Pale Queen Rising by A.R. Kahler

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 246

publication: October 1st 2015 by 47North

Synopsis:

As royal assassin for the Faerie Queen, Claire is used to moving between the mortal world and the Winter Kingdom. When the queen commands her to kill, Claire does the job and doesn’t ask questions. Her deadly skills and loyalty are soon tested when Claire is sent to the Immortal Circus. It is one of the many places where “Dream” is harvested from the imaginings of mortals, and someone is causing it to mysteriously disappear. Claire’s job is to find the culprit before the Winter Kingdom’s supply of Dream is depleted enough to threaten the very survival of the Fey. But when she meets Roxie, a beautiful mortal singer with a strange link to the Dream thieves, Claire quickly recognizes an odd and unexplained connection that may cloud her judgment. As each new clue unveils another secret, Claire finds herself confronting the riddle of her own buried past—and a dangerous illusion that, as part of the Immortal Circus, is just another act in the show.

My Thoughts

Admittedly, I binge read Immortal Circus a few years back and loved it. Ever since I’ve stalked A.R. Kahler and have waited for some news reads to grab up. I did, and for a while, these sat in my kindle/audible account until I sat down to craft.

Lo! I have finished Pale Queen Rising, the first in a new series and for those familiar or not with Kahler, this series takes place after the Immortal Circus. If you’re not familiar with the story you may want to pick up the prior trilogy, why? Because a lot of questions that may arise are answered in that book. While it isn’t absolutely necessary, I do sincerely encourage you to pick up the prior series, because this book doesn’t explain [in depth,] the key things you may need to know.

Onward!

Claire is the Queen’s assassin and happens to be her adopted daughter, but for this book, she seems to be more of her P.I. more than anything. Someone is stealing dreams from the winter and summer court and Mab as well as her brother, Oberon, are becoming upset. Mab sends Claire out to investigate and is led to the Immortal Circus, which sparks some interesting interactions.

For those of you who ARE familiar with the prior series, we meet Kingston again, the magician and now ringleader of the circus. Melody is back, too. And with the visit to the circus brings back some unbidden memories that are supposed to be locked away.

I found Claire to be a touch too abrasive for me which prohibited me from connecting with her and because it mostly focuses on her as the mystery of who is stealing the dream, who the pale queen is or where she resides, I wasn’t as invested as I thought I should have been. That coupled with the vague detail in regard to the plot and the happenings, I just wasn’t connected with this story as much as I wanted. However, I was interested in the idea. That being said I will definitely be reading the rest of the series because it is fairly intriguing.