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The Midland Throne
To honor her sixteenth birthday, Crown Princess Estelle Bourbon invites sixteen of the world’s best and brightest to her home for the opportunity to win her affection over the course of thirty-two weeks. She isn’t thrilled about her prospective suitors, or, really, the possibility of becoming queen, but as her family’s sole heir, she faces her destiny with a grim acceptance.
Julian Hanover is the Crown Prince of Estelle’s neighbor to the south. His intelligence is matched only by his ambition, and a marriage with the Midland Princess would make the most sense from a political standpoint. One problem, he doesn’t like Estelle, and she doesn’t care for him, either.
Carter Braganza is heir to a kingdom north of Estelle’s. His friendly, laid-back attitude and charisma can put a room at ease in an instant, and, better still, he and Estelle actually get along. But his heart isn’t in the contest—instead, a certain Lowland Prince has caught his eye.
As the competition progresses and tensions rise to the point of all-out violence, each contestant must decide where their loyalties lie, and just how far they are willing to go to earn Estelle’s hand in marriage.
Julian Hanover is the Crown Prince of Estelle’s neighbor to the south. His intelligence is matched only by his ambition, and a marriage with the Midland Princess would make the most sense from a political standpoint. One problem, he doesn’t like Estelle, and she doesn’t care for him, either.
Carter Braganza is heir to a kingdom north of Estelle’s. His friendly, laid-back attitude and charisma can put a room at ease in an instant, and, better still, he and Estelle actually get along. But his heart isn’t in the contest—instead, a certain Lowland Prince has caught his eye.
As the competition progresses and tensions rise to the point of all-out violence, each contestant must decide where their loyalties lie, and just how far they are willing to go to earn Estelle’s hand in marriage.
484 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 20, 2024
12 people are currently reading
592 people want to read
About the author
K.M. Gallagher
4 books117 followersi'm not active on here (and have not been since 2016, when i was 11 lmao), but you can find me on Instagram and Twitter @so_many_ocs
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 23, 2025
Vague spoilers. You’ve been warned.
I was initially thinking I would give it 3.75/5 but unfortunately the ending is so nonsensical that I could not possibly rate it higher than 3/5.
Oh boy. No hate to the author, I just see how well this could have gone and how easily it could have been great. I’m a writer myself, yadda yadda, let’s go.
Ah man, I was hoping for this one, but… issues. For one, the first hundred pages could be simplified/condensed with minimal repercussions. Nothing really felt like it was HAPPENING until king Clement had a mysterious letter in his hand. The plot is so slow. Too much telling/summary over showing/scene to the point where I barely knew Estelle’s actual personality until almost a third of the way through. Carter and Julian are fine, but they hog a lot of the focus from Estelle. The middle is alright, could have been more interesting, but once you’re oriented within the story, it’s enjoyable in its own way. Hell, I may read the second one just because I’m interested in the characters after spending 600 pages with them.
However the final fifth of this book is just… it does not work. A very clear antagonist is introduced, makes themself into the evil ultimate antagonist with basically no pushback (which was completely unbelievable), and then is dealt with so easily that it’s almost laughable. Then all the sudden there’s a betrayal that’s framed as if there was no other choice and it’s a logical thing to do— except that it absolutely is NOT and makes NO sense as an ending other than as a shocking twist. It literally does not line up with anything previously (except maybe ONE offhand comment made during another climactic event).
This book is advertised as a dark fantasy, but aside from ONE violent contestant (who is so easily dealt with btw) and then the antagonist who comes in within the last hundred pages or so, it’s sort of just regular historical-looking fantasy written so the author can watch their ocs wander around a castle in cool outfits chatting for 600 pages. Minimal world building outside of the queer-normative setting and overall lack of sexism (except for Ayaka randomly mentioning some near the end??? It felt random since this world has yet to demonstrate any form of it until then). The characters will say “oh my God” or “heavens” but we don’t know which god or heavens they could be referring to. Are there any religions in this world? This implies there are but we don’t know anything about them.
Did I enjoy parts of it? Despite my complaints, yes I did. I love queer normative fantasy. This book has mlm, trans, aroace, and casual wlw rep in it which is always nice to see. The aesthetic is enjoyable in its own right (even though it does seem like it’s largely just an aesthetic rather than a well built world). The main trio is fun and the prose are well done. I like the premise too, I just wish it was executed better.
