Book Review: Once A Queen

Book #21 for 2025: Once A Queen by Sarah Arthur, 3 (maybe 2.5)/5 ★
384 pages / published January 2024 / available here

Goodreads Blurb: When fourteen-year-old Eva Joyce unexpectedly finds herself spending the summer at the mysterious manor house of the English grandmother she's never met, troubling questions arise. … After strange things start happening in the gardens at night, Eva turns to the elderly housekeeper, gardener, and the gardener's great-grandson, Frankie, for answers. Astonishingly, they all seem to believe the fairy tales are true--that portals to other worlds still exist, though hidden and steadily disappearing. They suspect that Eva's grandmother was once a queen in one of those worlds.

My Review: Oh how much I wanted to loved this book! With a deep love for magical realism, fairy tales, portal stories, and adults finding real magic, it should have been perfect for me. BUT…it was just “fine.” The pacing d-r-a-g-g-e-d, the world-building left much to be desired, almost all the characters were less interesting than they could’ve been, and there was basically no resolution of any kind. (I get there’s a sequel, but still.) For a lot of buildup about secrets upon secrets, no authentic connections/relationships are ever built but also questions aren’t really answered for the audience. Eva’s lack of consideration for seemingly anyone around here was downright infuriating. The dual-story inserts of the fairy tale pages were interesting to begin with, but I grew tired of the language shifts between both worlds (and was mildly baffled by how Eva, who displays a good bit of immaturity, seemingly had no issue slipping casually into an archaic language style). There’s also an awful lot of references to her “blathering” and being too nosy and talkative, but I felt like that was only actually displayed by her character once. So much promise, but I left disappointed.