Back of Book: 

Caledon Holt is the Kingdom of Renovia's deadliest weapon. No one alive can best him in brawn or brains, which is why he's the Guild's most dangerous member and the Queen's one and only assassin. He's also bound to the Queen by an impossible vow—to find the missing Deian Scrolls, the fount of all magical history and knowledge, stolen years ago by a nefarious sect called the Aphrasians.

Shadow has been training all her life to follow in the footsteps of her mother and aunts—to become skilled enough to join the ranks of the Guild. Though magic has been forbidden since the Aphrasian uprising, Shadow has been learning to control her powers in secret, hoping that one day she'll become an assassin as feared and revered as Caledon Holt.

When a surprise attack brings Shadow and Cal together, they're forced to team up as assassin and apprentice to hunt down a new sinister threat to Renovia. But as Cal and Shadow grow closer, they'll uncover a shocking web of lies and secrets that may destroy everything they hold dear. With war on the horizon and true love at risk, they'll stop at nothing to protect each other and their kingdom in this stunning first novel in The Queen's Secret series.

Book Number: One

Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy | Romance 

Review: 🌟🌟 

A young assassin and a future noblewoman collide in this fantastical tale of political intrigue and illogical romance.

"The Queen's Assassin" follows Shadow, an ambitious girl who dreams of joining the illustrious Guild and Cal, a young assassin who is bound to the nation's queen due to an oath given by his father. Shadow will do anything it takes to avoid going to live among the court with her mother, even rescue an assassin from the heaviest guarded prison in the nation. Cal, on the other hand, doesn't need some merchant girl to complete the mission his queen gave to him. But when the two meet, Cal reluctantly agrees to take Shadow under his wing. Cal knows that as an assassin, his job is to be an inhumane monster, but he can't help fall for his mysterious apprentice. . .

After finishing this one I have to start by saying, were we not supposed to know Shadow's identity from the beginning of the book? I was quite confused at the end when there was two whole chapters describing everything about Shadow's life and the "secret" she had to keep. I was quite literally baffled that this was all being explained in such detail because I assumed this from what happened in the beginning moments of the book. I either read the intro stuff completely wrong or else this book was structured so poorly that it was so obvious that I didn't even think it was a mystery. Consider me thoroughly mystified by this.

I wasn't very intrigued by much of the political nonsense that was happening in this one and the magical elements of this story aren't all that unique. Despite this, "The Queen's Assassin" was an easy read and I found the majority of it entertaining. By the end of the book, I am at least interested to see what will happen with Shadow and Cal's predicament and how Cal will complete his quest that he has been burdened with since birth.

The romance in this one was just okay to me. It took me awhile to even kinda like Shadow, so it took at least three fourths of the book before I even appreciated the romantic elements that were happening. Cal is cool with his no-nonsense assassin vibes and his general charisma. I think the fated element of them being together makes things slightly better, and I hope their relationship gets stronger in the conclusion of this duology. But also, they're both in denial about almost everything and they really need to pull themselves.

Overall, "The Queen's Assassin" is a pretty cliché young adult fantasy that didn't really bring anything new to the table, but it wasn't horrible. There were parts that I found confusing and others that I found rather counterproductive. I was a tad bit disappointed in it in the long run due to how much I loved "The Encanto's Daughter" by the same author. I will be moving on to the sequel now and crossing my fingers that many of the things I disliked about this one will have been turned around in the latter installment. I'm intrigued to see what happens to Shadow and Cal, so "The Queen's Assassin" did at least hook me on these two characters and the quest that they still have to complete.

Back of Book: 

Lilac's birthright makes her the Queen of Renovia, and a forced marriage made her the Queen of Stavin. But being a ruler does not mean making the rules. For Lilac, taking the throne means giving up the opportunity to be with love of her life, the kingdom's assassin, Caledon Holt.

Worse, Cal is forced to leave the castle when a horrific set of magical attacks threatens Lilac's sovereignty. Now Cal and Lilac will have to battle dark forces separately, even though being together is the only thing that's ever saved them.

In the riveting conclusion to Melissa De La Cruz's fantasy duet, love and magic are at war, and victory rests on a knife's edge.

Book Number: Two (Last Book) 

Genre: Young Adult | Fantasy | Romance 

Review: 🌟🌟 

Reluctantly married to a king she despises, Lilac will do anything to get back to the assassin she loves.

Where do I even begin with this one? "The Queen's Assassin" has plenty of issues, but somehow, "The Queen's Secret" made all of them worse. The writing style was bland, the magic system had little coherency, and the quest that I thought Cal was going to have to embark on was completely thrown aside. Also, don't get me started about the pretty bow that tied the ending of the book together.

I couldn't care less about Lilac as a character, especially because she spends the majority of this book faking illness so she doesn't have to be around her husband, King Hansen. She also is extremely jealous of the pretty assassin that is Cal's new apprentice. I found this to be so petty, though to be fair, Cal is jealous of the king, too. Cal is at least tolerable as a character, but he spends the majority of this book on a wild goose chase for the sole reason to get him away from Lilac. Also, the romance in this book only consisted of them pining for one another; I think there was in total around two scenes of them alone together. For a fantasy romance series, I'm not sure if that was the most helpful choice on the author's part.

My biggest problem with this book, is how little I cared for anything that was going on. This wasn't helped by how bland the writing is. Also, there was so many things in this book that came out of nowhere and made little sense (if you know about the horse scene, you know). Yet somehow, the entire main problem surrounding the magical assassins is still super obvious to figure out and created zero urgency in the plot.

The one thing I was actually excited about was Cal's quest to find the magical scrolls that will free him from the curse that is inflicted upon him. However, this had absolutely nothing to do with the plot line and the way that he ends up finding them in the end is one of the cheapest and laziest writing choices I've ever read. And that's not to talk about how quick and easy the final boss battle was. *sigh* In many ways, this book felt like the second installment in a trilogy, which caused the ending to feel rushed, uneventful, and very anti-climatic. Also, the way that the trio's relationship (Lilac, Cal, and King Hansen's) was resolved was also problematic, especially when it came to Lilac's weird vision she had about the future in the fire place. The fact that there wasn't a big scene between Lilac and Cal at the end was also strange, and made the ending about as lackluster as it could possibly be,

Overall, "The Queen's Secret" is the disappointing conclusion to a incoherent duology that truly fell flat on its face for me. There was very little that I enjoyed about this book, but luckily it only took me a couple of days to trod through. I loved my first read by Melissa de la Cruz, but this series was so disappointing, I don't even know what to expect from the rest of her books. I think that there are many people who could enjoy this duet, but I found it too bland, cliché, and repetitive to find joy within its pages.