Review of Long Live the Queen by Ana Michelle

DISCLAIMER: I bought this book with my own dollar bucks because I liked the sound of it, and I’m reviewing it because that’s what I want to do. The author didn’t ask me to do this, and I’m doing this without compensation. Doing this is a fun side project, and it will be a spoiler-free review.

This is going to be harsh, but if I could go back and tell myself not to read this book, I would do it in a heartbeat. I wish I hadn’t wasted two hours reading this. I deserve my time back.

Okay, so this isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. The author knows how to get from point A to point B, and the overall premise is intriguing. The low-stakes drama of the plot is a delight, especially in an urban fantasy romance involving shifters. I love the cover, too.

Those are the only positive notes I have.

This novel shouldn’t have been published as it is. There are so, so, SO many run-on paragraphs. There are grammar issues on almost every single page (that sounds like an exaggeration, but it’s not). Hell, at one point, one of the character’s names is spelled wrong. The pacing is all over the place, and the timeline means nothing. Supposedly, a year passes over 300+ pages, but in no way does it feel like that.

While none of what I’ve described is good for a book, I could forgive all that if the plot was amazing or if the characters blew me away. Neither of these is true.

Yes, I like the basis of the book, but the execution bored me or left me confused. You’re dropped into the world treated like you’ve been given the backstory about everything. I feel like I’ve missed several books in the series, but that isn’t the case.

After finishing, I don’t know why there are made shifters and born shifters. Can all born shifters bite humans and make new shifters? Why do made shifters attack (and usually kill) humans when the born ones don’t?

Why do some shifter groups follow an Alpha, and some have royalty? Are all Alphas males and all Omegas females? What about Betas? What is the point of this distinction? How do they serve their packs differently?

It isn’t until the latter half of the book that it’s stated that the lead Alpha has a magic that influences those of their pack, but the MMC only uses it on the FMC. Or maybe I’m mistaken and the Alpha can only use it on their mate. I don’t know!

And the characters…

Most of them are boring cutouts who serve their roles, and that’s it. No personality or physical description stood out. I neither like nor dislike them. They’re just there.

Raylene, though, got under my skin. She started out okay. She’s a queen who gives up her throne because she fears she’s cursed and it’s affecting her people. That’s a fantastic start for an interesting character. I also liked the idea of someone of her status and upbringing coming out of her shell and exploring a version of herself she never considered.

All that goes out the window when the romance with Alaric kicks into high gear. She becomes a completely different person. Raylene ends the book as a meek sap lacking the flicker of fire she had in the beginning.

Alaric isn’t any better. He’s a reluctant head Alpha with a tragic past who cares about his people but longs for a simpler life. His arc should have focused on him embracing his expanding leadership role. While learning to accept his new life, he would lower his guard to fall in love again.

Nope. He doesn’t struggle at all with the added responsibility. His tragedy is briefly mentioned once until the last quarter (if not less) of the book. Then there’s a slight info-dump part, which should have been brought up much earlier (way to care, Raylene), and he cries. After that, Alaric’s fine. It’s almost as if that part of his story didn’t need to exist.

Oh, and the author tries making him into some sort of “dom” when Alaric and Raylene have sex. It wasn’t sexy. It was so damn funny I couldn’t help laughing when it happened. I’m an immature twat a lot of the time, but good passionate scenes don’t do that to me.

The villains are lacking. Annabella is a little compelling (at first) as a power-hungry shifter who will use even family to get what she wants. She’ll go to any lengths to reach her goals, and her actions harm more than just the MCs.

Too bad she can’t keep her mouth shut and gives away her evilness in the most stupid way possible. Her downfall happens in about five pages, and it isn’t satisfying. Annabella doesn’t even get a fitting punishment for all she did before the book and during it.

The second bad guy is Marco, and the story didn’t need him. Annabella was enough had she been handled better. He might have worked if his villain origin story had been even decent. Marco makes a complete one-eighty in less than a page, and the reasoning is mind-numbingly stupid. If the author wanted him to have a darker hidden nature, she should have hinted at it.

Don’t bother with this book. If I could give it half a star, I would. There’s an interesting book in the pages, but the author isn’t skilled enough yet to piece it together into a publishable narrative. This book is a cautionary tale about avoiding publishing before the project is ready.