Red Novellas

Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard, which contains the following novellas: Queen Song and Steel Scars

Queen Song tells the story of Cal's mother, Coriane, who was the queen that Tiberius chose without a Queenstrial. Though her family was noble, they were poor, and did not spend much time at court. When her uncle died and her father became the head of the family, Coriane came to court and met the prince, who fell in love with her because she wasn't like everyone else. Elara, who is Maven's mother, did not like this, and did everything she could, including causing several miscarriages, so that she could get rid of Coriane. She got into her head and caused Coriane to kill herself. As we know, Elara becomes queen after that.

Steel Scars is a bit of back story on Farley, and how she begins the red rebellion. Having been under her father's command, Farley apparently proved herself enough to be trusted with her own important mission. This ultimately leads to her meeting Mare, and the rest is history.

This book also has a preview of The Glass Sword, but since I read that already, I didn't bother with that part. I liked this because it gave some back story. I heard there are other novellas that deal with Julian and Sarah, but I have yet to come across them. This is a "world" of books that, despite some of their shortcomings, I have enjoyed becoming familiar with.