Posted by This one follows a lot of familiar notes in the romantasy genre. We’ve got a princess named Keira who’s considered “old” because she hasn’t married yet and she’s like 20 years old at this point. Her mother is the Queen and the King is dead. So, it’s just her and her mom chillin in a kingdom that’s falling apart. Her mom needs allies and so she sets up a betrothal between her daughter, the princess, and this dude named Cesar.
Cesar is a piece of shit sociopath. He’s not just your run of the mill asshole. He proposed to Keira using a ring that was still attached to a finger in a box. He said the ring belonged to his mother, so we’re kind of assuming this dude may have killed his own mother, or at least cut off her finger and put it on a box. He has a reputation throughout the allied human realms as being cruel, taking that cruelty to extreme lengths. Even after witnessing this behavior in person her mother still wants her to marry this dude. Now, here is where I start to question things because if this is your only heir, and the kingdom depends on her, why risk her safety? I get making deals with people you don’t like, or even hate, when it comes to betrothals… but if the princess is just going to get cut into pieces and disappear, how is this helping?
So, enter love interest #1,Tophan (sp? I TTS all my books) a guy she’s known all her life, this blacksmith’s son who she hangs out with and trains with in secret. He’s your standard Himbo, nice, caring, attractive, but a peasant and therefore not someone she can marry even though clearly she’s caught feelings for the dude and vice versa.
Enter love interest potential #2? There’s this vampire-elf kingdom and apparently this prince “let Keira go” for her own good and has wiped Keira’s memory of their time together. You’re not sure why yet, but they were together for some time and then things went badly, hence the memory wiping. Keira gets to know this vampire-elf all over again as they cross paths once again.
Okay, and now enter a potential love interest #3 There’s a demon prince, which is different from the elf vampire prince, who captures the princess and wants her for his own reasons and there’s some sexual tension going on there as well. He’s got her chained up in his kingdom and making threats and letting her in on some secrets about her other love interests.
The MC Keira is a bit naïve, a bit inexperienced, and has a lot to catch up on. For instance, there’s this out of place maid with silver eyes that she knows she hasn’t hired and the silver eyed maid has access to all parts of the castle, but for some reason she just walks past her a few times thinking “oh that’s weird” instead of stopping to investigate for her safety and other’s safety.
This is a pretty short book coming in at 228 pages on Goodreads. I’d actually say I would have benefited from more page time on a bunch of concepts, including the build up of character development at the start and maybe some more background on why this betrothal was so important and wtf these demons are and how they’re different from devils and all this world building background that seemed a bit too loosely described for me to really latch on and feel like I have a solid understanding of what’s going on. Overall this is just a fun little romance romp and if you’re into love triangles between a chosen-one protagonist and the multiple princeling characters courting her, this could be for you. I did finish the book so it’s being marked as safe.