Bookish Mumma

Let me start by saying that I LOVE Katee Roberts’ books. I’m a big fan of the Neon Gods series and follow her on her social platform that I’m on. That being said, I struggled with Court of the Vampire Queen greatly. The introduction of Wolf and Rylan made the story a little more complex. However, without substantial character growth, there just wasn’t much to it. I was also irritated by Mina’s lack of a backbone. This is a woman who had come from a compound run by her father and filled with other vampires and dhampirs. She should have had more bite to her. Instead, she was resigned and let everyone else fight for her and that just didn’t sit particularly well with me.

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Story: 2/5

The twist of finding out whatever else Mina was mixed with was interesting, but no unexpected honestly. The abilities had promise, but without actual exploration, it fell a bit flat. I think that she could have and should have explored her power a lot more. Instead she fell into a victim mentality for a lot of this book, especially in Act 3. On the mention of Act 3, it really pulled me out of the story. This made it really hard for me to finish the book. It felt like it wasn’t supposed to be a part of the book, but rather the start of a second book. The pace, the adding of asterism, the honest lack of anything happening for a good chunk of it and Mina feeling sorry for herself… I just couldn’t do it.

Lore/background history: 3/5

If you like vampire romance and you want to focus more on the interpersonal relationships than the overarching story, this could be a good fit. If you love smut more than story, this is an even better fit. I found that Malachi was trying to be the overprotective, but loving partner, but he ended up being overly controlling of everyone. This was not just Mina and you see many moments where that is very much the case. Wolf was bordering on a background character and wasn’t nearly as chaotic as he was supposed to be from what I was getting from the story anyway.

Rylan 10/5

Rylan, I found, was the partner that Malachi was trying to be and did a much better job at it. There were moments when he would calmly reassure Mina rather than tell her that what she wanted to do was out of the question, therefore shutting it down. It probably helped that he looked impeccable and who doesn’t love a man that wants to cook for them? Which, also on that note, Rylan only showed an interest in cooking BECAUSE of Mina, because she needed to eat. He hadn’t seen much value in it before because it hadn’t mattered, but someone that he loved, did. It also irritated me that the men often seemed to make choices for her. Even when she wasn’t in the conversation.