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4.5 stars! Spoiler free review!
Such a good binge read! I definitely recommend if you're into two murder prone, morally grey people absolutely not wanting to fall in love who end up falling in love and risking it all for each other.
Everything I loved:
This book was first and foremost a romantic fantasy for me. There was plot, don't get me wrong, but I was 100000% there just for Alessandra and Kallias.
Alessandra is a QUEEN all on her own. She owns her looks, she owns her sexuality, she wields her body, her style, and her mind and does not apologize for it.
Kallias is her equal. He goes shot for shot with her and does not shy away from her personality or ambition.
The writing is fast paced and keeps you enthralled from chapter one.
The dialogue is hilarious, I had multiple moments when I actually laughed out loud from the quick quips and sarcastic comebacks.
The main plot in my opinion was the romance. Following Alessandra and figuring out alongside her how she would do her three tasks 1) Woo the king. 2) Marry him. 3) Kill him. But also knowing without a doubt that she would fall in love with him, so you're watching her try to combat any development of feelings while struggling to make him fall for her.
The background plot added in some meat to the story. It seemed mostly about how they need to discover who tried to kill the late king and who is trying to kill the current king Kallias, with some side tangents throw in there. And though it wasn't the main reason I wanted to keep reading, it added in some nice spice to the story. Gave even more opportunities for our main two to get closer and interact, while also keeping you on the edge of your seat because you also want to know who's after the king.
Not much magic other than the king's shadow magic, but it was explained well and had some history to it, which I can appreciate. It didn't just exist without explanation.
The ending-ending, the reveal of the ultimate mastermind of who killed the late king, I DID NOT SEE COMING. I was completely taken by surprise. The rest of the story did an amazing job of keeping me distracted from all the little nuggets of information I could've used to figure it out and when everything came full circle I had by "OHH" moment. So the ending was actually really really twisty and felt like a whole rollercoaster.
A couple things that could have improved the story, but I let go considering it's a standalone (and these weren't the reasons I wanted to keep reading):
Other than trying to figure out who killed the late king, the other plot tangents were very simplistic and wrapped with kinda quick. Though I'd expect that in such a short standalone.
There was no world building. My mind just conjured up one of those classic kingdoms from fairytales, but I couldn't picture what the countries actually looked like or how the different people look compared to each other.
There was no political intrigue. Though he's conquered kingdoms and Alessandra helps him with squabbles in the story, there's no other mention of politics really.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Definitely worth reading in a single day because it's just so much fun wrapped up into so few pages. I would absolutely be willing to pick up another Tricia Levelseller book, this was my first of her works.
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