What. A. Finale. I laughed, I cried, I yelled and I cried some more. Mercedes truly has a way with words. She has the most beautiful and unique world building. I can’t get over how much I’ve fallen in love with Mythanar and I’m so sad to be leaving Vor and Faraine. The truth is, I don't belong in Vor's world. And yet, to claim the heart of the Shadow King is to claim his world as my own. Am I ready? Am I strong enough?"

Vor and Faraine are not meant to meet, to speak, to touch... but their chance encounter shifts both their worlds in unimaginable ways, dooming them both to love, to misery, to a destiny the gods can't break. I am newer to Sylvia Mercedes (though an age-old fan to her previous pen name), and I have been reading her books nonstop. So when she was offering ARC copies of the first book to a new series, I fought my way onto the list, and here we are. I’ve been umming and ahhing over whether or not to DNF this for weeks, and I’m finally biting the bullet and admitting defeat.

For fans of The Bridge Kingdom and A Deal with the Elf King, this arranged marriage romance about a human princess forced to wed a dark and desperate Shadow King is sure to entice! Dual POVs and magical romance? Love it. It's a very slow burn and not an overly fast paced book but the story was still intriguing. The MCs have a variety of personalities which I think opens the story a little more so it's not the same over and over. I got frustrated at times when I didn't know more about the characters and certain parts of their stories.

The world- building was really good, if not as in depth as I would’ve liked. However, the unique magic system and lore surrounding the Troldefolk was incredibly gripping and really helped to bring Mythanar (and its unique underground setting) to life. Note: The narration in this is great; kudos to the two performers, I wish you'd had better material.

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Faraine is unloved, she's shunned by her family, anathema to her people and cloistered away until all she knows are faded memories and muted days. For fans of The Bridge Kingdom and A Deal with the Elf King, this sweeping tale of love and betrayal is equal blends sweet and spice. The FL was pretty typical cliche drama FL but much worse in my opinion because you would think that pretending to be a General you would at least learn some self-defence or just something but she always put herself in terrible situations without even thinking straight like dressing up to follow a strange man into the woods with heels and a bright red dress??? and thus needing the ML to save her on multiple occasions.

I was so in live with Vor and Faranie connection at the end of book 2, and to see if Blossom in the first few chapters made me so happy. But it was also so heavy. The few chapters of the ttarmok had my heart thundering in just the fourth of the book.

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Sylvia has done such an amazing job with this series and I LOVED this book so much. I read it in a couple of hours I just couldn’t put it down. There were highs, there were lows, there were moments where my heart was in my throat and I might have had a little cry at the end. ☺️ When the handsome and enigmatic Shadow King comes seeking a bride, Faraine is not surprised that her sister is his choice. The scriptwriting was literally the worst with the most cliche lines (I literally gagged) it could also be due to the way int was translated but it was by far the most cringe (in a bad way) and puke-inducing lines I've read.