Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Title: Red Queen

Author: Victoria Aveyard
Genre: Young Adult / Sci-Fi / Romance/ Dystopia / Fantasy
Publisher: Orion Books (Hachette Australia)
Publication Date: 12th February 2015
ISBN: 9781409155843
Stand Alone/Series: Red Queen #1
Pages: 383 pages
First Lines: I hate First Friday.  It makes the village crowded, and now, in the heat of the summer, that's the last thing anyone wants.

Synopsis: 
This is a world divided by blood – red or silver.

The poverty-stricken Reds are commoners, living in the shadow of the Silvers, elite warriors with god-like powers.

To Mare Barrow, a 17-year-old Red girl from the Stilts, it looks like nothing will ever change.

Then Mare finds herself working at the Silver palace, in the midst of those she hates the most. She quickly discovers that, despite her red blood, she possesses a deadly power of her own. One that threatens to destroy Silver control.

My Thoughts: 
In all honesty, I wasn't real keen on picking up Red Queen.  Without even reading the Synopsis, I imagined this being a romantic Victorian times book, something that wasn't really up my alley. Thank god I was wrong.  Very!

It is even being mentioned that it is for fans of Divergent and The Hunger Games.  Well there certainly are aspects from Red Queen that I would have likened to these two also.

For me, I got to about page 12 before thinking, yeah this is interesting.  I can see myself reading more.  By the time i hit half way that book was NOT leaving my hands.

I really liked the main character Mare/Mareena.  She's a red girl caught up in the politics of a silver world and as you can gather from the synopsis, Mare's world is divided between Reds that are slaves, servants, workers and poor, and Silvers, royalty, upperclass, with super powers.  Two very different people.  But when she gets thrown into the deep end at the arena, she discovers she has powers of her own.  Something not heard of among the red people.  So the Silver Royal family does the only thing it can.  They lie and welcome the long lost Mareena from House Titanos soon to be betrothed to the Queen's son Maven.

The moment this happens, the book sped up pace for me.  I felt up until that point the first part of the book sets the scene of the Reds and their way of life.  It was interesting but hadn't quite completely grabbed my attention up until that moment.  There is pressure for Mare to in the beginning too.  Her 18th birthday nears, and with that the compulsory conscription of the army looms over her.  Those lucky enough to have someone train them get to stay, for those that don't, it's off to the army. Probably never to be seen again.;

There is romance in this, but it's not what I'd call the main event of the book.  I'd certainly think the Scarlet Guard takes most of the focus.  So if you are looking for a book for romance alone.  This won't be it.

But in saying that, the action for me was what propelled the story to the end.  The worldbuilding is pretty awesome.  The author has definitely put alot of thought into Mare's world and while we only catch fleeting glimpses of both the Red and Silver's world, I dare say we will get a more look-see with the second and third books.

If you are after a decent fantasy read, I suggest giving this one a go.  I'm curious to find out what Victoria has in store for the next two books.

Fave Lines:  Anyone can betray anyone.
Book received from:  Hachette Australia