THE QUEEN'S PRICE continues on from THE QUEEN'S WEAPONS this time focusing on the young women. The story mainly focuses on Zoey, a young Queen-in-Training, who was wounded in the first book and is trying to come to terms with the trauma and learn to be a good queen.

Saetien's story continues as she tries to redeem herself from the costly mistakes in the first book and learn what her role and future will look like. She travels to Scelt because of a prophecy of a damaged Black Widow to learn about Witch who was once Jaenelle Angeline. She has always felt that she was in competition with Witch and had no hope of ever winning the competition. Now she gets a chance to learn about Jaenelle from one of the demon dead who knew her.

Jillian is also a star of this story. She's preparing for her Virgin Night which is a big deal in the culture and an even bigger deal when one's foster father is Lucivar Yaslana, Demon Prince and Warlord Prince of Ebon Rih, and one's foster uncle is Daemon Sadi, Warlord Prince of Dhemlan and High Lord of Hell. Her problem is that she already went through her Virgin Night and didn't tell them and now doesn't know how to do so.

The story also features a couple of new characters. Grizande is a Tigre witch who was tortured and found her way to SaDiablo Hall because of the prophecy of another Black Widow. Brenda is an outspoken Witch who becomes a teacher at SaDiablo Hall and helps train the young Queens-in-Training and the others who will someday be parts of their courts.

The worldbuilding in this story is excellent. It is a rich and complex society that is describled. Still the focus of each person's story is their quest to find out what their role should be in their world. Each is a kind of coming-of-age story.

It was wonderful to revisit the world of the Black Jewels. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book. I love the Black Jewels series: it's one of my favorites and has been for years. I need to emphasize that specifically books 1-9 of the Black Jewels are my favorites.

When Twilight's Dawn was first released and Witch became a whisper in the Darkness, I was glad. I know that sounds absolutely terrible, but I found it compelling to see the ways in which all other characters would interact without Jaenelle in their lives. I was glad that Daemon and Surreal found each other (especially since I'd secretly shipped them together for years.) I liked the thought that they'd be each other's comfort, companion, and partner for the rest of their lives. I realized that Daemon's love for Jaenelle would never diminish, but Surreal understood that and to me, that made perfect sense. (Also, I hesitate to say this, but Jaenelle has never been my favorite character. *gasp!* I know, I know - we're supposed to love and idolize her, but I've never been moved to more than admiration, respect, and amusement. I like her, but something about her grates at me a bit. Anyway...)

Then these books about Jaenelle Saetien and the younger generation published and Anne Bishop started a revisionist revolution. Surprise! Witch isn't really gone. Surprise! Surreal actually can't stand the heat (literally and figuratively) so she and Daemon aren't as solid and loving of a team that you thought. Surprise (but not really!) There are a whole lot of other evil women in positions of power (Queens) that must be destroyed because that's what we do every book now. Also, each of their names starts with a 'D' - Dorothea, Delora, Dinah. I'm guessing that the author suffered some hurt from a person named 'D-' in the past - I get that. It's just fairly telling who's to blame when one's searching out each book's villainess.

This particular installment had some of the same nonsense which has frustrated me for the last few books too. Surreal's character is such a pale shade of what she used to be and could be that every time she was mentioned, it seemed like an afterthought. Jillian's Virgin Night was just a humorous aside that surely wasn't worth including in the book blurb. Worst of all, Wilhelmina Benedict, the only redeemable character from Jaenelle's blood family, was rewritten into a hateful, thoughtless person. I hated the story of what happened to her after Jaenelle broke their grandmother. The "old" Wilhelmina would not have been so heartless to not care that her close kindred companion was slaughtered and that Jaenelle meted out justice due to his death. Nor do I find it believable that she would have been repulsed by Witch's true self.

All of my complaints aside, there was enough here that I loved enough to give this book 4 stars as opposed to 3 stars. Daemonar seems to be coming into his own and he's probably my favorite of the "new" characters. Saetien's redemption arc spoke to me. I hope that Scelt is a far better home for her. As much as she annoyed me in the past 2 books, I've come to see that she was never given a fair chance after her birthright ceremony. If she truly was "dreams made flesh," then Daemon and Surreal were too caught up in their own woes to convey their love to Saetien properly. It doesn't excuse her behavior with the coven of malice, but I can understand her better now. And as much as it is a bit redundant and repetitive at times, I always like coming back to this world to see Daemon, Lucivar, Marian, Surreal, and all of the rest.

With that being said, I somewhat hope this book is the last of the series. I don't particularly want to read a book where Daemon dies and passes on to be with Witch/Jaenelle. It was blatantly mentioned that he doesn't have much time left, and everyone that knows is steeling for that eventuality. I already wept more than I care to admit when Saetan passed to the Darkness; it would be much uglier a cry if I have to read about Daemon doing the same thing. So I want more Black Jewels, but I don't want to read about THAT. Please don't do that to me/us, Anne Bishop. (I wouldn't hate more spin-offs like books 4/7/8; short stories would be nice too!)

This may be the longest review I've ever written... I have a lot of feelings about this, okay?

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Original review below from when I was still reading the book:

Updated to correct myself because I got confused and made a mistake: Apparently the character Teresa is completely forgettable to me, although she shares not only an incredibly-similar name to Tersa (with only one letter added), but also many of the same traits. I feel bad I forgot about Teresa, but I'm still allowing myself some grace for the name confusion.

Original thought for the purpose of clarification/transparency: I'm still reading this and only in the first third of the book, but I have to say this: it is driving me BONKERS that the editor/publishing company/author (not quite sure who) did not catch the numerous times that the name "Teresa" was used instead of "Tersa." I get that she's a secondary character, but goodness - she's been around since the beginning. It's a very simple trick to use the search function in a program like Microsoft Word to go and correct all of the Teresas to Tersas instead. Okay, rant over (for now)... It's just incredibly distracting and takes me out of the story every time Tersa pops up again as Teresa. ( )

The Queen's Price follows three young women. Saetien was a focus of the last book, a spoiled daughter who was exiled at the end because of her thoughtless and cruel actions. Here she has a chance to grow up outside the overwhelming presence of her family. I enjoyed this part of the story though some of it was repetitive as Butler tells her the story of Witch's relationship with her sister.
Jillian is facing a Virgin Night, except no one knows she's no longer a virgin, and Zoey, the young Queen, is recovering from the events of the last book and full of doubts as to her role. Jillian's section was okay, and I especially liked the introduction of the new teacher who helps her out. However, I thought Zoey's story was just a milder repetition of the tests she went through before without her absorbing the lesson of 'everything has a price.' She's still so unsure of herself that I wanted to shake her through most of the book.
Daemon, Lucienvar, Witch, and the other adults are teachers and mentors to the young ones though I miss having them more central to the action. I loved the introduction of the young Tigre girl and can't wait to learn more about her. It's another good book in this wonderful series. ( )