Amon experiences physical pain and the occasional seizure when the two of them make out. Raisa is dealing with her burgeoning feelings for Amon, who is forbidden from ever being with the queen now that he has taken the official oath to be the head of her guard. But as much as I LOVE road trips–and Han and Raisa’s are both action-filled and important–the beginning dragged just the teensiest bit in some parts (obviously NOT the parts where the aforementioned SHIZZ was going down).

The first half or so of the book details both of their journeys, where some SHIZZ goes down. make their way separately to Oden’s Ford. Well, two road trips, as Han and Raisa et al. Now that that’s out of the way, THE EXILED QUEEN begins, as you might be able to tell, on a road trip. OH AND ALSO: Han still things Raisa is Rebecca, the girl he met in Ragmarket. SHADY BIZ, y’all, and Raisa gets the hell out of dodge before it can all go down. She ran away the night of her nameday when Gavan Bayar tried to force her to marry his son, the tool Micah Bayar–forbidden though it may be for queens and wizards to marry–so that Micah might one day be king. Raisa is ALSO on her way to Oden’s Ford, all incognito style, to attend the military school there under the protection of her bff/maybe love/captain of her guard, Amon Byrne.

Han has also just found out that he is a descendent of Alger Waterlow, the Demon King himself yo, and that the amulet he stole from the Bayars was Waterlow’s. Mad spoilers upcoming.) At the end of THE DEMON KING, Han and Dancer are heading off to the wizard school at Oden’s Ford at the behest of the clans, who are paying for their schooling in return for the two of them “agreeing” to work for the clans in the future. So, let’s get started off with a little recap, shall we? (OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING FOR THE DEMON KING. I’m both glad that I’m finally reading it and irritated that that I put it off for so long. In fact, I loved THE EXILED QUEEN so much that I could barely wait longer than a few hours before cracking open my ARC of the third book, THE GRAY WOLF THRONE, which I’ve also just finished. I just recently read the first book in the Seven Realms series, THE DEMON KING, and loved it, so I wasn’t really surprised at all to find myself LOVING the second book just as much. THE EXILED QUEEN by Cinda Williams Chima is some FINE fantasy, guys. The Exiled Queen (Seven Realms #2) by Cinda Williams Chima

The exiled queen book