Let’s get it out of the way. I did not like this book at all. AT ALL. If you did I would recommend skipping this review because I go into detail about exactly why I didn’t like this book.

Now I usually talk a bit about the plot before getting into the characters but this book has no plot so . . .

The Characters

Alessandra: So our protagonist Alessandra was sold to me as an ambitious badass. Which I love. So you can understand my grave disappointment when she was instead boring and one-note with no redeeming characteristics. Now look, I love my villians I really do. Multiple of my favorite characters in fiction have no real redeeming characteristics, but they were interesting. They had purpose or where funny or charismatic or had qualities I liked. OR they where simply horrible people that I somehow fell in love with. But Alessandra had zero growth the whole book. None. THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE BOOK. She was never interesting or developed to begin with so the lack of growth was really detrimental to the book. Her supposedly sex positive beliefs were not actually sex positive as is seen by her attitude towards sex workers when she visits the gentleman’s club. Now, again, we all know I have no problem with villians. As stated I often enjoy them more than the heroes, but again, that’s only when their “bad” characteristics are balanced out with interesting personalities and motives. Alessandra did not have any of that. Her supposed brilliant master plan to seduce and marry the king was literally were black and refuse to dance with him. Wow I’m sooooo impressed.

Kallius: I don’t even have much to say about Kallius because the book treats more like a side character than the main male protagonist. Kallius was supposed to be this illustrious shadow king and yet his powers were barely explained or explored. I actually could not tell you a thing about them because THEY’RE NEVER EXPLAINED OR EXPLORED!!! He was sold as a cunning, powerful, and ruthless ruler but instead he read more like a power hungry child. He was supposed to be ruthless and powerful yet we never read of him doing anything that supports either claim. For a supposed powerful conquering king we really saw nothing of battle or his powers. He wasn’t remotely ruthless or powerful, and maybe if he hadn’t been sold as morally grey and ruthless and his character had been fleshed out more he wouldn’t have been half bad. That was not the case though. Overall, his character was bland, boring and very disappointing.

Now when I went into this book I was fully aware that since it was a romance Alessandras plan to kill Kallius was going to be abandoned. Now despite this I still hoped that it wouldn’t go the cliche and infuriating route of having Kallius find out and be furious ( rightfully so), then later be the one doing the apologizing and groveling. As you can probably guess from the frustration dripping from my review this is precisely what happened. When I tell you I hate that particular trope with a passion, I HATE that trope with a passion.

The characters where sold as morally grey and I expected them to be morally grey, but alas to add to my disappointment they were not. Because for characters to be morally grey they have to do BOTH good and bad things, our main characters however where simply bland and uninteresting. The plot was dull and predictable and you could probably find hundreds of other books just like it with better plots and characters. The book did not have any redeeming qualities, it was woefully underdeveloped and felt poorly thought out. The court intrigue raved about in other reviews is clearly coming from people who haven’t read a proper monarchial themed book. There was no court intrigue. There was no intrigue period. Really, this book was just a badly written romance. There was no fantasy, intrigue or anything of the sort.

In conclusion this book was a major disappointment for me as I had very high expectations based on the rave reviews I read. The worst part of it was that the author does have promise but this book was just not it. If you’re looking for something different and interesting look elsewhere.