If you’re interested, I would say read it. Just expect a more relaxed casual thing than what’s advertised
I was initially thinking I would give it 3.75/5 but unfortunately the ending is so nonsensical that I could not possibly rate it higher than 3/5.
Oh boy. No hate to the author, I just see how well this could have gone and how easily it could have been great. I’m a writer myself, yadda yadda, let’s go.
Ah man, I was hoping for this one, but… issues. For one, the first hundred pages could be simplified/condensed with minimal repercussions. Nothing really felt like it was HAPPENING until king Clement had a mysterious letter in his hand. The plot is so slow. Too much telling/summary over showing/scene to the point where I barely knew Estelle’s actual personality until almost a third of the way through. Carter and Julian are fine, but they hog a lot of the focus from Estelle. The middle is alright, could have been more interesting, but once you’re oriented within the story, it’s enjoyable in its own way. Hell, I may read the second one just because I’m interested in the characters after spending 600 pages with them.
However the final fifth of this book is just… it does not work. A very clear antagonist is introduced, makes themself into the evil ultimate antagonist with basically no pushback (which was completely unbelievable), and then is dealt with so easily that it’s almost laughable. Then all the sudden there’s a betrayal that’s framed as if there was no other choice and it’s a logical thing to do— except that it absolutely is NOT and makes NO sense as an ending other than as a shocking twist. It literally does not line up with anything previously (except maybe ONE offhand comment made during another climactic event).
This book is advertised as a dark fantasy, but aside from ONE violent contestant (who is so easily dealt with btw) and then the antagonist who comes in within the last hundred pages or so, it’s sort of just regular historical-looking fantasy written so the author can watch their ocs wander around a castle in cool outfits chatting for 600 pages. Minimal world building outside of the queer-normative setting and overall lack of sexism (except for Ayaka randomly mentioning some near the end??? It felt random since this world has yet to demonstrate any form of it until then). The characters will say “oh my God” or “heavens” but we don’t know which god or heavens they could be referring to. Are there any religions in this world? This implies there are but we don’t know anything about them.
Did I enjoy parts of it? Despite my complaints, yes I did. I love queer normative fantasy. This book has mlm, trans, aroace, and casual wlw rep in it which is always nice to see. The aesthetic is enjoyable in its own right (even though it does seem like it’s largely just an aesthetic rather than a well built world). The main trio is fun and the prose are well done. I like the premise too, I just wish it was executed better.
If you’re interested, I would say read it. Just expect a more relaxed casual thing than what’s advertised
July 3, 2025
I wanted to love this so badly, but it just never happened.
I would've given it 3 stars until I got to the final 15%. Don't get me wrong, I love a good murder & betrayal, but everything felt so unlogical at the end that I was too annoyed to really pay attention to anything else. More about this later, let's start with the things I loved instead✌️
🌟The characters🌟
All of them felt real, especially the main trio. I enjoyed reading their conversations, the banter was just amazing.
My favorite was Julian, he was just amazing all through the book.
🌟The tone🌟
I think the description of emotions got really through. I got chills from the scene when Julian heard Frederick in the maze, and I liked the shift to darker tone at the end.
🌟Descriptions🌟
The royal setting did not dissapoint. We got fancy clothes, fancy rooms, all with great detail (maybe a bit too much even).
And that's it. Now onto the things that didn't win my heart:
🌜The beginning🌜
It was so slow that I started wondering why I'm even reading the book. I considered putting it down early on, as it couldn't grab me, but I kept on reading, thinking that it would get better.
It felt like the characters weren't doing anything in the first few chapters, just observing each other. We got a scene with Estelle, where she told us what she thinks of Julian, Carter and the others. Then the same with Julian, the same with Carter, then a few more again.
I felt that we were robbed of getting to know the characters ourselves. We could've figured out that Carter is outgoing without Estelle and Julian telling us. We could've figured out that Estelle didn't like Julian by their interactions without her overexplaining.
It didn't help either that the scenes were so short. There was some description of the surroundings, a list of who wore what, internal thoughts about the others, and off to the next scene we went.
