my take: i was so excited to read this … the continuation of the hummingbird’s daughter. i was a bit disappointed … it doesn’t have the same bold teeth that hummingbird had … the author keeps backtracking.

this is perhaps an inherent problem with sequels, but certainly some authors do it better than others. i find it highly annoying when i’ve read the earlier book to spend time reintroducing events from a previous work. it loses its flow. it feels clunky. it wastes time. pretend i’ve read the book and go! write! tell!

to be fair, these books were published 5 years apart, and the first book took him many – maybe 20? – years to write. queen was written in a much shorter time. and feels like written in a slightly different style.

i absolutely had to find out what happens to the controversial saint teresita . queen tells of the burdens and blessings of being an instrument of God in the early 1900’s in America. ultimately, i found the book to be more blessing than burden.

my source: sequel; bought it in hardcover

my verdict: good. worth a read if you’ve read the hummingbird’s daughter. and perhaps wait a while.