This book was gifted to me by my brother for my birthday and this series has been on my TBR for so long that I decided to just jump right in. I liked the idea of this book, and I never thought I would be reading a re-telling of the Lion King with smut in.  

This book has two points of view. The first is Prince Tristan Faasa and he was never destined for the throne. That was always his brother, Michael. The same brother responsible for both Tristan’s tormented childhood and the scar that marks his face. When their father dies, Michael is set to assume the throne, and Tristan is set to steal it. The leader of a secret rebellion, Tristan will stop at nothing to end his brother’s reign. But when Michael’s new betrothed, Lady Sara Beatreaux arrives, Tristan finds himself in the middle of a new kind of war. The king that begs the question of what’s more important, the crown or the woman about to wear it. The second point of view is Lady Sara Beatreaux and she has one plan. Marry the King and eradicate the Faasa line, even at the risk of her own peril. But she never expects the Scarred Prince. He's dangerous. Forbidden. And one of the men she’s been sent to kill. But the line between hatred and passion has never seemed so thin, and as secrets come to light, Sara grows unsure of whom she can trust – torn between vengeance and the villain she was never supposed to love.  

I usually struggle with retelling, but I managed to get into this one pretty quickly. Should I have enjoyed it as much as I did? Definitely not, but it was very addictive. I was rooting for Tristan from day one, he reminds me of Damon, fighting for his brother’s girl. Only his brother’s girl isn’t his brother’s girl. Again, red flags in books aren’t appropriate for real life. I love this toxic relationship and how I should have been rooting for Tristan, but I just couldn’t help it. But if it was real life, I would have been telling Sara to run for the hills. The storyline was easy, and it was a quick read. The main plot twist was not what I was expecting and dual POV makes a romance book even better. I loved Simon and I'm so glad we got to see him all grown up and covered in tattoos, I'm so glad they kept with tattoos and didn’t change it.  

I would have liked for Michael to pay for his actions, the main conflict happened all too soon and then Michael got a swift death. For the amount of suffering, he caused Tristan, Sara and the town I would have loved more of a trial and to see the rebellion and for everyone to show how bad he really is. I would have liked more background on Sara’s father and what he wanted to do, and I would have loved for him to have been secretly alive, that would have been gobsmacking. 

I still couldn’t believe I read a smut based on the lion king. I cannot wait for the next book in the series, though I struggled with the Wizard of Oz as a film.