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My Review: I’d forgotten just how much I enjoyed this quirky little series. The vocabulary does take some getting used to, however there is a glossary at the end of the book which does explain quite a lot. Long Live the Queen is the third book in Kate Locke’s Immortal Empire series and I think that it is the best book so far.

The Immortal Empire series is based upon a slightly alternate history of the British Empire. Due to the plague, there have been some genetic mutations resulting in the aristocracy and their full blood status. These full bloods are either werewolves or vampires. At the top of the food chain are the goblins, a furry, mole-like population of creatures who love their meat, especially the human kind. The goblins are my favorite creatures just because of their presence everywhere. They make the best spies.

In this version of the British Empire, Queen Victoria is the monarch and has been for about 175 years. Yup, the Queen is a vampire. Humans are not too happy about the situation and The Human League has been wreaking havoc everywhere. Some historical figures do appear in this book and you should be able to recognize them, however they sure do behave rather differently in this book.

The steampunk elements are cleverly done. A rotary is a mobile phone, Tracknav is their equivalent of GPS, digigrams are text messages, and so on.

The main character Xandra Vardan has matured since the first book. She’s more at ease as to what she has become and has accepted her leadership role. She still sees herself as a monster and she kind of likes that aspect of her personality. Xandra’s relationship with Alpha werewolf Vex is progressing nicely and they seem very happy together. Xandra is not as impulsive as she once was and I was surprised by her diplomatic skills. Xandra’s interactions with Queen Victoria were hilarious. Xandra walked a thin line between pissing off the monarch and working with her. Xandra is both snarky and badass and she gets away with a lot of things an average citizen would not get away with. The adversarial relationship was quite entertaining. What’s even funnier is when Xandra unwittingly rescues a human and creates a winning PR outcome.

There is a lot to like about the Immortal Empire series. If you enjoy steampunk with a touch of paranormal then this is the series to read. I can’t wait to read more books in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for a review copy of this book.

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