A Queen in Hiding (The Nine Realms)

Cressa is nothing like her mother, the former queen. She’s not a strategist, she can’t plot her moves in advance. When her life and the life of her daughter, Cerulia, are threatened, Cressa has no choice but to flee the palace with the Queen’s shields. In order to keep her daughter safe, Cressa takes her to a small village in the middle of nowhere, then sets out to find her husband and rally her navy to reclaim her kingdom. Exiled, alone, and hunted, Cerulia must learn how to use her magic and become the queen she’s destined to be while waiting for her mother to return.

A Queen in Hiding is the first book of the Nine Realms quartet. The world is vast and different, with different cultures and ways of life. The whole book is mostly world building and background. The story could start almost at the end, when Cerulia has grown up, but I found myself loving the story of Cressa and her shields and would have loved to read more about them. The pacing is a little off, sometimes it’s slow and other times its fast, jumping to different times without much warning. There is heavy cussing throughout.