5 Stars for The Queen’s Curse by Natasja Hellenthal #FF #Fantasy @natasjahellenth

Title: The Queen’s Curse
Author Name: Natasja Hellenthal
Publication Date & Length: May 1, 2013 – 393 pgs

It’s time for change! In a country with a cursed justice system, two women; the mysterious Queen Artride and her loyal bodyguard Tirsa, set out on a secretive perilous quest. They hope to find the sorceress, the only person powerful enough to be able to lift the curse, in Dochas; the strange Magical Land.
But they have to hurry as they only have three weeks to save Tirsa’s teenage brother’s life, sentenced to hanging for a petty crime.

The women are soon drawn to each other, however struggles and questions arise. Will the sorceress be willing to help them and for what price?

Note to the American reader: This novel is written in British English following the Oxford Dictionary for its grammar and punctuation. It has been edited by two British Editors and several British Proofreaders. We use semi-colon’s instead of dashes and these are not typos. Thank you!

A truly enchanting book readable on so many levels. It’s a fantasy tale, where a beautiful, courageous Knight that has been affected by the horrors of war begins a perilous journey with her gorgeous, brave and magical Princess and all the fantastic creatures and dangers they meet along the way trying to fulfil their quest. On another level it can represent the good and evil in us all, how we tackle emotional problems that trouble our life’s journey. What ever the novel means to you the author obviously succeeds in showing that true love, honesty and meeting your soul mate can overcome every obstacle you might endure, that any evil can be beaten and result in goodness taking its place.

At times the novel appears to be light and airy but this is quickly replace by the horrors that also live in this ancient world. The characters are not perfect and this gives them an air of vulnerability and thus more believable. Even the non humans have human frailties and emotions. The descriptions given whether it is the surrounding, emotions or sound are really well documented and give the reader the feeling of actually being there in the novel.

Anyone who wants to believe in good overcoming evil, in love overcoming hate, and the strength and power of honesty, and with completeness in finding a soul mate brings, would enjoy this book, along side a cracking novel of mystery, magic and suspense.

How you interpret novel is a personal choice, but I found it very entertaining and thought provoking.

Chris

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Although a writer of speculative fiction for all of my adult life, I’m now a published author with my debut novel ‘The Queen’s Curse on Amazon, available on Kindle or Kindle app. My second Fantasy ‘Call Off The Search’ (1st of a series) has been released and received positive feedback. Book 2, Children Of The Sun is just out!
I’m born and raised in The Netherlands, I have lived in Norway,Wales, Northern-Ireland and currently near Manchester, UK, with my partner, two small children, two dogs and a cat with no tail.
‘The Queen’s Curse’ has received some great reviews and is called “Lyrical Fantasy” by fellow Fantasy author Rob Ross and “A riveting read” by another.
It’s an original heroic spiritual Fantasy novel that interests a lot of people; both straight and gay as it has many interesting elements such as: justice/injustice, power/control,lesbian romance, freedom,adventure, magic, immortality, intrigue, soul searching, love, life, loss, near death experience, sword and sorcery. In this book I explore the ancient battle between good and evil so common in Fantasy. What is evil and how does someone become bad? In my work I deal with all elements of life, love and loss and try to build strong characters as realistic as possible, for even though the genre is Fantasy I want people to feel connected with my heroes and villains as they would with their friends. I am influenced by writers such as Marion Zimmer Bradley and Tanith Lee.

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