Long May She Reign - Rhiannon Thomas

An intriguing cover and a promising premise--about a young woman who is twenty-third in line for the throne and only wants to become a scientist, but finds herself queen when most of the nobility is poisoned and everyone in the succession before her abruptly dies--this has been on my radar for quite a while.  Of course, it's also been on quite a few other people's radar, since I was number eighty-something on the hold list at the library and it took quite a while for me to actually get the book to read it.

 I will say that I expected this to be a sci-fi book, maybe a space opera with a monarchy in place, something like Empress of a Thousand Skies.  Nope.  This is a fantasy world, one in which all innovations were supposedly left behind by a race called the Forgotten and one in which apparently Freya, our heroine, is the only person in the entire kingdom with the intelligence and desire to do something related to science.  Literally.  The hopes of the kingdom rest on her not because she's queen, but because she's apparently the only person who can figure out a test to detect arsenic and the only person who actually wants to figure out who killed the vast majority of the court.  Of course she has some communists (ish) to win over to her side as well as higher-born political enemies and the public at large.  And a love interest in the form of the illegitimate son of the king, who might want the throne for himself!  Gasp!

This was fairly well-written for what it was.  Despite the thin plot and overall a lack of action--Freya spends most of the book looking for a way to detect arsenic/figure out who poisoned the court and waffling about her duties as queen and letting other style her appearance for her--it was a fun teenage court drama.  Having a heroine interested in STEM is always a good thing, even if her being the only person is somewhat suspicious; an easy way to make her the best, perhaps?  Because of course if a girl is ever going to be good at something in a book/movie/show, she has to be the best or it doesn't count.  See: Celaena Sardothien, Alanna the Lioness, etc.  I did like how Thomas handled the romance; things go south (of course), and at the end it's not all happily ever after.  Freya admits things are on shaky ground and it will take work to repair the relationship, whether it ultimately ends in romance or just friendship.  This was a nice change from the "we are teenagers but must be in love forever" vibe that most young adult books put out.

Additionally, the book was a bit surface-level but Freya wasn't stupid.  Of course, you might say.  She's a scientist, after all.  But you'd be surprised.  What I mainly mean is that I didn't want to slap Freya upside the head.  She can sometimes get wrapped up in her own thoughts, but for the most part, she thought things through and acted accordingly, based on the information she had available to her.  I approve!  Additionally, it seems like Thomas neatly wrapped this up in one book and won't be drawing it out for a whole series.  Young adult stand-alones are so rare in the fantasy genre that I feel like I have to give this book a point just for that.

One thing that I do feel like I have to mention was the world building.  There was some stuff that seemed really intriguing here, but then it was never expounded upon.  Why is Epria so isolated from "the continent"?  What the heck is up with the Forgotten?  It seems to be implied that they're not real, but where did all of this other stuff come from?  Because this isn't a series, these seem like aspects that will never be explored fully, and consequently there are holes left in the fabric of the world.

Still, overall an enjoyable book.  Not an extraordinary one, but a solid young adult fantasy that can stand on its own and with a heroine better than most.

3.5 stars out of 5.