If you love group heists, time magic, and found family then The Queen of Days is for you. You say those three elements and it’s like a summoning circle for me, so you know I had to read this one. Keep reading this book review to see my full thoughts.
Summary
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.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
So I’m kind of smitten with the Queen of Days. Yes I do mean the book, but I also mean the elusive character we know of as the Queen of Days. I love a good shrouded character dripping in mystery and when you add time magic to the mix, I will lay my sword down for her. Not only that, but her character development really blooms throughout as the history, past, and mystery are revealed. That being said, I also enjoyed the ragtag found family group crew dynamic even if we didn’t get as much of some of the side characters as I’d have liked.
I would 100% read more from this group because I want to know them. Of course I enjoyed Bal’s POV mostly because it’s clear he’s trying to keep them all safe, but is also deeply biased by his lust for revenge. However, The Queen of Days does feature the POV of the Queen of Days which I enjoyed more and which I can’t say more about because you have to read the book. In The Queen of Days there are slow burning revenge, demons, gods, and heists. What more could you want?
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At about 60% I became all in chips on the table invested. It’s one of those books which asks us how time and pain impacts those around us. For humans, we have the lives of a speck of sand, but for the world around us, the legacies we leave, anyone left in our wake, how will our memory persevere? The Queen of Days is one of those books which makes you think about revenge versus vengeance versus retribution. It’s equal parts core and found family with heists and revenge. Find The Queen of Days on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, & Blackwells.