Queen of Days by Greta Kelly

Book Blurb
For Balthazar and his family of thieves, stealing a statue during the annual celebration of the god Karanis was just a good bit of fun…or a way to stick it to the governor who murdered his parents. And yeah, the small fortune in reward doesn’t hurt—even if his boss also hired the mysterious Queen of Days to join the crew as “the weapon of last resort…”

Whatever that means.

But Bal doesn’t know the ceremony isn’t simply empty words and dusty tradition; it’s true magic. The kind of magic that rips open a portal for the god himself. Only the idol that Karanis planned on using for a body now lies broken at the Queen of Days’ feet. And half of it is missing.

With the aid of a lovable brawler, a society lady turned bomb maker, a disgraced soldier, and a time-eating demon, Bal must hunt down the missing half of the statue if he has any hope of earning his money, keeping his crew alive…and perhaps even saving all of humanity. But as his journey sends him racing through the city—and across realities—he discovers that doing all this might just doom the city.

The city be damned. It’s time to kill a god.

My Review

Queen of Days is the the fast paced fantastic new novel from Greta Kelly. This is the story of Balthazar and his gang of thieves who are employed by their patron to steal an icon at the dedication ceremony of a new temple for Karanis. Unfortunately there are rules, one of which is that they need to add the enigmatic and secret Queen of Days to save them if required. After the job going disastrously wrong, with Karanis coming through a portal, Bal, his team and the Queen of Days must find a way to defeat Karanis and save Cothis and probably humanity.

I really enjoyed losing myself inQueen of Days, with it’s wonderful world building and affable characters. The two central characters are Bal and Queen of Days herself Tassiel. At first glance they have nothing in common, Bal the head of the Talion Gang, working as thieves whilst Tassiel comes from another world so to speak, has an air of mystery about her, and more than a touch of magic. As the plot progresses I loved watching their relationship grow, their philosophical conversations, and ultimately how they came to really trust each other. Through Bal and Tassiel the main theme of this book family is explored. Bal’s family were murdered by the now Govenor Paasch leaving him, his sister Mira and their cousin Zee fugitives, and is the reason for Bal’s protectiveness towards his sister. Tassiel has been outcast by her family, left to die with none of her siblings coming to look for her. Both feel betrayed, both want revenge and both need to feel part of something, for someone to care,

Greta Kelly’s imagination and world building is fantastic, with the different worlds of the Nethersphere where so called gods and demi gods and monsters live, the human world and my favourite, the world of the Curator. It is the Curator’s world that seems to be the link, and his world is a world of books, unlimited, neverending books, a heaven for so many of us readers. These different planes also use time differently, with time only being important in the human world, the only plane for mortals. The fast pace and suspense builds quickly in this book as the Bal, Tassiel and the crew need to get to safety and kill a god/daemon taking them to other realms, dealing with dragons and wolves and of course the Karanis himself intent on killing them all.

Queen of Days is beautifully written, building a fascinating world, and creating such wonderful and loveable characters. The attention to detail brings the book alive, the sights and sounds of the worlds created, and the characters themselves. Full of action this is a real rollercoaster of a read for both the reader and the characters, from the heist at the beginning, to the magic of Tasseil, the wrath of Krunis and the ultimate good versus evil battle. An incredible and imaginative read, and I hope to meet the Queen of Days again.

I woukd like to thank Harper Voyager and Wunderkind PR for my copy of this book in return for my honest review.