at that point it's not a surprise.

Second, the two main characters' love story was tragically forced. Like, there's a connection between them because there's suppose to be, but you don't see any real feeling or emotional from them until almost the end when, all the sudden, they have real love feelings for each other that they were tamping down throughout the whole book apparently. It's mostly based off of them arguing and challenging each other in who gets to take the lead.

And lastly, [SPOILER] the girl is suppose to be a mage with mad powers, BUT she like really only shows her gifts like once or twice???? And they're not even that great. The world building was good, but that was really it for me.

Just buy Sarah J. Maas instead

This book has similarities to the The Throne of Glass series, but it reads like thinly veiled fan fiction.

Good story

I enjoyed this story it had a exceptional narrator and I really enjoyed the characters but it had a predictable ending for me though. Most definitely worth listening to.
💖

Was a 5 until the last few chapters

I really enjoyed this book... until about three chapters til the end. First, things i did enjoy... i loved the character of Caledon. He’s well written and well thought out. A pleasure to get to know. Also, i adored the last part of the last chapter. That is my kind of cliffhanger! As for the part i didn’t like, i can’t say much without major spoilers but all I will say is that you shouldn’t have to spend the last few chapters literally rewriting the whole first part of the book in order to make a crazy “twist” make sense. A successful twist could have been possible and even awesome. It was so so so poorly executed it just made me angry. The narration was also incredibly lackluster from both narrators which didn’t help.

loved it

From the beginning I was wrapped up in this story. The characters are likeable and the plot is solid. I love a story where you think you know what's going to happen and it seems inevitable, but then a twist is thrown at you and your mind is blown!

Overall Pretty Enjoyable

This is the first book I've experienced from Melissa de la Cruz and it was generally pretty enjoyable. I have mixed feelings about the main characters, on the one hand they were definitely realistic for their ages but they were both a little foolish and a lot prickly. The female character - Shadow - tends to snap to the most negative assumptions possible but by the end you sort of get a feeling on why she acts the way she does.

The magic system is 'soft' in that it's not well defined but I think that adds to the story since magic isn't a common thing in the world setting anymore.

I enjoyed it but if you're looking for more hard spy/assassin/intrigue over social intrigue and the politics of nobility maybe reconsider this one. I love courtly politics and that style of intrigue however, but it was unclear from the book summary that it was going to be the case.

terrible narrators, meh story

The accents in this title were super cringe worthy - cultural appropriation much!
The story was meh, the writing was meh
Melissa De La Cruz's writing seems to be heading towards 9th grade caliber as she pumps out simple tiny books for Disney and the like.
Overall a disappointment, but I will still read the next one - it is a sickness, I have to finish series

love the story

really dissapoint with narrator's interpretation of lilac too whiny it grated my nerve.good story though.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

fantastic narrator, finally a female american voice I can stand! brilliant performances from both male and female, story was just a bit rushed at the end

So good

This book was better than I expected and I thoroughly enjoyed it from page one. The romance, the intrigue, the history and conspiracy were fab.