DRC Review: Serenade of Kings by Christine E. Schulze
Release date: 25 February 2025
Rating: 5/5
Synopsis: "Once upon a time, a young girl fought fire with fire to overthrow the mad king who destroyed her home.
But little did she know, years before that, a courageous music mage fell in love with the man destined to become that mad king."
King Moragon, a skilled mental magician, will stop at nothing to harness the powers of musical magic. Among his subjects is Gailea, an aspiring music mage who dares to hone her rare gift in secret, right under his nose. But when the king's nephew, Prince Crispin, takes notice of Gailea, a dangerous game of politics and love unfolds.
Try as she might, Gailea can’t conceal her gift from the wicked king forever. What’s more, she also catches the eye of Moragon's brother, Alastair Ragnar, known as “the Snake.” As the scheming monarchs vie for access to Gailea’s magic, castle secrets unravel—exposing a crafty sorcerer, a murder plot, and a deadly spell.
Can Crispin protect Gailea from his conniving family, or will he succumb to his own fiery ambitions? And as war looms in the kingdom, can Gailea navigate the treacherous court and protect her heart? Or will she have to sacrifice her love for the good of the realm?
Serenade of Kings is an epic overture that sings an origin story of harmony and flame. Read it today to dive inside the adventure, court intrigue, and magic found in this second installment of The Gailean Quartet!
Review
Heads up! Though this novel functions as a prequel to Prelude of Fire (read my review for that here), I highly recommend reading it first, as the events in Serenade of Kings will have higher stakes and readers will have heavily invested in some of the characters already. Also, please be warned, there are plot spoilers in this review for some of the reveals in the first book as well.
I’ll admit, Schulze’s Gailean Quartet snuck right up on me. I did not expect to love Prelude of Fire (I didn’t expect not to love it, either), and Serenade of Kings ran me through a gamut of some serious emotions. I knew what was coming, but the whole time I still, like a dummy, hoped and wished it would go differently. Schulze serves up a different subgenre to readers in this installment of the Quartet; instead of a quest narrative, readers get a court intrigue, complete with hidden magic and identity and secret, forbidden love. Be careful with these books, readers. They’ll make you grow overly fond of the characters and lull you into a sense of security—then rip the rug right out from under you.
Gailea serves King Moragon’s castle as a servant while training with the resident teacher to hone her musical magic, though she demonstrates only mediocre potential—or so she wants people to think. Gailea’s magic actually outshines just about everyone’s in the castle, but she must not, at any cost, let anyone know how powerful she is. Unfortunately for Gailea, she exposes her magic in front of a royal family member, and she spends the rest of the narrative trying to evade the greater scrutiny she now faces.
What I loved most about this book, and perhaps it is because I didn’t read Prelude and Serenade closer together in time, is that I went into it thinking I knew what was going to happen. I didn’t. The intrigue pulled me in like a whirlpool, and I read toward my doom hoping the story would change as I discovered all my initial theories about what would happen proved incorrect. I’m impressed at the feat of it, and I’m definitely interested in reading the rest of the Quartet.
Content warnings for this book are minimal. The book is YA and appropriately so, with no explicit language or sexual content. I would still recommend this for older teens and up, as it contains violence (not any gratuitous gore or anything).
My thanks to the author for the DRC, for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
#christineeschulze #serenadeofkings #thegaileanquartet #yafantasy #noexplicitcontent #violence #yathatisactuallyya
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