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Slave, Warrior, Queen by Morgan Rice

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Brief synopsis (no spoilers):
Ceres is a young woman (17) living in an oppressive Empire, with an equally oppressive mother. She has ties to a rebellion, and stronger ties to her brothers. She is basically thrown around her world constantly- enslaved, imprisoned, set loose, etc. Each time, she puts herself in the best position to cause the most damage to whatever she hates most.

 Category:
YA fiction, fantasy

 Why I chose this book:
Recommended on the library website

 My personal opinion:
It's complicated. I loved the action, the pace, the unknown special power, the strong female lead character, the general story line. But I disliked the coincidence (see Emma Coats, rule #19, link below)- Ceres got out of trouble so many times. Mostly by fighting, but a couple times by coincidence. I disliked that the "Queen" phase never came, before the end of the book. Maybe that's part of the series, but the next book doesn't mention that in its title. I disliked that the story line was unorganized. For example, a fighting trainer was introduced and then discarded within a chapter. Why give him a name at all, or why not explain what happened to him? Ceres was in and out of the dungeon so many times, I lost track of why sometimes. It felt like the author wanted to develop one element of the story, did that for a while, and then got distracted. There were so many loose ends left untied. Maybe that's intentional, and maybe it'll all work out by the 11th book? Who knows. But I didn't care for that. I had to choose intentionally to forget certain elements, so it wouldn't bug me that they were left hanging.

 Warnings
Language: None
Violence: Regularly occurring, but not graphic. Child abuse mentioned.
"Adult" situations: Just a kiss or two
Death: Yes, and of main character(s)

 Movie rating equivalent:
PG-13, maybe higher

 Protagonist description:
Ceres is strong, confident, and a victim of society in every way

 Point of view of story:
Third, focused on Ceres, mostly

 Book length:
Medium

 Story flow:
Almost frantic

 Grammar and spelling issues:
None

 Character connection (no spoilers):
I'd like to know more about Thanos and his origin story

 Emma Coats, Pixar rules: http://www.pixartouchbook.com/blog/2011/5/15/pixar-story-rules-one-version.html

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