Cruel Crown is the collection of two prequel novellas to Red Queen. The first novella is Queen Song where we get the backstory of Cal’s mother and what really happened to her. The other is Steel Scars that follows Farley as she leads the Scarlet Guard into Norta. They both were pretty good. Giving more insight into world the books take place. Since Red Queen is told from Mare’s point of view, things like how the silver hierarchy is set up and how the Scarlet Guard works isn’t give much detail because Mare doesn’t know these things in much detail. That’s what kind of great but these little novella’s. I’ve written in the past about how it’s trendy for YA authors to write novellas or short stories that take place in between books or prequels. Sometimes they are just filler but other times they serve the purpose of filling in wholes that didn’t have time to get to in the narratives. They also usually focus on supporting or minor characters instead of the protagonists in attempt to flesh out the world a little bit but usually they are of little importance. If readers don’t read them, it’s no big deal. They will still be able to the novels without missing anything.
Of the two stories I liked Queen Song the best. It follows Queen Corianne before she became queen. She’s the only daughter of a once great house that is down on their luck. She catches the eye of Prince Tiberius, Cal’s and Maven’s father. It follows their courtship, their short marriage and her eventual death. She’s a feisty and curious girl, who is interested in mechanics and how things work but in a world where her only role is to be married off her dreams will never happen. When she meets Prince Tiberius things start to open up for her. She finds an equally lonely person to commiserate and love but never really gets over the feeling of being weak and useless. Among those helping her feel that way is rival Elara, who would become Tiberius’s second wife and Maven’s mother. She’s a powerful mind reader but the extant of her power is not truly revealed until the end. Over the course of the story Corianne falls deeper and deeper into paranoia and sadness. She’s been accused of tricking the Prince into marrying her. She suffers many miscarriages until Cal is born. She believes that Elara is behind it and ultimately she is right but no way to prove it. It’s really quite sad. From the very beginning there is a sense of foreboding since we know from Red Queen that she is dead and is believed by suicide. I kept hoping that there would be some kind of happy ending but knowing there would not.
In Steel Scars we get to know more about Farley and her motivations for not only for the Scarlet Guard but also for Mare. We know in Red Queen that the Scarlet Guard is a resistance movement against the silver leadership but I assumed only in Norta. I guess I’m going to have to go back and read it again. Farley is from the Lakelands and comes to Norta to start the Scarlet Guards operations there. While there she meets Shade Barrow, Mare’s brother, who becomes a spy for them. Mare believes Shade to be dead until the end when it’s revealed of his involvement but also that he is like Mare. Red blood with Silver powers. We really don’t get much else from the story then that and why Farley is keen to recruit Mare. Also, i think we are seeing the budding relationship between Farley and Shade. There might be other hints for Glass Sword, the next book in the series but we will have to wait and find out.
As I read this book, I go back and forth being enthralled and “why am I reading this again?” I’m interested enough in the story to keep reading to find out how it’s going to end but some of the cutesy words is well eye rolling. I know that it takes place under the sea and they are mermaids but I find it annoying. They call each other merls instead of girls but why don’t they call boys, moys or something like it? It’s a small thing. The other thing that bothers me is that there are six mermaids who must come together to stop the evil Orfeo but only Sera, Astrid and Becca seem to get the limelight. Ling (who is on the cover) Neela and Ava are little more then afterthoughts. I realized there are a lot of characters and not easy to give all them equal time but Marissa Meyer did a wonderful job of doing just that in the Lunar Chronicles so it is possible. I want to know more about the other mermaids. I was excited when I saw the cover and Ling on it. The last time we saw the merl (god I hate that) she was captured by the big bad guy on her way to find her piece. You would think that would be center stage but we don’t even get to Ling until 50-60 pages into the book. The little we get from her is exciting as she tries to escape from Orfeo, find her piece and also escape from the work camp she is sent too. At least she got a couple of chapters. Ava got one and Neela none, which is weird since she was a big part of the last book. Maybe that means we will get more of them in the final book coming out later this year but I have a feeling it’s going to be more of Sera and Astrid. Not that I don’t like them but I want to know about the others.
If you are on the internet and you follow fashion, especially celebrity fashion then you probably know Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan or as their known, the Fug Girls. Their fashion blog, 
*Spoilers Ahead*
With all of our talk about whether or not to reread previous books before starting the latest book in a series, this should have been one that I did that. This series has so many characters, subplots, locations and so many dead characters it’s hard to keep track. It’s very Games of Thrones like that. Which is actually what I think it’s trying to be or at least the teen version or it. While not as ambitious, it’s the same concept of multiple parties fighting over thrones and kingdoms but also looking for the mysterious kindred that grant to the owners with unprecedented powers to rule them all. So there is a lot going on. *Spoilers* 
2 Women, So Many Books 