🌜No motivations🌜
Maybe I had a hard time getting invested in the story because the characters were not really invested themselves either.
None of them were too excited about the contest, so neither was I. They had no goals, they just drifted along the events of the contest.
Carter wanted to win for the sake of it, but had no other personal interest. He even told us that it would be no problem if he lost, so I found it hard to root for him.
Julian also didn't care about it, he was just in for his father. His father, who was set up as a very scary man, but all he did was to glare at Julian. I felt like him being so evil was all talk, and nothing bad would happen to Julian if he lost.
Estelle organized the whole contest out of oblogation, and didn't like the contestants either. And if she chose nobody, well, her father would have understood it.
This made the contest have no stakes at all, and I wondered why it was made the center of the book if it was so unimportant to everyone involved.
They also had no goals outside the contest, no wants at all.
🌜Repetition🌜
There were small things, like the gap in Julian's teeth. I'm not sure why that bugged me so much, not the gap itself, but it being mentioned so much. When it was mentioned first, it was like the author made that up on the spot, and wanted to remind us about it every time possible. A few pages passed and it was there again, but it was forgotten again in the middle until we got back to the repetition at the end.
It also had a lot of "We need to talk", "I need to talk to you" scenes, almost all of them going the same way. I understand that they need to be polite, but come on, just say what you want! These scenes don't add anything to the story, and they take up so much space.
There was also the "useless beasts get killed" with Estelle, which was a nice kind of repetition. It showed how this small sentence shaped her personality, and I wouldn't have minded it, until it was explained. I figured it out that it was about Estelle herself, but when it was worded out, the joy of the discovery was gone. It made me think that it was explained because the author didn't think the readers would figure it out...
🌜No real conflicts, no stakes🌜
Whatever bad things the characters did, it had no real consequences. The arguments resolved quickly. It took out the excitement from the book, as I felt like whatever the characters did, nothing bad would come of it (until the ending of course).
Julian and Frederick got into a fight, but they got a small scolding and were let back to the competition shortly after.
Estelle stole letters from her father, but he wasn't even mad at her.
Some characters discovered Julian and Carter's relationship, but everyone kept the secret. (Frederick doesn't count as it wasn't confirmed that he really knew, he just had suspicions)
Carter and Julian got into an argument, but one of them always ended up saying sorry shortly after, and everything was alright again.
Ayaka's broken leg wasn't so bad as they thought, and it would heal nicely.
There were a lot of problems with the competition (fights, injuries), but there was no backslash from the royal families, and it made Estelle's worries about it seem imagined.
And so on...
🌜The competition🌜
As I said, it had no stakes, but the trials themselves weren't much exciting either. They soon fell into a pattern: the main ones performed well, and we got one small side character mentioned, who did one thing wrong. And guess what, they always became the one who got eliminated in the end.
It felt like none of the main ones were in real danger, as only those were eliminated who we didn't know anything (or not too much) about.
🌜Promises not kept🌜
At the beginning, some storylines were implied that I was excited about, which didn't happen in the end.
When we found out that Rostya had inside info about the trials, I thought that a whole subplot was coming up about that. It felt important, as he had a big argument with Julian - I imagined that some contestants would gain an unfair advantage because of him, and they would fall when he eventually got eliminated. I got my hopes up, but instead, he got removed in the next trial, and his inside infos didn't matter much either.
There was also Estelle's deal with Catherine, that she would become her spy. I got my hopes up again - I thought of all the juicy gossip Estelle would get through Catherine. But it just kind of... got forgotten? There was no mention of it afterwards.
🌜Logic🌜
I admit, I found it hard to find logic at the end of the book. I jus can't wrap my head around it.
How did Anette get away with murdering the king? She didn't do it exactly in secret. How did she turn the guards to her side? She lived in the countryside her whole life, she didn't have anything to offer them. She also treated the staff badly, so I imagine they would have preferred to choose Estelle's side.
Estelle also saw it happen, with two of her contestants - powerful people against a country girl. With this many witnesses, they could have easily overpowered her. Who did Anette have on her side? A few guards, no match against Julian and Carter if their countries took their side.
What about the body? There are just too many people in a palace, and they had to prepare it for a funeral. There should have been even a doctor, who examined it, and I guess most of the important people should have taken a look at the body, like the king's advisors. They couldn't have been all on Anette's side - she had nothing which would've made her the better option, no reason why anyone would support her.
