As the second-born princess of a kingdom conquered by a brutal empire, I’m nothing but a pawn. Little do I expect my parents to arrange my marriage to the most powerful bachelor of all: the son of the emperor himself.

But when I arrive at the imperial palace, I discover I must compete for my betrothed—vying with the court noblewomen in a series of humiliating trials to prove our devotion.

Those who fail will be executed.

For the sake of my country, I’ll risk my life to win my husband—this sadistic man who applauds the torment and flaunts his lovers.

Unfortunately, my scheming competitors aren’t my only enemies. The emperor’s royal wards—princes of other conquered domains, held hostage to ensure their families’ obedience—lurk in the shadows.

They see me as a traitor, prostrating myself for our tyrants’ approval. The perfect target for their bottled rage. They’ll do whatever they can to distract me, unsettle me… ruin me.

Forbidden as they are, I can’t help being drawn in by their seductive wiles. Behind their simmering fury, their pain and broken hopes call to me.

They might be just the allies I need to save my life and my kingdom. But only if I can conquer these wicked men before I lose my heart.

March has been a bad month for reading because this is the first book I’ve successfully read start to finish and it’s the 24^th!

Diving back in with another book by Eva Chase, I have started to feel at home with her style of writing. I mostly enjoy the balance of characters and plot, though I have found frustration with the chosen moments of smut on occasion.

This book is based in the same universe as the Rites of Passage series – one I greatly enjoyed apart from the lacklustre ending.

It follows Aurelia, a Princess from the wild norths who has come to the home of the Emperor to wed his heir, his son, only to find out that things aren’t that simple. The game element of this book reminded me of the beginning of the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Mass and also of The Selection series by Kiera Cass. Not a new concept but tailored to meet the narrative and further the plot.

Of course, I knew that I was supposed to feel disgust towards the heir, and through the book he proved himself to be a sadistic bastard. I really had nothing good to think about him and began to look forward to the pages he wouldn’t be a part of.

The Emperor was clever writing on Chase’s part, because while the ‘strong, formidable, dangerous’ element of him was there, he was also fading, bumbling, ill, ‘loosing it’, which was all carefully crafted around the comments and actions of Aurelia.

Her love interests, the ‘foster’ Princes, Bastian, Raul, Lorenzo very much embodied the enemies to lover’s trope they were written for. Lorenzo, I could tell would be the first to faulter, not because I saw him as weaker or as the easiest target, I could just tell that his personality aligned with Aurelia’s more.

Raul and Bastian were definitely the aggressor enemies at the beginning of the book, and I could easily understand the toll it took for Aurelia to remain above how they tried to tear her down. Honestly, she goes through A LOT in this book, and it was captured completely in the small actions and reactions that Chase wrote in.

I suppose that one of the reasons I find myself enjoying Eva Chase’s work so much is the balance between plot versus smut. I know that to many that read smutty/spicy romance the more the better, but I find that I cannot enjoy the read so much where there is not a plot to back it up. Chase puts a lot of rich worldbuilding into her works which allows me the connection to the book outside of the smutty romance aspects.

I know that there are already 2 more books in this series that have been released. I have the second book in my library. So, perhaps I’ll fall straight into that book next.

I only saw the ending happening as it was reaching the climax. I had hoped that it would not go the way I thought it would, but it did. I can understand why it went in that direction; I think overall it will serve the plot better and it does offer more angst and frustration within the sexual pairings of Aurelia and the three princes.

I think the beginning of the second book will follow the angst from this ending and perhaps make for an uncomfortable beginning but I’m sure that Aurelia will have to expose more of her inner workings to both the reader and the princes, because otherwise, I don’t see the plot being able to move forward.

She is a very cunning character, with more of an agenda than I had expected, and I think her character also reminded me of Aelin from the Throne of Glass series. I think I will be more suspect of her character moving forward until I have more of a measure of her or until she has shown more of the cards she is holding.