Broken Throne

I have never been a huge fan of this series. I only continued reading it because I'm not fond of leaving them midway and I especially like getting some closure about characters. That's also probably the only reason I read this short story collection, because War Storm didn't give us a satisfactory ending nor did it complete the arcs of the characters.

This book starts off with the previously published stories from Cruel Crown, which I was obviously not interested in. The next story called World Behind was probably set during the events of King's Cage and had new characters whose predicament I couldn't care less about. Evangeline's story was interesting, getting to know about her life in Montfort and what her and Elane's future looks like. But my love hate with her character still continues, and she manages to piss me off while also feeling good that she is getting the life she wanted. The next story was what I really wanted to read - what happens when Mare and Cal meet again. There is still a lot of reconstruction to be done and they are not obligated to the same sides, but it was nice to see them finally come to some form of resolution about their future. Both of them still grapple with the choices they made regarding Maven and while I know that he is a villain, I was glad that they remembered him. The last little story called Farewell definitely made me a little emotional.

However, it's the historical accounts that are written throughout the book are what impressed me. We get to know more about how this world of Silvers and Reds came to be, and it was actually very fascinating to see that it's a post-apocalyptic version of our own. I think I never saw that coming. We also get little tidbits about all the Calore monarchs before Cal and that was interesting. But the best part was at the end, where we see how this world ended up and what happened to all these characters in the future. I don't wanna spoil it but it's that final historical account that gave me the closure I needed.

Obviously if you are a diehard fan of the Red Queen series, you should definitely read this book. Otherwise, I don't know if it's worth the price. Despite my curiosity, I would not have read it if not for my library copy.