Why was there so much fuss about Anette's death, when there was none for the king? She wasn't even crowned, and as I said, she couldn't have turned all of the palace on her side.
Why was it necessary to murder her? Why not uncover the murder, get the support of other countries and kick her out?
Why did Estelle need Julian and Carter for the murder? She just walked in to Anette's room. No guards. She could've strangled her with a pillow, or better yet, give poison to her instead of sleep medicine. If she had a way to spike her drinks, why not take the easy way? Why make it harder than it needs to be?
The murder was far too easy. Again, where were the guards? How come nobody see Estelle out at night?
Also on the note of guards: shouldn't all suitors have private guards with them? I can't imagine that any royal family would let their heirs wander around in a foreign country without their own guards around them.
And lastly
🌜Honorable mention: Gazsi Fazekas🌜
I'm not sure how to feel about him. On one hand, as a Hungarian I'm happy for the representation, but one the other...
All of the characters had such amazing names in this book. It suited them perfectly, and they all sounded wonderful. As for Gazsi, I'm a bit confused about the name choice.
Gazsi: certainly a Hungarian name by sound, but I never met a person with this name. I didn't even know that it existed, and I had to look it up to make sure it's really from Hungary. It is. It's more like a nickname for some more common name, but even as a nickname, I never heard anyone use it. It sounds weird, not in a good way.
Fazekas: it means potter. Not the most royal name. Next to Braganza, Hanover and the likes, I'm not surprised that Gazsi got eliminated. With a name like that, I imagined him as someone living in the streets, who murdered the royal Zsigmond Festetics to snuck into the competition in his place.
I would've given it 3 stars until I got to the final 15%. Don't get me wrong, I love a good murder & betrayal, but everything felt so unlogical at the end that I was too annoyed to really pay attention to anything else. More about this later, let's start with the things I loved instead✌️
🌟The characters🌟
All of them felt real, especially the main trio. I enjoyed reading their conversations, the banter was just amazing.
My favorite was Julian, he was just amazing all through the book.
🌟The tone🌟
I think the description of emotions got really through. I got chills from the scene when Julian heard Frederick in the maze, and I liked the shift to darker tone at the end.
🌟Descriptions🌟
The royal setting did not dissapoint. We got fancy clothes, fancy rooms, all with great detail (maybe a bit too much even).
And that's it. Now onto the things that didn't win my heart:
🌜The beginning🌜
It was so slow that I started wondering why I'm even reading the book. I considered putting it down early on, as it couldn't grab me, but I kept on reading, thinking that it would get better.
It felt like the characters weren't doing anything in the first few chapters, just observing each other. We got a scene with Estelle, where she told us what she thinks of Julian, Carter and the others. Then the same with Julian, the same with Carter, then a few more again.
I felt that we were robbed of getting to know the characters ourselves. We could've figured out that Carter is outgoing without Estelle and Julian telling us. We could've figured out that Estelle didn't like Julian by their interactions without her overexplaining.
It didn't help either that the scenes were so short. There was some description of the surroundings, a list of who wore what, internal thoughts about the others, and off to the next scene we went.
🌜No motivations🌜
Maybe I had a hard time getting invested in the story because the characters were not really invested themselves either.
None of them were too excited about the contest, so neither was I. They had no goals, they just drifted along the events of the contest.
Carter wanted to win for the sake of it, but had no other personal interest. He even told us that it would be no problem if he lost, so I found it hard to root for him.
Julian also didn't care about it, he was just in for his father. His father, who was set up as a very scary man, but all he did was to glare at Julian. I felt like him being so evil was all talk, and nothing bad would happen to Julian if he lost.
Estelle organized the whole contest out of oblogation, and didn't like the contestants either. And if she chose nobody, well, her father would have understood it.
This made the contest have no stakes at all, and I wondered why it was made the center of the book if it was so unimportant to everyone involved.
They also had no goals outside the contest, no wants at all.
🌜Repetition🌜
There were small things, like the gap in Julian's teeth. I'm not sure why that bugged me so much, not the gap itself, but it being mentioned so much. When it was mentioned first, it was like the author made that up on the spot, and wanted to remind us about it every time possible. A few pages passed and it was there again, but it was forgotten again in the middle until we got back to the repetition at the end.
