Thank you Netgally and Berkley for the arc!

The cover and description had me really excited for this book and it looked like it held a lot of potential! While I did enjoy some parts, something just felt overall off with the writing to me where it was not descriptive enough during scenes like the trials for example or any of the main character's interactions with the champions who were competing to be her husband.

The love interest was just fine to me. While I do love dual POVs, I almost wish we didn't get Valtar's POV until the end. I wish we didn't know his intentions on why he was attending or competing in the trials in the first place, to have it later be revealed in the end as a plot twist. Or just something the reader would have to figure out themselves as they read the book. I would have loved some more romance too, but understand that there is another book in the series so it makes sense why it felt a bit slow.

I will say based on the ending, I think the 2nd book seems like it has potential and could be interesting as we will see the main character, Rosie, develop further and learn more about herself. While this book wasn't my favorite, I'd still be interested in checking out the next!

We start off by being thrown directly into a scene where several interactions happen quite quickly, which at first felt a bit of a weird way to start since I didn’t really know what was going on. But the scene we’re thrown into actually served as a pretty good way to set the stage for the book and we get a lot of useful information about the characters and the world. Things started making sense to me at chapter 4 when we get a bit more exposition, and from there it was a bit smoother sailing in terms of keeping up with the storyline. 
 
The pacing of the book early on felt a bit rushed, and I think I’d have liked a bit clearer explanation of the politics and the world in the first half of the book to really make it all make sense. I did appreciate the usage of the tutor lessons to flesh out some of the history, it felt like a natural way to include a bit of “showing” what’s happened in the world up until this point. There were a lot of questions I had very early on in the book that FELT like they were going to be contradictions… and they ended up being major plot points that tied things together. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending of the book and the twists and turns we took to get there. 
 
That said, I find Valtar a really intriguing main character. His inner turmoil adds a lot of depth which the other princes are kind of missing (albeit we don’t get their POV so they could theoretically have more depth to them I guess). For me that made him immediately interesting, even knowing he was supposed to be an assassin to kill Rosie, and I was rooting for him the entire time. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the other princes - I surprisingly really enjoyed all of their different personalities! I just very clearly was rooting for Valtar the entire time anyways. 
 
As someone who typically enjoys tension and yearning and slow build romances, I surprisingly really like the romance in this book, more than I expected when page one is them kissing. There’s no insta-love here (which I am personally not a fan of), but the kiss on page one sets the stage for kind of an “insta-intrigue” which I appreciated. Even though the trials seem to take place over a week/couple of weeks, the intensity of everything makes the romance pace feel believable. 
 
All in all I really enjoyed this book, moreso as things went on. Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC! I’m glad I picked this one up and now can’t wait to read the sequel and see what happens next.

Wow I really liked this book! The pacing was a highlight for me. Each chapter presents a bit more lore about Rosie, Valtar, and the world that surrounds them. And more nuggets of lore present more mystery, and I found myself unable to put this book down! I had to keep reading and figure out, alongside Rosie, what was truly happening in the court. The premise is captivating too -- a competition for Rosie's hand that goes deeper than it initially seems.

I'll definitely be following this book's release closely, thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the advanced copy!

I really liked this. I liked the way that the author wrote dialogue and the way that it flowed in conversation. I can really get stuck behind old timey sounding characters, but this was just great. Love.