TBP: March 20th, 2010
A princess longing to be free…
On the dawn of her courtship trials, Princess Lyana Aethionus knows she should be focused on winning her perfect mate, yet her thoughts wander to the open sky waiting at the edge of her floating kingdom. One final adventure calls. Upon fleeing the palace, the last thing she expects to find is a raven prince locked in a death match with a dragon.
A bastard aching to belong…
Reviled son of a dead king, Rafe would do anything for his beloved half-brother, Prince Lysander Taetanus, including posing as him in the upcoming courtship trials. When a dragon interrupts their secret exchange, he orders his studious sibling to run. After suffering a fatal blow, Rafe is saved by a beautiful dove who possesses forbidden magic, just like him.
Fate brought them together, now destiny will tear them apart…
Unknown to the world above, on the foggy sea ten thousand feet below, a young king fights a forgotten war. He believes Lyana is the queen prophesied to save the world, and with the help of his favored spy, hidden deep in the highest ranks of the dove royal house, he will stop at nothing to have her.- Goodreads
I am not going to lie. I picked up this book for the cover. Seeing and reading about a Black fairy is huge (even though there were some suspicious scenes in the book). I enjoyed this cover and seeing this Black fairy do her thing.
With that being said. . . this book wasn’t for me. NOT because there was actually anything wrong with the book. It played on the cliche of a love triangle, forbidden love, betrayals a bit too much and what I meant by that is nothing was brought to this long worn table; it was just with dragons and faeries as opposed to humans.
However, with that being said the world building in this novel was great and the author did a fantastic job with pace, details and creating the romance. While I see others completing enjoying it what caused me to lose interest was Rafe. How and why Lyana feel in love with him I will never know. He had no personality. If it had nothing to do with his brother he didn’t want anything to do with it. I liked the young king and his part in the story but I couldn’t stand Rafe.
Overall, there are a lot of people that are going to flock over this book. My thing is if you are going to do the same trope, do something new.
2 Pickles
Motif by Tanya 