Queen’s Gambit

Queen’s Gambit by Karen Chance
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve finally caught up with the Dorina series to where I am in Cassie’s books and I’m not sure I’m happy about it. Some of the criticism I had for the 2 parter in Cassie’s series apply here too - there’s not much wrap up in this book so be prepared for a lot of loose ends.

This book goes much like all other Dorina books - rapidly into crazy town with high levels of action, magic, and mayhem. There’s some Dorina/LC romance and drama since this starts with them on a half-honeymoon half-political tour to Egypt. It here that we get to learn what is probably too much about history. Why? Well, soon after their arrival, they are attacked (of course) and hit with magic that ends up separating Dory and Dorina, throwing one into a portal and keeping one to be lectured on history for some time. It ends up being kind of useful, but has the feeling of filler when you get there.

After fighting in both places with both characters I think I’ve decided I like Dorina more than Dory, which is bad, because while Dory’s story gets a little bit of a real ending, Dorina is left seriously hanging here. I get that this series and the others need to overlap and intersect, but it gives you a feeling that this was just a stepping stone to get you to pick up the other book. There were definitely more highlights in Dorina’s story than in Dory’s. I hope we get to divide our time in the next installment more heavily in there to make up for the imbalance here.

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