Protect the Prince: A Crown of Shards Novel

In true, Jennifer Estep fashion, the action never stops. You don't know which character you're going to identify with next. I love the continued character development and the story is just breathless. I can't wait to dive into the third one.

I enjoyed Evie's journey although there were times I felt she didn't show as much growth as she should have. It ended on a good note and I look forward to reading the next one.

OMG, this was so amazing! It was everything I wanted and more.Queen Evie has spent months working with the nobles and trying to prepare for war with Morta. A trip to Andvari to broker a new peace treaty and to gain allies doesn’t exactly go the way Evie plans. Evie and the gang are put to the test between assassins, marriage proposals, and betrayals.As I said, I really loved this book. I didn’t think this series could get better after the first book, Kill the Queen, but I was wrong. This book gave us everything we were expecting and more. Assassins, betrayal, love, and a whole lot of tension. I couldn’t put it down and I can’t wait to see what is going to happen in the next one, especially between Evie and Sullivan.I adore Evie. She is such a kickass character who is kind, loving, and protective. She has grown so much since the first book, especially towards being a queen. She knows how to play the game but isn’t giving up any of her happiness for it anymore. I love that she is sticking to her morals and not letting others impede her happiness. We also see more of the Black Swan gang, especially Sully, in this one. I love how supportive they are of Evie and her decisions.Overall, this was an amazing fantasy world with wonderful characters that I can’t get enough of. I cannot recommend this series enough.

Go Evie. Her first foray with the nobles goes off with a bang. And things only get tougher. I have to admit that I saw the truth coming from very early. So that was a little disappointing. But maybe I'm just suspicious by nature. The tie in to the first book at the end made me squeal with glee. A wonderful book and I cannot wait to start and finish the third. Evie is the queen we all need.

Protect the Prince is the second book in the "A Crown of Shards" series by Jennifer Estep. Where most second books far very short compared to the first book in series, Protect the Prince held its own.However, I still prefer and believe that Kill the Queen was better. Kill the Queen was fast paced but didn't seem too short and had development. Protect the Prince was kind of stagnant, it was fast paced but I felt like a whole lot of nothing happened to increase the series plot. Essentially this book was just to hold us off for the main showdown in the next book between Bellona & Morta at the games.I know it sounds like I just criticized this book but really, I thought it was an excellent "second book." Jennifer Estep gave romance, tension, action, and a good romp. I throughly enjoyed it (read it in a day) and cannot wait for the next in the series.

“Kill The Queen” was the best book that I read in 2018. “Protect the Prince” has now moved to the top of my 2019 favorites. This story and its characters is simply mesmerizing. In this second installment, Queen Everleigh (Evie) deals with her uncertainties of whether she can or should be queen. As the story progresses, she grows in both belief and power, and it is wonderful watching her emerge a a true ‘Winter Queen.’ These stories are a perfect blend of action (lots of), mystery, political wrangling, thwarted love and character development. There is no doubt that “Crush the King” in 2020 will be just as great - and break our hearts that the story will end.

I loved the first book of this series. It wasn't without problems-some parts of the worldbuilding could have used some more love to make the setting easier to believe-but Evie was a likable protagonist, the story was fun, and the plot had a playful attitude to certain expected epic fantasy tropes. I was delighted.This book gave me a few hours of entertainment too, so by all means, I don't regret buying it, but it lacked a bit of the spark of the previous installment.SPOILERSThe reasons of my lack of enthusiasm are several:- the plot was even more predictable than the previous book, but lacked the playfulness of the previous one (hello, Tanzenfreude). I knew who was the guilty party at like a third into the book, and nothing unexpected happened.- the romantic subplot, which had been a cute, but limited element in the previous story, becomes much more central, and I didn't really appreciate that. Even worse, while most of the story is about Evie and Sullivan longingly looking at each other, the two have very little interaction, beside this 'I want you but we can't for state reasons' refrain.-Evie's character arc. So, in book one, we follow her as she becomes a confident fighter, challenges her cousin, kills her and become queen. And then we begin this book, and all of a sudden Evie is again doubting herself and suffering from impostor syndrome for half of the novel. I understand the reasoning behind, but it gave the story a sense of 'been there, done that'.Three and half stars.

