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Dec 09, 2017PimaLib_ChristineR rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
A quick taste of the world of Red Queen. I don't think these two short stories would be appealing if you hadn't read at least Red Queen from the series. Each story covers the backstory of one of the female characters from the series. The first book is about Corianne, the mother of Cal, Prince of Norta. If you've read Red Queen you know how it ends, but this gives some backstory to how she becomes princess, some "oh, see she likes to work with mechanics too! So that's where her son got it!" moments. Probably the most interesting facets are seeing Julian and Sara in their younger years. The second story is the backstory for Diana Farley and her rise out of her father's shadow in the Scarlet Guard rebellion. Again, there's some cute "oh, I bet that was Mare at work!" moments, but even more than the first story, this seems like a needless work. While Farley's character is interesting, how she ends up in Norta is not that thrilling (nor are the excessive and excessively redacted memos). Instead, it would have been interesting to see how she was raised and formed by her parents and those moments of loss earlier in her life. Overall, if you enjoy the series, this will whet your appetite for the next book, but is not satisfactory, in and of itself.