Review for The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

* * * * * 5/5 stars

Summary: Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver-blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. There, before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess, and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays the only certainty is betrayal.

This sweeping story of palace intrigue, class hierarchy, and deception will keep readers hurtling along, desperate to find out Mare’s fate. Her honesty and determination, quick wit, and no-holds-barred attitude will surely make readers fall in love with her.

My Review: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is the first book in a YA series about a teenager who lives in a society where the color of your blood determines what status you will hold in life. Reds are considered inferior and are not considered equal to those in their society who have silver blood. Silvers are considered to be the masters almost demi-gods to the reds and have all the power in this dystopian society.  The main characters name is Mare - the book starts following her as she goes about normal activities for her like stealing food and other things her family needs to survive in the small red working town where they live.  

Startling events happen that end up landing Mare in a whole lot of trouble and she finds herself spirited away by the ruling Silver royal family who decide to enmesh her into their family so they can hide the startling truth about an ability she has that reds are NOT supposed to have.  The book follows her journey in this new dangerous world and introduces many new startling characters who will become the backbone of this series and who I as a reader was really able to relate to on many different emotional levels as well as being very well written...it is not a book that is easy to put down and I read through it in just a few days.

Aveyard is a new author to me and I love her writing style. The books font is also larger so it made it easy on the eyes and something that I really enjoyed reading.  The situations and characters really drew me into the story often hours passed and I didn't realize how much time had passed because the writing really had me engrossed completely in the story and with the characters; I even cried a few times which is very rare for me as a reader to be touched so profoundly.  This series so far for me has been my favorite 3 books (4 with the digital novellas which I also read) that I've come into contact with so far this year.

I would recommend this book to ANY of my reading colleagues in my opinion even  if you don't always read books that are labeled YA or Fantasy or dystopian world like settings you should still pick up this book it has something for everyone and if you don't, in my opinion you will regret it.  I absolutely love this author and her writing style.