*The article contains spoilers from the book: The Queen Of The Tearling.
The Queen Of The Tearling book begins with Kelsea Raliegh who is raised by her foster parents Carlin and Barty to become queen so she can take over when she turns old enough and when she turns nineteen, royal guards arrive at their door to take her away since her mother and the queen had died and it was about time they had a ruler so Kelsea had to leave her foster parents but Kepsea still feels the great nervousness that comes with about to take such a responsibility but at the same time she is determined to help her kingdom.
The guards camp out for the night where Kelsea opens the envelope Carlin had given her to find a necklace exactly like the sapphire that she wore on her neck for as long as she remembers and then suddenly her original necklace starts glowing so Kelsea puts the new one in her pocket while she stuffs her glowing necklace under her shirt.
The guards realize that they are being followed so they decide to separate since it would be best. The Mace, who is part of the guard, accompanies Kelsea to ensure that she gets to Tearling safe and sound. Still, they are tracked by trained birds that were supposed to find them so they get ambushed by cadets taken out by the mace (whose real name is Lazarus) who held his own; they were saved by another group who were coming.
Kelsea learns that the group that kidnapped her and Lazarus is led by a man called the fetch who takes one of her necklaces which is the one which she hasn’t worn before and she tries to take it but he doesn’t give it back.
Kelsea goes to see the Mace who is bound up but she herself gets more freedom and she also tells Lazarus that when they get to the palace she will make him her guard commander since she was also really impressed by him.
Kelsea manages to impress the group by a speech about what she will do when she gets to the throne but the Fetch still tells her that she will get the necklace back once she proves herself as a good queen.
The fetch accompanies Kelsea and Lazarus on their journey to New London and Lazarus is surprised by the fact that the fetch had shown his face to Kelsea.
When they arrive at New London, Kelsea is surprised by some of the stuff they do, for example, the Tear gives two hundred and fifty slaves a month to Mortmesne as a payment to avoid war.
Mortmesne is led by the wicked Red Queen.
Kelsea orders the shipments which are ready to be shipped to release all the slaves than to burn the cages.
Her actions already endear her to the many common folks of New London but there are some nobles who are horrified that she would risk war with the Red Queen.
Kelsea’s uncle Thomas tries to assassinate her but fails due to Lazarus and instead of executing him, Kelsea banishes him as a sign of mercy.
Meanwhile, Arlen Thorne is under the pressure to restart the slave deliveries since his wife is one of the slaves that work for Mortmesne and the Red Queen vows to release her if he does her bidding so Arlen sends an assassin to kill the queen while she’s in the bath but her necklace releases some sort magic wave which kills the would-be assassin immediately and after the little incident Lazarus appointed Pen as Kelsea’s personal guard as he would be too busy with his duties as the Queen’s guard commander.
Kelsea has a vision of the Red Queen assembling her forces to prepare an invasion of the Tear.
Meanwhile, Kelsea’s uncle Thomas, with nowhere to go decides to go to the Mortmesne to defect but on the way, he gets ambushed by the Fetch who kills all of Thomas’s men, and before killing him, The Fetch takes off his mask surprising Thomas with his identity.
Kelsea also sees another vision where she sees the women and children of the Tearling getting taken by the red queen to become slaves so she insists on going there to release them with Lazarus and Pen.
Kelsea feels her magic necklace pull her along the right way so they follow her and are indeed met with the sight cages with slaves who are being transported to mortmesne from the Argive Pass which is the border.
While Kelsea’s men raid the party, Kelsea is approached by the Fetch who was there at the time and he returns her second necklace since she had proved to be a good enough queen.
When Kelsea wears the second necklace and as she sees the necklace glow bright, she suddenly feels power coursing through her body and she enters the field where all her enemies are wiped out of her way which makes them win and they are able to free the women and children.
As they leave, Lazarus finally tells her that her foster parents killed themselves with cyanide so she announces that she will now be Kepsea Glynn instead of Kelsea Raliegh to honor her adoptive parents and the people of Tearling love her.
The Fetch also puts her uncle Thomas’s head on a spike as a way to honor Kelsea.
Meanwhile, the Red Queen is in rage because of Kelsea and she sacrifices a slave boy to create a monster which then tells her to call off the invasion of Tear.