It also had a lot of "We need to talk", "I need to talk to you" scenes, almost all of them going the same way. I understand that they need to be polite, but come on, just say what you want! These scenes don't add anything to the story, and they take up so much space.
There was also the "useless beasts get killed" with Estelle, which was a nice kind of repetition. It showed how this small sentence shaped her personality, and I wouldn't have minded it, until it was explained. I figured it out that it was about Estelle herself, but when it was worded out, the joy of the discovery was gone. It made me think that it was explained because the author didn't think the readers would figure it out...
🌜No real conflicts, no stakes🌜
Whatever bad things the characters did, it had no real consequences. The arguments resolved quickly. It took out the excitement from the book, as I felt like whatever the characters did, nothing bad would come of it (until the ending of course).
Julian and Frederick got into a fight, but they got a small scolding and were let back to the competition shortly after.
Estelle stole letters from her father, but he wasn't even mad at her.
Some characters discovered Julian and Carter's relationship, but everyone kept the secret. (Frederick doesn't count as it wasn't confirmed that he really knew, he just had suspicions)
Carter and Julian got into an argument, but one of them always ended up saying sorry shortly after, and everything was alright again.
Ayaka's broken leg wasn't so bad as they thought, and it would heal nicely.
There were a lot of problems with the competition (fights, injuries), but there was no backslash from the royal families, and it made Estelle's worries about it seem imagined.
And so on...
🌜The competition🌜
As I said, it had no stakes, but the trials themselves weren't much exciting either. They soon fell into a pattern: the main ones performed well, and we got one small side character mentioned, who did one thing wrong. And guess what, they always became the one who got eliminated in the end.
It felt like none of the main ones were in real danger, as only those were eliminated who we didn't know anything (or not too much) about.
🌜Promises not kept🌜
At the beginning, some storylines were implied that I was excited about, which didn't happen in the end.
When we found out that Rostya had inside info about the trials, I thought that a whole subplot was coming up about that. It felt important, as he had a big argument with Julian - I imagined that some contestants would gain an unfair advantage because of him, and they would fall when he eventually got eliminated. I got my hopes up, but instead, he got removed in the next trial, and his inside infos didn't matter much either.
There was also Estelle's deal with Catherine, that she would become her spy. I got my hopes up again - I thought of all the juicy gossip Estelle would get through Catherine. But it just kind of... got forgotten? There was no mention of it afterwards.
🌜Logic🌜
I admit, I found it hard to find logic at the end of the book. I jus can't wrap my head around it.
How did Anette get away with murdering the king? She didn't do it exactly in secret. How did she turn the guards to her side? She lived in the countryside her whole life, she didn't have anything to offer them. She also treated the staff badly, so I imagine they would have preferred to choose Estelle's side.
Estelle also saw it happen, with two of her contestants - powerful people against a country girl. With this many witnesses, they could have easily overpowered her. Who did Anette have on her side? A few guards, no match against Julian and Carter if their countries took their side.
What about the body? There are just too many people in a palace, and they had to prepare it for a funeral. There should have been even a doctor, who examined it, and I guess most of the important people should have taken a look at the body, like the king's advisors. They couldn't have been all on Anette's side - she had nothing which would've made her the better option, no reason why anyone would support her.
Why was there so much fuss about Anette's death, when there was none for the king? She wasn't even crowned, and as I said, she couldn't have turned all of the palace on her side.
Why was it necessary to murder her? Why not uncover the murder, get the support of other countries and kick her out?
Why did Estelle need Julian and Carter for the murder? She just walked in to Anette's room. No guards. She could've strangled her with a pillow, or better yet, give poison to her instead of sleep medicine. If she had a way to spike her drinks, why not take the easy way? Why make it harder than it needs to be?
The murder was far too easy. Again, where were the guards? How come nobody see Estelle out at night?
Also on the note of guards: shouldn't all suitors have private guards with them? I can't imagine that any royal family would let their heirs wander around in a foreign country without their own guards around them.
And lastly
🌜Honorable mention: Gazsi Fazekas🌜
I'm not sure how to feel about him. On one hand, as a Hungarian I'm happy for the representation, but one the other...
