Book Review :: Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J Tuli

Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J. Tuli
ISBN: 1538767481
Series: Artefacts of Ouranos #1
on 12 September 2023
Genres: Fantasy
Goodreads

Ten women. A deadly contest. Only one can win the Sun King's heart.

Lor has endured twelve long years of torment under the Aurora King’s rule. Her only desire is to escape and pay him back for every moment of misery she's endured.

When a surprise release finds her in the hands of the rival Sun King, Lor is thrust into the spotlight as she competes against nine other Tributes for the role of queen. If she wins his heart, she'll earn her freedom and finally get her revenge.

But Lor doesn't belong in the Sun Queen Trials. Not only does she not understand why she was freed, she isn’t a citizen of the Sun King’s court. The other Tributes resent her presence and will stop at nothing to ensure Lor is removed from the competition, permanently.

Now Lor must win, because if she loses, she dies. Or worse, she'll be returned to the evil—and now vengeful—Aurora King.

Last updated on 8 April 2025

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What is Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J Tuli about?

Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J Tuli is the story of Lor, who has spent twelve long years suffering under the Aurora King’s rule. Now, she’s had enough. All she wants is to escape and make him pay for every horrible moment.

When she’s unexpectedly freed and handed over to the Sun King, Lor’s thrown into the spotlight to compete against nine other women for the crown. Win his heart, and she gets her freedom (and also her revenge).

“One day, I’ll get out of here and pay back the Aurora King for everything he’s taken. For everything he’s done.”

But Lor doesn’t even belong in the Sun Queen Trials, and she has zero idea hyy she was freed. She’s not part of the Sun King’s court. The other women are NOT happy about her being there, and they’ll do anything to make sure she’s out of the race (like, in a dead sort of way).

Now Lor has no choice but to win. Because if she loses, she’s either dead or sent back to the evil, vengeful Aurora King.

My thoughts on Trial of the Sun Queen

I have thoughts about this book. Did I enjoy it while I was reading it? Yeah, sure. Was it like a lot of other things I’d read? Absolutely. So why the lower star rating?

I feel like this book had a decent number of good things, but that didn’t quuuuuite make it.

• The world was interesting, though I would have like more background or knowledge or something.
• The characters had potential, though I didn’t really care for them.
• The main love interest had his moments, though he was a bit meh.
• The storyline definitely was there, and I like the trial aspect of it, but it still felt a little off.

Lor is this odd character where sometimes she’s super kick-ass and has brilliant thoughts and ideas and what have yous, and then the next moment she’s an absolute idiot, doing things that a stupid teenager in love would do. Sometimes it was awesome. A lot of the time, I was rolling my eyes.

The story is told from the perspective of Lor, but also Nadir, the Aurora Prince. And you may be thinking, ‘but Anjali, isn’t the Aurora King a baddie? Why do we want to know about his son?’ Great question. Can’t tell you the answer. But it’s pretty obvious that he’s more involved in the story than we would be left to believe throughout the book.

The romance was a bit underwhelming in this one, too. Probably because, I assume, that Nadir is going to be the main love interest moving forward, perhaps. But I would have liked to have felt a bit more for these characters and their relationship in the first book. I probably won’t read the next one, so I guess I’ll never know. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This was one of those books where I enjoyed reading it at the time (apart from the eyeroll moments), but then the more I’ve sat with it and the more I’ve written down some of these thoughts, the fewer stars I’m giving it. While I think it was fine and enjoyable, there wasn’t anything too radical or interesting about it. There wasn’t much to write home about, and I’ll probably forget what even happened in the book in a few weeks.

This book is probably more for you if you haven’t read much fantasy, or you’re wanting some familiar and easy to read. It wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was still enjoyable. Hence 2.5 stars from me.

What about you? Have you read Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J. Tuli? What did you think?