Kelsea might be sitting in a dank cell, trying to piece together the past so she can save the future, but the rest of her comrades haven’t fared much better since she bamboozled them on the bridge at the end of Invasion. It takes less than a chapter to become re-emerged in the Tearling world, such is Johansen’s gift for immersing readers in her characters’ plights.

But if Kelsea – and indeed everyone reading these books – thought that the Red Queen was the eternal threat of this series, Fate soon reveals its trump card the Red Queen and Kelsea are in as much trouble as each other, both hunted by a much more dangerous monster: The Orphan. The Fate of the Tearling picks up almost where Invasion ended, as Queen Kelsea is beaten and carted off in a wagon to Demesne, having handed herself over to the Red Queen in return for her Kingdom’s safety. Now the long wait for the third and final book is over and it’s so good to be back in Johansen’s brutal and brilliant world. The second book, The Invasion of the Tearling, was released in December 2015, and it was equally as engaging, adding in a surprising sci-fi edge to the epic tale. It’s been two and a half years since Erika Johansen’s The Queen of the Tearling hit bookshelves and it very quickly became not only my favourite book of 2014, but also one of my favourite fantasy books ever.

The tearling