Magic, intrigue, and forbidden love

Della and her sister have been imprisoned for having magic, and are given a way out. The Princess is engaged to marry a Prince from a nearby country, but wants nothing to do with him. All Della has to do is take her place, convince the Prince all is well, and then conveniently die before the wedding (not as final as it sounds, with her magic). Only there's more going on in her new home than expected. And her personal guard of a Knight is awfully attractive...

This took me a little while to get into, but once I did get into it I didn't want to put it down. This was such a fun take on a forbidden bodyguard romance.

While I did enjoy the setting generally, it was absolutely the back-and-forth between Gal and Della that caught me. The balance of power, the tension, wondering how much to trust each other, and the pay off from the slowwwww burn.

I'd have loved to see more of her sister's magic. Or actually her sister generally - I loved their scenes together.

Definitely enjoyed this one and will look out for future books in the series.

Thank you to BookSirens and the author for the free digital copy. All thoughts are my own.