All of the characters had such amazing names in this book. It suited them perfectly, and they all sounded wonderful. As for Gazsi, I'm a bit confused about the name choice.
Gazsi: certainly a Hungarian name by sound, but I never met a person with this name. I didn't even know that it existed, and I had to look it up to make sure it's really from Hungary. It is. It's more like a nickname for some more common name, but even as a nickname, I never heard anyone use it. It sounds weird, not in a good way.
Fazekas: it means potter. Not the most royal name. Next to Braganza, Hanover and the likes, I'm not surprised that Gazsi got eliminated. With a name like that, I imagined him as someone living in the streets, who murdered the royal Zsigmond Festetics to snuck into the competition in his place.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 25, 2024
Had the absolute pleasure of beta reading this and I couldn't put it down
COMING NOVEMBER 2024
COMING NOVEMBER 2024
January 5, 2025
CARTER… MY BOY…..
Read
June 5, 2025rtc ♥️
June 7, 2024
I had the pleasure of being a beta-reader for this book and it Gripped me!! I would’ve finished it in probably just two or three sittings if I hadn’t been stopping to make notes etc. I fell in love with the characters and I’m super excited to see what’s changed since the beta version! November, I’m waiting patiently 💖
June 11, 2025
first of all, I feel robbed from more Carter and William moments
oh my god.. the pain in my guts I’ve felt during reading was unbearable, it’s definitely one of my favourite books now that I will cherish for probably rest of my life (maybe I’m overreacting but it’s true)
jail time honestly for that ending and for everything that happend in the 2nd half (also the twist and the change of the whole atmosphere?!?!)
cannot wait for the next volume (I’ve already booked a therapy session)
„Dreaming, Julian realised. That’s all this was. A dream.”
„But you said you- you loved me” „And I do. I think I always will”
oh my god.. the pain in my guts I’ve felt during reading was unbearable, it’s definitely one of my favourite books now that I will cherish for probably rest of my life (maybe I’m overreacting but it’s true)
jail time honestly for that ending and for everything that happend in the 2nd half (also the twist and the change of the whole atmosphere?!?!)
cannot wait for the next volume (I’ve already booked a therapy session)
„Dreaming, Julian realised. That’s all this was. A dream.”
„But you said you- you loved me” „And I do. I think I always will”
August 15, 2024
HOLY SHIT IT'S ON GOODREADS NOW. After being obsessed with K.M. Gallagher/so_many_ocs, then with Radio Apocalypse, I became absolutely obsessed with the Midland Throne and THEN I was able to beta read it, which left me giggling, kicking my feet, flapping my hands, and sobbing uncontrollably while setting up the Christmas tree. Add this to Goodreads and buy it when it comes out or I'll fucking find you
July 11, 2025
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE ENDING
Btw on page 370 the phrase 'Herculean task' was used which made me wonder whether this world had Greek history happen...
And another thing that was cool to see was when they said that Anette wanted to be queen like a child wants something they can't have, and then Estelle went 'I want that bitch dead and I want my crown' which is a great parallel between the two....
and once again what WAS that ending
Btw on page 370 the phrase 'Herculean task' was used which made me wonder whether this world had Greek history happen...
And another thing that was cool to see was when they said that Anette wanted to be queen like a child wants something they can't have, and then Estelle went 'I want that bitch dead and I want my crown' which is a great parallel between the two....
and once again what WAS that ending
January 29, 2025
...That is the most heart-broken i have ever been after reading. And also, one of the best endings ever. I aspire to write like you, and oh my fuck i cannot wait for the next book. The fact that the ending made sense is what really made me cry in the middle of the night. 10/10, best experience ever, would do again
March 12, 2025
Continuing the tradition of an absolutely bonkers final 10%. All things are balanced as they should be. Except for Estelle who, for all intents and purposes, is the reason this whole thing started. She is opaque and a little bit boring as a character, but everyone was so bewitched by her ethereal beauty and intelligence and "she's so amazing, i want to marry her" and her eloquence and how she just might be god.
Julian Hanover and Carter Braganza, you will always be famous.
Julian Hanover and Carter Braganza, you will always be famous.
