Gifted thief Romeria has flourished from her days as a street kid pilfering wallets to survive. Now she thrives, stealing jewels from the rich under the involuntary employ of New York City’s most notorious crime boss. But when an enigmatic woman secures her services at swordpoint, Romeria is plunged into a startling realm of opposing thrones, warring elven, and elemental magic she cannot begin to fathom.
Her quest is straightforward: Steal a stone from Islor’s sacred garden without anyone discovering her true identity, which would earn her certain death. But the identity she has inexplicably assumed is that of the captured Ybarisan princess—an enemy to Islor after she poisoned their beloved king and queen on the day she was to marry the prince.
Her betrothed, the newly crowned King Zander, detests her with every grain of his handsome being. Fortunately for Romeria, she is more valuable to him alive than dead. Zander gives her a choice: life in a cell, or an acquittal of all charges in exchange for her help in exposing the growing plot against him.
Romeria sees no other option and embraces the tricky role of smitten queen-to-be until she can escape, a ruse that brings her far closer to the king than she anticipated and threatens more than her safety. As she digs deeper into this sacred garden and the ancient feud between Ybaris and Islor, she discovers monstrous truths that could spell ruin for all.
She would know the world of vengeful gods and monsters, and the lengths one would go for love. And nothing would ever be the same for her again.
Review
Phew, I made it! I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to get through this book, but I did and I’m absolutely invested. With not having read Tucker’s contemporary romances, this was just like jumping into something new. From the plot to the characters, there’s plenty to love about this one.
I’m not entirely sure if Tucker has written fantasy before, but I’m kind of here for it. I loved her writing in this.
So why not 5 stars? Normally it doesn’t take me long to get through a book and this took me well over a week. And what it came down to was the bit of confusion of what’s happening for the first half of the book. The pacing of the story had me taking several breaks to the point I wasn’t sure if I would finish this or not.
And I must have missed that this was going to be a series, which is another thing that’s not something I’m going for recently. I just don’t want to wait. With that being said, there’s a ton of things to learn as you make it through this read. With Romy thrown into a completely new world and a lot of things are not making sense for her. But she’s quick to figure things out.
Add that with the rising tension between her and Zander, you can’t help but wonder what’s in store for them.
I really hope we don’t have to wait too long for the next book because things REALLLLLLY picked up at the end. I’m so glad that I pushed through because I’m looking forward to the next one.
The slow start comment has me not as excited to pick up this one. I am not a big fantasy person, but I like most of her other books so I was thinking of reading it anyways. I probably still will, but I’ll have to keep all of this in mind. Great review.
Since this is a series, I’d wait until it’s complete especially if you don’t read fantasy that often. I am excited for this series, so hopefully we won’t have to wait long.
Good to know! I think I’ll do that.
The plot sounds intriguing to me. Having read her contemporaries- i love the simple wild , I am pretty surprised she wrote a fantasy. I hope to give this a try but closer to release of the next books in the series. I can’t wait for series haha
I saw somewhere that this isn’t her first time writing fantasy? I could be totally wrong. But I’m always intrigued when an author that mainly writes contemporary romance, writes a fantasy romance or PNR.
I’ve been interested in this book since she announced it. I looove her writing so I’m really curious how she juggles fantasy. I’ll keep in mind what you said about the slow start.
I just hope we don’t have to wait too long for the next book!