Queen of the Tearling -- Erika Johansen

I read this book in less than 24 hours. In fact I did not leave the couch, let alone the house while I was reading Queen of the Tearling. The book is set in a future where several shiploads of people, presumably from our nearish future, have made a 'crossing' to a land that maybe exists in our world, or is maybe in another one. There is tantalizingly little information about The Crossing in book one of Erika Johansen's series and I imagine that more will be revealed to us in upcoming books! The main focus of Queen of the Tearling is Kelsea, a 19 year old  girl who has been living in secret with her foster parents for most of her life. She is also the Queen of the country of Tear and now that she is of age she must leave her home in the forest and venture into a corrupt and venal court led by her uncle the Regent.

Kelsea knows very little about current events in her kingdom and to tell you any details about what's going on in her capital would ruin, what for me was a pretty epic moment or two, so I won't. But there are some fun details I will share! For one, because this book takes place in our distant future there are some throwbacks, Kelsea has copies of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series on her bookshelf, along with The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. We learn pretty early on that the main reason for The Crossing was to cut away the modern day trappings of life that we are so accustomed to, so the people of Tear live a pretty medieval lifestyle, complete with swords and armour. And I can always get behind some sword fighting! The book contains plenty of parallels with some of my favourite series. There's a nod to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the Red Queen, who is Kelsea's nemesis, and some very strong similarities to The Hunger Games in a lottery system whose purpose I won't divulge!

A really great combination of new ideas and themes, mixed with the more conventional aspects of Young Adult fiction that we have all come to know and love! Another thing I will add is there is some profanity in the book (the f word pops up more than once) and some adult themes (think prostitution) so this book is not meant for the young end of the YA spectrum. But really a great read!

Enjoy!