Forgotten Queen by Vasilisa Drake (Hades & Persephone Retelling with Shifters)

⭐⭐⭐ | It’s Okay. Still Recommend.

Read Forgotten Queen if you like wolf shifters, reincarnation, demons, and fast-paced fantasy romance you can absolutely inhale in one sitting.

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* This review is of the second book in the series and may contain mild spoilers. If you want to read my thoughts on the first book in this series, check out book 1 here.

📖 What’s Inside:

Single POV
🐺 Wolf shifters
“Who did this to you”
On-page intimacy 🔴
Reincarnation
Demons 😈
Explicit language
He tends her wounds

Book Boyfriend Meter: ❤️

Would date. (I can fix him.)

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✨ Vibes:

Bewitched meets Hades & Persephone

Basically: wolf shifters + reincarnation + a heroine who is DONE with everyone keeping secrets from her.

💭 My Thoughts:

We pick up basically right where the last book left off. And this series is SO bingeable.

Like book 1, it’s fast, easy and addictive.

Suddenly you’re 30% into the book and you’re sitting there thinking: “Wait… I just picked this up ten minutes ago.”

Another crack book. And I was having a great time.

Except…

The MMC. He wouldn’t answer her questions.

And I was just as frustrated as the FMC.

She wants answers. He refuses to give them. She goes looking for them herself.

GOOD. She deserved to know. I was completely on her side.

Which is why the romance frustrated me so much.

The Romance:

The FMC was doing such a good job of holding her ground.

She knew she couldn’t fully trust him because he was withholding major parts of himself from her.

She was cautious. Questioned him. Refused to let her feelings override her common sense.

And then…

One conversation with a friend.

Suddenly she’s like: “Oh. I love him.”

Ma’am.

WHAT?

This happened around 60%, and unfortunately, it completely pulled me out of the story.

Because how can she be fully in love with someone when she doesn’t even know the truth about him? Especially when the entire reason she was holding back was because he refused to tell her?

It didn’t feel earned.

And unfortunately, the romance was the biggest thing this book had going for it for me.

So once that stopped working… I stopped caring quite as much.

The Verdict:

Everything else? I enjoyed.

The pacing was fantastic, the supernatural elements were fun, the wolf shifters were entertaining.

This story was ridiculously easy to binge.

But the romance needed to make sense for me.

And once it didn’t, I found myself skimming just to see how everything ended.

Which is a shame because I genuinely like Vasilisa Drake, and I’ve enjoyed her other books.

I just couldn’t get behind how this particular romance unfolded.

So this is a generous three stars from me.

📚Read Alikes:

If you want supernatural romance with wolf shifters, demons, and complicated relationships:

Bewitched — memory loss + powerful (possessive) MMC

The Wolf King — wolf shifters + fantasy romance

A Shadow in the Ember — underworld setting + complicated relationships

Zodiac Academy — fae + rejected mates + bully romance

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Should you add Forgotten Queen to your TBR?

Maybe.

If you like fast, easy paranormal romance and aren’t reading primarily for the romance, you might have a great time.

But if you need your romantic arcs to feel earned?

I’d skip this one.

Because that 60% plot twist wasn’t the kind I wanted. 😂

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