September 18, 2025
This book captivated me and made me want to keep reading. I loved it all throughout, and while for me it is a longer book, and longer read, I could not get myself to stop thinking about it. The ending absolutely broke me, and it made it worse when I realized im going to have to wait so long for book two. Though the ending does feel a little bit rushed to me.
September 4, 2024
I was lucky enough to beta read this book and when I tell you I was hooked from page one. The characters are so real and full of life. The story is intricate and compelling all the way through. You’ll never get over this book once you read it. I know I certainly haven’t.
March 11, 2025
not to say guys holy shit again but. guys holy shit this is so good? catherine my underrated beloved <3 if there's a sequel (?) i am so hyped for it.
May 18, 2025
i loveddd this book, it was so so good. the switching pov's, and just the way the story was told was amazing!!!
June 26, 2025
Devastating. I’m just baffled. I desperately need the next one.
October 27, 2025
2,5 stars
conflict for the sake of conflict
conflict for the sake of conflict
October 24, 2025
WHAT THE FUCKKK AJAJSHSHAJISHEHWUSUSHDHDHHDSJSJAJAKALMQMWNSDBDHDJ
edit: i have some thoughts so i'll do a more insightful rewiev.
WARNING: some vague spoilers
i'll start with the positive stuff:
- the characters are definietly the biggest strenght of this book, i love the main trio sm and Julian is my blorbo
- the prose is really pretty
- there's a lot of detailed desceiptions of clothes and interiors, but i don't mind it because i like to have an accurate vision of the scene i'm reading
- the relationships between the characters, i liked the romance, the friendships and the drama
- THE AROACE REPP (and generally the queer rep)
- the author is a really cool person, and you can see that it was written with passion
now the negative stuff:
- majority of the book is very slow paced and then it suddenly gets ultra fast
- i couldn't understand some of the character's motivation, especially Carter's (at one point Julian says that they both have a lot to loose, but i geniuely don't know what Carter is risking??)
- some things seemed very random, but i'm not a native english speaker so maybe it was the language barrier
- it's really obvious who is the villain, and they succeded and were defeated too easily
- the worldbuilding could've been more developped
- i saw another rewiev saying that this book is actually really chill and it's not as dark as it's advertised, and i have to agree.
- (maybe i'm being petty but there were two typos. to be fair i point it out every time i see that kind of error anywhere)
but in the end i've really enjoyed it. it made me feel Emotions™ and i had a good time reading it. not everything has to be perfect for you to enjoy it and that's how i treat this book.
i reccommend it as a casual read, especially since you can download the ebook version for free.
i have bigger hopes for the second part (the lowland king, which i can't wait for) because the conflict is already established, and generally book series tend to be a bit better with every new book
edit: i have some thoughts so i'll do a more insightful rewiev.
WARNING: some vague spoilers
i'll start with the positive stuff:
- the characters are definietly the biggest strenght of this book, i love the main trio sm and Julian is my blorbo
- the prose is really pretty
- there's a lot of detailed desceiptions of clothes and interiors, but i don't mind it because i like to have an accurate vision of the scene i'm reading
- the relationships between the characters, i liked the romance, the friendships and the drama
- THE AROACE REPP (and generally the queer rep)
- the author is a really cool person, and you can see that it was written with passion
now the negative stuff:
- majority of the book is very slow paced and then it suddenly gets ultra fast
- i couldn't understand some of the character's motivation, especially Carter's (at one point Julian says that they both have a lot to loose, but i geniuely don't know what Carter is risking??)
- some things seemed very random, but i'm not a native english speaker so maybe it was the language barrier
- it's really obvious who is the villain, and they succeded and were defeated too easily
- the worldbuilding could've been more developped
- i saw another rewiev saying that this book is actually really chill and it's not as dark as it's advertised, and i have to agree.
- (maybe i'm being petty but there were two typos. to be fair i point it out every time i see that kind of error anywhere)
but in the end i've really enjoyed it. it made me feel Emotions™ and i had a good time reading it. not everything has to be perfect for you to enjoy it and that's how i treat this book.
i reccommend it as a casual read, especially since you can download the ebook version for free.
i have bigger hopes for the second part (the lowland king, which i can't wait for) because the conflict is already established, and generally book series tend to be a bit better with every new book
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