I thought she knocked it out the park with the first book but this instantly became my favorite. When we left Evie in book one she was someone who didn’t want the crown, but ended up taking it because getting her revenge required it. And getting her revenge also meant letting go of that man she loves. We start off book 2 with her still unsure of herself, her crown, trying to fill the shoes of a position she never wanted to begin with and we see her grow into the type of Queen Bellona not only needs but deserves. She is not her emotionally weak but polished aunt nor her psycho but beautiful cousin. She’s a winter queen with her very own flair. Watching her combat consistent assassination attempts, a hostile foreign court who blames her for the death of their beloved prince while having to choose between her country and the man she loves was phenomenal and I’m so proud of her growth. Can’t wait to see how she deals with the Morgan’s and the Bastard Brigade in Crush the King.

Hard to put down. Very action oriented.

Note: this is the second book of a trilogy, so not a good place to start. I recommend to start at the beginning with „Kill the Queen“.ReviewSo Evie killed her treacherous cousin and became Queen Everleigh of Bellona. One might imagine that the fight is now over, but Evie knows that her reality is far from being peaceful. There are the nobles at her court that want to manipulate her into doing what is best for them and their families. And the kingdom of Morta, who killed her whole family and the envoys of the Andvarian court in the great massacre, is still out to get her. Her nemesis Maeven still sends assassins her way. And to have some fighting chance against the Mortan king, Evie travels to the neighboring kingdom of Andvari to make amends for what happened to the king‘s son and the other members of the traveling group in Bellona and to negotiate a treaty for trade and an alliance in case of Morta attacking.The Andvarian people aren’t too fond of Bellona right now and it shows... and worse, there are still Mortan assassins and someone at the court is involved in a treacherous way. So Evie has to juggle the wrath to the Andvarians, thwart any attempts on people’s lives and find out who is the perpetrator.I liked the action here, Evie is constantly either investigating, fighting or excelling at politics. And she is good at all three jobs. Personally, I loved her sticking it to the nobility, she is just so cool! And I like that during her fights, she finally discovers what being a Winter Queen means and what her powers really comprise. I had goosebumps.And although I had a theory about the culprit early on and was right, the investigation and the plot as such were entertaining and a great read. I also appreciated that the characters mostly are multi-faceted and not plain good or evil. People’s motives had a lot to do with what situations they found themselves in and their various ways to cope. So no easy label to put upon a character. Just as people really are.The reason I still don’t give five stars is for one the romance that just doesn’t feel like anything. I get why people ship Sullivan and Evie, but me, I don’t feel the love... and the other thing that does annoy me is Evie‘s constant deprecating herself. I get the doubts, but if one listens to her inner monologue, one could think that she is to blame for all the bad things in the world and she suffers from some serious „Imposter Syndrome“. All she ever thinks is how bad a queen she is, how undeserving and so on and so on... really, honey, get a grip!But the book was entertaining, fun to read, and I will definitely read the last installment, „Crush the King„.

I enjoyed this book. I didn’t enjoy the storyline quite as much as the first book, but I did enjoy seeing the heroine become more secure in herself and her power.

Toujours aussi bon , de mon auteur preferer, Jenifer Estep

Warning this will contain spoilers for the first book in the series.At the end of the first book Everleigh Blair had fought and defeated her cousin Vasilia to become queen of Bellona, but just because she's queen doesn't make life any easier. The nobles are placing bets on how long she'll stay alive, Maeven and the Mortan's are trying to kill her, some of the nobles are plotting to marry her off (to their own sons of course), she is in love with Lucas Sullivan but he refuses to take their relationship further because he is only the illegitimate son of the king of Andvar. And of course everyone still believes that Evie is a mutt, with very little magical powers whereas we now know that she can neutralise other people's magic.In order to protect Bellona from invasion by Andvar Evie needs to forge an alliance with Andvar, but the King hasn't forgiven Bellona for the murder of his younger son and his attendants when Vasilia ascended the throne of Bellona by massacring her own mother and the Bellonian court with the assistance of Mortan spies. So Evie and her friends travel to Andvar to try to persuade the King but Mortan assassins and spies are everywhere and Evie's presence may be doing more harm than good. Can Evie follow her heart, protect Bellona and weed out the Mortan assassins while negotiating a deal?I love a traditional fantasy in which the poor downtrodden servant/belittled sibling turns out to have extraordinary powers, yet remains humble alongside lots of swords and sorcery type battles and this reminded very much of those, like the David Eddings series, heck even Harry Potter.Loved this, devoured it in one day reading until 3:30 am and I can not wait for the third installment.