Name: Trial of the Sun Queen
Series: Artefacts of Ouranos #1
Author: Nisha J. Tuli
Publisher: Orbit
Format: Kindle (through Kindle Unlimited)
Genres: Adult, Romantasy
Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Rating:
Synopsis: Goodreads
Lor has endured twelve long years of torment under the Aurora King’s rule. Her only desire is to get free and pay him back for every moment of misery she’s endured.
When a surprise release finds her in the hands of the Sun King, Lor is thrust into the spotlight as she competes against nine other Tributes for the role of queen. If she wins his heart, she’ll earn her freedom and finally get her revenge.
But Lor doesn’t belong in the Sun Queen Trials. Not only does she not understand why she was freed, she isn’t a citizen of the Sun King’s court. The other Tributes resent her presence and will stop at nothing to ensure Lor is wiped off the gameboard, permanently.
Now Lor must win, because if she loses, she dies. Or worse, she’ll be sent back into the hands of the Aurora King.
Review:
Instinct drove me to pick up Trial of the Sun Queen while I was feeling myself slumping… And I don’t regret it! I saw some comments that said TotSQ was like The Hunger Games and The Selection combined, and very quickly I got the vibes of both these brilliant stories! And I ate it up. The book literally begins with our FMC furious that someone stole her soap, I was having a good time right from the start and knew this instinct was good.
We follow our FMC, Lor as she finds herself surprisingly rescued from Nostraza (an awful prison) by the Sun King that she has lived in and suffered in for over a decade! This surprise release however doesn’t come without its own catch – and thas is that she must compete in the Sun Queen trials. Survive and be Queen, or lose and die or worse, return to that prison and the Aurora King.
There are some books that just hit the spot that you hope they would when you read them. This book did exactly that – I read it in just two days because it’s a fun, easy, fast paced read that I didn’t want to put down. I’d have read it in one day if that was an option for me at the time. The trials were brilliant – and actually had me concerned for Lor’s safety on more than one occassion – if I wasn’t coming at this series in a time where the whole series is available to read, I would have genuinely feared for her death in book 1!
It isn’t ground breaking – I guessed the twist from the first mention of… well to say would be the twist, but it is foreshadowed really early on. I couldn’t give Trials of the Sun Queen 4 stars though because I really did not like the additional twist at the end of the book, connected to the main twist. I can see that it too was forshadowed throughout, but I just didn’t like it and it felt odd. Technically I also disliked one of our MMCs and decided if he was meant to be endgame then I was ending my journey with the series…
That being said, I love Lor and I am intrigued by Nadir and Gabriel. Not to mention I am absolutely on board with where it looks like this story is going! So I will definitely be picking up book 2!
“With a temper like mine, a girl is bound to get in trouble now and then…
or often.”
Reading With Tyler 
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