Cinda Williams Chima
Joining me today is my husband TJ to
RITA:
I’ve been waiting all year for this book, the last in this series, so when it finally came into the library, I immediately picked it up to read.
TJ said, “Oh no, you don’t. I’m reading it first.”
“I promise I won’t tell you anything.”
“You’re Sagittarian. You always tell me everything.”
I’m not quite sure if that’s exactly how the argument went, but we’ve had this argument a 137 times in the last 13 years. So this is a pretty good approximation.
In the end, he won. I have an eidetic memory, and when I try to sum up, I end up reading the book, page for page, from my mind’s eye.
I decided to be nice and let him go first.
Thus I had to wait 24 hours. Grrrr.
TJ:
Not that I gave her much of a choice.
Most of the time Rita is the one who reads YA and then begs me to read them, but this series had one big advantage. I like wolves!
I quickly tore through the first three books and was then forced to wait for the final installment. That’s the problem with finding a good series several books in; you get spoiled because you can read several books back to back and then reach for the next one only to discover it isn’t written yet.
When I finally got The Crimson Crown, Rita didn’t have to wait long. I finished it in under 12 hours. Of course that means I was attempting to homeschool the kids on two hours sleep.
RITA:
12 hours is a long time to wait after you’ve already waited a year.
TJ:
It was generally agreed that daddy was a little grumpy, but it was worth it. Rita did not seem too appreciative when I crawled into bed at six in the morning excited about the book and letting her know it was her turn.
RITA:
He kept the light on all night, so I already got little sleep. Being woken up at 6 made me grumpier than he was.
TJ:
That did not keep her from following in my footsteps and staying up until six the following morning.
RITA:
7:30 was when I finished. I got about an hour and 15 minutes to sleep before I had to log into work.
But it was soooooo worth it.
I love books where the male and female lead are both strong. Raisa was not a girl who waited to be rescued. She acted decisively and with strength. She never backed down. She never caved. And she was a queen who would walk into fire to save her people. Or into the lion’s den to rescue her sister.
TJ:
I agree, Raisa and Han both show a lot of courage and strength throughout the series but especially in the Crimson Crown. There are so many different factions involved that it takes both of them to unite the kingdom, …er queendom.
I like how the author showed all that Han had done and gone through was for Raisa. It would have been easy to make him into a power hungry lord who wanted to usurp her power.
RITA:
Yes, everybody vying for Raisa’s hand in marriage—Nightwalker, Micah Bayar, the general’s moronic sons, the king from the neighboring realm—for power, but Han wanted Raisa simply because he loved her. However, it would take a miracle for him to have her since marriages between a queen and a jinx-flinger are forbidden.
I loved how Han and Raisa’s love mirrored the story of Alger Waterlow and Queen Hanalea a thousand years before. The past and the present intertwined to make the book so much richer.
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