1.5/5
The Queen's Assassin lacked drive. The characters showed no dedication to their respective goals, and the plot wandered. There is a secret "revealed" at the end of the novel but I am honestly not sure if Melissa de la Cruz meant for it to be a reveal or if she meant for us to know it from the beginning, because it was so painfully obvious from literally the first sentence of Chapter 1.
Cal's chapters contained too many moony descriptions of Shadow. Our two leads started out strong and competent, but their so-called espionage mission in the second half of the book was so poorly planned and written it felt like I had accidentally strolled into a poorly-written, plot-free fan fic. De la Cruz also starts wildly tossing in magical elements that were never hinted at in the first 3/4s of the novel. It made the ending feel cheap and ridiculous, and left it on a sour note.
I mean, I finished it, so it wasn't that bad. I enjoyed Shadow's voice and her thinking, and though the beginning is a bit of an information dump, I enjoyed the interesting world-building. I would compare this to a much less developed Grave Mercy. If you're looking for a light romance with a bit of a political background, I'd recommend you breeze through The Queen's Assassin.
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