Contest of Queens

by Jordan H. Bartlett

Overview

In a Queendom divided, can one girl unite the realms?

Jacs, an inventor’s apprentice from the Lower Realm, has only ever dreamed of what the land among the clouds holds. That is until she finds a letter from Connor, an Upperite boy hoping to learn more about the land below. Little does Jacs know, Connor is actually Prince Cornelius of the Queendom of Frea. With wooden boats and hot air balloons, the two begin a secret correspondence. But their friendship is divided by a heavily-guarded bridge and an inescapable prejudice.

The strength of their bond was thought to transcend distance and time, but when the royal family visits the Lower Realm, the Queendom’s feud is reignited.

To save her people, Jacs must infiltrate the Upper Realm and earn her place to compete in the Contest of Queens. In a story about friendship, love, bravery, and defying gravity, Jacs will strive to prove that a Queendom is strongest when united.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780744304657
Publisher:	CamCat Publishing
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Series:	The Frean Chronicles , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	444
Sales rank:	7,996
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Jordan H. Bartlett is a New Zealand-born Canadian with a love for children’s literature and female empowerment. She grew up reading books about boys for boys and found it hard to find a strong female heroine she could relate to. Bartlett wrote Contest of Queens to give young readers that character she so longed for in a world where gender norms are reversed. Bartlett currently resides in Banff, Alberta where she works as a Speech Language Pathologist and is a certified yoga instructor.

Editorial Reviews

2021-10-26
A queendom is divided, and a teen girl hopes to unite it.

In the Queendom of Frea, the citizens of the Upper and Lower Realms live apart but under the ostensibly benign rule of their queen. Thirteen-year-old Jacs, a Lowrian girl, is an inventor’s apprentice who finds a message sent by Connor, an Upperite boy yearning to learn about the Lower Realm. They strike up a secret correspondence that lasts years—but unbeknownst to Jacs, Connor is really Prince Cornelius, the queen’s only son. When the queen is assassinated during a rare visit to the Lower Realm, the subsequent investigation and subjugation of her fellow Lowrian citizens inspires Jacs to covertly join the Contest of Queens, a competition that sees young women facing off against each other for a chance to become the next queen. This first entry in a new fantasy series is a mixed bag: It introduces a matriarchal society based on a corrupt system and thoughtfully examines prejudice while establishing its main characters’ charming relationship as well as Jacs’ empowering story, including friendships she makes along the way. However, though the queendom’s power dynamics may be gender flipped, its heavy-handed presentation reinforces gender essentialism, and the novel’s voice vacillates between middle grade and young adult as it follows the characters through the years, an inconsistency that may lose some readers. The main cast is assumed White.

An uneven read featuring an endearing pair of protagonists. (maps) (Fantasy. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews