The Dark Queen

I think this book has tied as my favorite with Calypso's book, in this series. Fable's story is revealed in The Dark Queen's book. It's tragic and heartbreaking but there just may be light at the end of tunnel for our queen. Book five in this series of evil queens, you will find out that not everything is black and white but maybe gray. Add it to your TBR and enjoy the magic of the series.

The Dark Queen was emotional, poignant, sweet, and quite amusing at times. The dark side of human nature is exposed through rumors, judgement, and misunderstandings, while the opposite side reflects the love, friendship and loyalty that endured through difficult times. <br /><br />I love fractured fairy tales and nobody tells them quite like this author! She makes me empathize with villains I’ve never given a second thought to and gets me completely invested in their HEAs! Most of the Kingdom series can be read as stand-alones, but reading them in order makes the experience so much richer.

I liked this; Fable's story is slightly different than the other Queens only because we see how/when she becomes The Evil Queen. One of the things I really enjoyed was seeing her POV during the fight with BABA Yaga..still hilarious! If you like fairy tales with a twist, then check out this series!

<strong>Wonderful</strong><br /><br />A new twist on the story of a queen we all think we know. As the story is told Snow Whites step mother is evil to the core, a dark witch that hates the child for her beauty, but things aren't always what they seem....<br /><br />Fable of Seren is a bright eyed young lady, raised in her parents undersea kingdom, she dreams of the world above. Being born with legs like her mother rather than a tail like her twin brother she feel a like she would truly feel more like she fits in above, with others like herself. Her first day on the land she believes she finds love in the King of the Enchanted Forest, however things aren't always as they seem....<br /><br />Her tale is one of hope, heartache,and redemption. I truly enjoyed this read, and I can't wait for the next queen.

I have just falling in love with this series. The author takes favorite fairy tale stories and revamps them. I did enjoy this one a lot better than the last one. Calypso had made me so angry and it killed the book for me. This book was much better. I enjoyed Fable's story a great deal and I am still not a huge fan of the Games that Calypso came up with.

“LOVE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO BUILD A MANSION OF GOLD, BUT I’VE FOUND THAT LOVE CAN OFTEN DO WONDERS TO HEAL A FRACTURED SOUL”<br /><br />Fable of Seren is the latest dark queen in this series. And she is literally The Dark Queen. She was not always dark, however, and this story shows what happened to make her the way she was.<br />In The Dark Queen, Fable is shown to have come from a different realm altogether. She is Calypso’s granddaughter and is born under the sea. However, she soon finds herself wanting to know what life is like on land. With her parents’ permission she leaves her underwater world and meets King George. They fall in love and quickly get married but she soon realizes things are not what they seem. After living through a nightmare, she changed and became the Evil Queen. However, Calypso wants nothing more than to see her granddaughter happy so she forces her to take part in her and Aphrodite’s Love Games. There, Fable meets Owiot, the Native American god of children. Much to her surprise, she finds herself falling in love, something she thought would never happen again.<br />As usual, Jovee Winters describes the scenery beautifully. The kingdom Fable lived in sounded gorgeous. So did the land Calypso and Aphrodite put Fable and Owiot during the games.<br />It was interesting to see the games from another point of view. I now understood why Calypso was a little biased towards Fable.<br />The series is actually pretty interesting and I love seeing how things are turning out for the different queens.<br /><br />Suitable audience: Adults who like fantasy and romance. Not suitable for teens and children<br /><br />Recurrent themes: Magic. Soulmates. Fairytales. Love. Loyalty. Mythology. Witchcraft.<br /><br />Note: If you’re looking for an intense reading experience, this is not it. If, however, you’re looking for a quick, fun read with no major thinking involved, this series fits the bill especially if you’re into fantasy and romance with a touch of mythology.<br /><br />Violence: Some people are killed in quite a gruesome manner<br />Sexual Content: A lot!!! This is definitely a book for adults only! There is also mention of rape, which may be a trigger for some<br />Profanity: Multiple uses of sexual euphemisms as well as obscene language<br />Religious Themes: The book stars Greek gods and goddesses. There is also mention of gods from other cultures as well as nature spirits. Magic and witches are also very present in this series.<br />Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: None

This has got to be my second favorite in The Dark Queens series. Right up there behind Calypso and Hades themselves. I have loved Fable since book 1 and am so glad that her story has finally come!<br /><br />Fable...the notorious Evil Queen, stepmother to Snow White! Things are never as they seem in Kingdom which seems to vilify females and not tell their true stories. Never fear however the tale keeper is here to set the record straight! Fable on her 17th birthday journey's topside from her underwater kingdom with a sense of adventure and quest for love in her heart. Of course immediately she finds a handsome widower King and thinks her life is set...Except for the look in the Gaurd Captains eyes.... Fast Forward through a nightmare of a life as Fable slowly looses herself to darkness, the only thing that has made her strong enough to deal with her horrors. Step in Calypso and Dite and their notorious love games... and A male god Owiot who has been tasked with saving her. Seeing her memories he knows of her horrors and hopefully he can turn her from the path she is headed down.<br /><br />Owiot and Fable are great together. Their chemistry is amazing and Owiot is a romantic at heart. I will say that stories like this make me appreciate Baba Yaga's story and strength of character a little more. We have this female who made some dark decisions and instead of moving on she is wallowing in her guilt and drowning herself in the darkness, and needs true love needs to save her. I have always felt that the first true love you should have would be love of self, so when a hero or heroine go through that adventure of learning to love themselves before loving others it always gets in my feels!

Although it was clear that there was major favoritism shown in this story towards Fable, her being Calypso’s granddaughter and all, I still enjoyed this book and the growth displayed in it. I think this interesting spin on the evil stepmother in the Snow White book. The fact that she was a prisoner of sorts to George and his “mother” and not really running the show as originally portrayed. I found the manipulation of her to make her the cold unfeeling shell heartbreaking and the choices she had to make to protect what little she had left of her soul so sad. Also the cheating and meddling in order to quickly get her out of the games had me shaking my head at times but I still enjoyed seeing the development of this relationship.

This is a retelling of the Queen from Snow White with Winter's own twist. I have said this in all the reviews, and I will say it again, I absolutely love her writing style. It's beautiful and fits fairytale stories so well. <br /><br />I did like this book, though it wasn't one of my favourites. I think the books before this just felt more in depth to me. That being said, it was still a fabulous read and I can't wait to start the next book in the series. <br /><br />I think what threw me off is the timeline of this one, it went back and forth a little too much for me to get into the story, or maybe I felt that way after reading BABA YAGA's since part of the story was already told there and this was just told from the Dark Queen's perspective. Still... I thoroughly enjoyed it! <br /><br />Definitely worth the read.

Overall I enjoyed Fable's character arc and I am enjoying the Dark Queens Saga so far. This book was fine but not my favorite. My biggest complaint about this book is how Owiot was as a character. I thought there was so much potential there but he seemed half thought out. I wasn't able to find much on the god but it would have been nice to include some more back story instead of just a general "Native American" deity. I was also very confused as to what kind of god he was as he was given so many different things (starlight, sadness, children, animals? etc), it felt very token-y which i don't believe was Winters' intention. <br /><br />I