Married to a ruthless prince…
For years, Max had to serve and obey the vicious magical nobles. Now he is one of them.
When the heir to the throne attacks him, Max accidentally responds with a lethal burst of magic. Max is certain he will be executed. But his power is too rare and precious for that…
Instead, the king forces him to become the boy he killed, taking on the identity and duties of the heir. That includes an arranged marriage—to the dangerously attractive Prince Camron.
Living a lie, Max knows he can trust no one. Not Camron. And definitely not Simion, a handsome, dragon-riding spy sent to test his loyalty.
As a deadly struggle for power begins and desire sparks, Max must protect his secret and his heart at all costs.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
I find it difficult to rate this book. On the one hand, I must say that it is a good story. I liked it, and it kept me on the edge of a precipice of emotions almost 100% of the reading.
The author delivers what he promises, and that must have been a hint for me of what was to come: it is, certainly, a mix between Merlin and The House of the Dragon… That means everyone lies, everyone has ulterior motives, and you shouldn't trust anyone. There is no black and white, only shades of gray. There are no bad or good people (except Julian y Jonathan Gathrax, they are absolutely bad, full-fledged sons of a b****); only people who have plans and purposes that they want to accomplish.
And on the other hand, there is the fact that I hate love triangles with all my heart, and that must have been another sign to me that this book would not be entirely to my liking… Not because it's a bad book, but because one of the important aspects of it is not to my taste.
So this is an honest and unbiased review, almost…
There is Max, who has lived all his life believing that he is the son of mere servants in the house of one of the rulers of the Southern territory.
The first chapters briefly explain the political division of the territory and the existing dispute between the South and the North (it would have been nice to have a map. I mean, what fantasy book worth its salt doesn't have a map?) We learn about the existence of mages, dryads, and dragons… So far, so good.
Things happen, and we find out that Max is a mage, which is supposed to be impossible since the magic source of the South was destroyed by the North… And thus begin the misadventures of Maximus Oaken (I found it curious and almost impossible to believe that nobody wondered why Max bears the last name Oaken, like Heart Oaken. A fact that nobody has paid attention to, and I wonder why).
Misadventures in which Max is abused, threatened, used for the purposes of others, forced to do things against his will, and made commitments that only death can undo (or perhaps not even death can set him free). Shortly after, our love interests Simion (who in my head I changed the name to Simon) and Camron appear. It is assumed that Max feels an undeniable attraction towards both of them and they in turn towards him, but that remains on paper… I didn't feel like it was really intense…
Max is kidnapped and/or held captive by one character or another, and although he always breaks “free”, he is never really free, he comes out of someone's captivity to be in someone else's.
The fact that everyone has a piece of the truth about what's going on, but no one wanted to talk about it had me desperate. And that in the end Max does the same and instead of revealing his conversation with the Queen he decides to keep quiet… that made me much more angry.
I don't know how to feel about being right about Beatrice. I liked that I didn't have to wait until the end of the book for Max to have his revenge, but I didn't like the ending itself.
This is supposed to be the first book in a trilogy or series. So I guess we will have to wait for the next books to know the whole truth and see how everything is solved.
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