Queen's Catacombs

by Jordan H. Bartlett

Overview

A 2024 IPPY Award Silver Medal Winner

Winning the crown was only the beginning.

Jacs, now the rightful Queen of Frea, seems to be Queen in title alone. She scrambles to learn the customs and traditions of a Realm she had only read about in books. The Council of Four have her firmly under their thumb, and their ideas for the Queendom are oppressive and outdated. Their knowledge of her mother and Master Leschi’s whereabouts is the only leverage they need to make the new Queen dance to their tune.

Jacs is determined to find those who were taken from her and do what’s right for her Queendom. But in her search for answers, Jacs uncovers a much darker truth from the Queendom’s past that will forever change its future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780744307764
Publisher:	CamCat Publishing
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Series:	The Frean Chronicles , #2
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	820L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Jordan H. Bartlett is an award-winning, New Zealand-born Canadian author 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 heroine she could relate to. Bartlett wrote the Frean Chroniclesto 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

2022-12-14
The second entry in the Frean Chronicles sees its protagonist trying to redefine her role as the queen of an unequal queendom.

Former country girl Jacqueline is the new Queen of Frea, and only four months after winning the grueling Contest of Queens, she must now contend with the ins and outs of ruling. She soon realizes she is but a puppet for the powerful women in the Council of Four, doing their bidding in exchange for news about her mother and her mentor, Master Leschi, both kept captive in a location unknown to her. The councilors are the ones who hold the real power in the queendom and who are standing in the way of Jacs’ enabling real change to bring equality to the Lower Realm, but brewing discontent among young men and an underground movement threaten the peaceful facade of the Upper Realm. Along with Connor, her boyfriend and Royal Advisor, plus her loyal group of courtiers and Queensguard knights, Jacs must uncover the queendom’s hidden secrets before it collapses around her. Featuring a multinarrative structure, compelling female characters, intriguing magic, and the politics of an unjust matriarchal society, this sequel follows Jacs’ ongoing journey toward empowerment, with momentum growing toward the open ending. However, the gender dynamics of the worldbuilding feel superficially conceived and unconvincing. Main characters are assumed White; most of Jacs’ friends are queer women.

Bumpy worldbuilding but otherwise a compelling sequel. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews