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Eva Joyce is finally getting to meet her grandmother, who lives at a grand manor house in England. At 14, she’s never talked to her or even received any letters, and she knows little about the woman. But she will be spending the summer with her while her college-professor father tries to secure a permanent job at a university in Chicago.
Eva has grown up loving the fantasy stories set in the magical realm of Ternival, and she learns fairly soon after arriving at Carrick Hall that the stories have a connection to the estate. And, most surprisingly, a number of the locals who work at the manor believe the stories are true. Portals to other worlds exist, and her grandmother was once a queen in Ternival.
Now, however, her grandmother doesn’t even want to hear people talk about Ternival, and she keeps mostly to herself in the grand house. After a tragedy in her young adulthood, she has been grieving, her heart shut off from wonder and joy.
With Eva’s arrival, however, the older woman is faced with some painful memories and is clearly struggling with her past. Eva hopes she can learn the truth about what she’s heard and even find a portal to the magic world she loved when she was a child. As a teenager, she would love to enter Ternival, but she knows she’s of an age that it’s just about time to leave fairy tales behind.
But if nothing else, she wants to learn the secrets her family has kept and to bring healing to her grandmother. Just how vital it is to enter Ternival to do so is unclear.
Once a Queen has many wonderful elements that should make it a favorite, but a number of pieces were missing for me. For one, every chapter set in the “real world” alternates with a page or two of story from the fairy tale world written in the book. But each section from the fairy tale is fairly short, and it’s hard to know if the entirety of the Ternival book is presented in those snippets or if they are excerpts giving pertinent highlights. Either way, I didn’t get too caught up in that fairy tale story, which took away some of the power of what it meant in the lives of the “real world” people.
It’s also very clear the fairy tale world takes very heavily from famous, beloved works like Narnia. The author writes at the end that she grew up reading The Secret Garden, A Wrinkle in Time, Narnia, and others, and her love for those make-believe realms is evident. It just seems that this realm takes far too much from existing books, particularly Narnia. It just doesn’t feel original enough.
I also had a number of questions about how certain things worked that seemed like big issues (for me, at least). There are some holes that left me a bit confused.
Overall, however, the story is poignant and a clear homage to classics that are dear to many readers’ hearts for a reason. Its focus on the main character and her grandmother is still the most important part and a sweet one.
Rated: None. There is no profanity or sexual content. There are mild moments of peril.
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
