ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
 
Tropes:

arranged marriage, hurt/comfort, miscommunication

Steam level: none

The Iskat Empire forms its alliances through political marriages. When Prince Taam, one of Iskat's royals, dies, it threatens the relationship between Iskat and Thean, and the alliance as a whole. To prevent a political disaster, the Emperor decides that the Thean diplomat, Count Jainan, should marry Kiem, her least favourite grandchild and infamous black sheep of the royal family. Both Kiem and Jainan know their duty and step into the arranged marriage without any fantasies of finding love, but Kiem finds that he could easily be attracted to Jainan. But Jainan is grieving, and not interested in him, and it's all very inappropriate. But when they find out that there may be more to Taam's death, Kiem and Jainan must find a way to trust each other to figure out the truth and save the empire.

This was a super enjoyable read for me. It had a lot of tropes I enjoy in romance, the mystery was fun without trying to break my brain with complexity and I loved both Kiem and Jainan to pieces. Kiem is just a cinnamon roll of cheerfulness and consideration for his partner, and Jainan deserves all the hugs in the world. I loved seeing the relationship between them develop and all the beats it hit. The only complaint I have is that there is a lot of misunderstanding/miscommunication/lack of clarity between Kiem and Jainan. I understand why it happened the way it did, but I think it could've been dealt with a bit sooner because it did drag on a bit.

Here are a few other reasons to love this book:
* Jainan and Kiem are both POC
* The world is queernorm
* There is a fabulous cast of side characters, of which Bel is my favourite
* The book has a great balance between hurt/comfort, pure fun, romance and intrigue

Overall this is a great debut and I look forward to reading more from this author.