BOOK REVIEW
Book: To Be a Fae Queen
Genre: Romantasy
Author: Tricia Copeland
Rating: 5/5
Reviewer: Stavyah Vatsarah
In To Be a Fae Queen, Tricia Copeland puts a young woman under the weight of a crown and asks a more interesting question than whether she can wear it: what happens when power comes before certainty? Titania knows she has a kingdom depending on her, but she is far less confident than her subjects might imagine. ‘How am I to rule a nation, an anxious girl?’—a novel with immediate emotional honesty. What follows is a fantasy as much a product of Titania’s internal struggle as it is of the world she has been called on to lead.
A Heroine Learns to Stand Tall
Copeland makes Titania convincing because she can be strong and uncertain at the same time. She is able to say, ‘I am the best archer in the land,’ with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what she can do, but that confidence does not automatically extend to the responsibilities placed before her. That difference is recognizably human. It suggests that excelling at something in no way equates to feeling prepared for whatever comes next.
Her vulnerability is particularly touching in the quieter passages. Titania’s collection of crystals ‘makes me feel connected to them,’ revealing a private relationship with loss that supports her public identity. In moments like these, she becomes more than a figure traversing a fantasy landscape. Copeland provides her with a life of the mind where memory has a physical presence, and this imparts an intimate dimension to Titania’s development.
A Faerie World of Its Own Reason
The novel’s world is convincing when its magic has consequences. The faerie rings are essential for the realm to function, and the threat to ‘sun, rain, and winds to clear our air’ makes their importance feel urgent. Copeland does not treat the supernatural as decoration but weaves it into the conditions under which her characters live.
Titania also has a pleasing uncertainty about the stories she has grown up believing. Things she once considered ‘myth, rumor, folklore’ now have a different resonance. There’s a muted tension between belief and what could actually be true. The addition of Upper Earth and Lower Earth adds depth to the setting, suggesting a universe that is far beyond what Titania first understands.
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What Power Means
Titania’s character is all about movement. When she says, ‘Doing something will be better than nothing,’ she reveals her instinct to respond rather than retreat. It is a flawed form of courage, but perhaps a more persuasive one for just that reason. She may not always have the right answer, but she will find a way to act.
She also has a more reflective understanding of leadership than one might expect from the simple possession of a title. Titania believes elections ‘will increase diversity and help bring all ideas to the council,’ demonstrating a desire to make authority responsive rather than merely inherited. The idea provides a modern undercurrent to the novel without detracting from its fantastical setting. The ruling is starting to sound less like sitting on a throne and more like taking responsibility for the voices beyond it, for Titania.
Fantasy Meets the Personal
Copeland’s first-person narration keeps the reader close to Titania’s consciousness, an effect that is particularly effective when the outside world begins to press upon her private fears. The fantasy provides the scale, but Titania gives the emotional heart. Her thoughts are centered on the question of whether she can live up to the expectations of her position, so the story’s larger concerns feel personal, not remote.
What makes To Be a Fae Queen stand out, ultimately, is its interest in the person behind the title. Titania’s courage is her action in the face of fear, not the absence of fear. Copeland has provided her with space to question herself and constructed a heroine whose journey is less the fulfillment of a prophecy and more the arduous, recognizable process of becoming the equal of the life one has been given.
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