The fact that both books in this duet, The Frost Touched Queen and The Winter Kissed Kings , passed through the hands—and eyes—of not only an editor but also a proofreader and still got published with so many mistakes is wild to me. Errors like "what a life summons up to" or "a foreboding feeling of helplessness begins to take route in my heart" are, frankly, inexcusable. Both books had a shocking amount of grammar and punctuation mistakes, as well as, malapropisms and continuity errors (like the guys using the wrong pet name, or Cleo calling Atlas, Teo) that negatively affected my reading experience.

Sometimes, I consider highlighting all the mistakes I find as I read along on my Kindle and then making them public here so, if the author wants to, they can go back and implement the corrections. But then I realize that'd be free labor and, as much as SPaG errors annoy me, it shouldn't fall on readers to do the work people—who I presume to be professionals—were hired to tackle. And perhaps the manuscript was a disaster, both the editor and proofreader worked their butts off and caught innumerable goofs, and the published product was leaps and bounds better than the original work they received. But it still wasn't good enough.

The inappropriate vernacular considering the medieval setting also continued to make an appearance. For example, with characters using the pet name babe. But it was, overall, admittedly better than in the last book.

Also, it warrants being said that all the angst I missed during The Frost Touched Queen showed up with a vengeance this time around. The confrontations between Levi and Kat during the first book were nothing but child's play considering how her reunion with Atlas went. Hell hath no fury like a sweet, broken-hearted boy turned vicious, ruthless King.

Those first chapters where the sovereign of the west had nothing but contempt and loathing for the Winter Queen were my favorite of the duet as a whole. The "enemies" part of enemies-to-lovers is my happy place, what can I say? And a lot of time was dedicated to Atlas hating Kat and yet being grudgingly emotionally attached to her still, which, again, what's not to like about that? Inner turmoil fueled by involuntary attraction and denied sexual tension will never not bring me joy.

The resolution of the betrayal plot which had seen some very light setting up previously, but got fully put together in this book, was rather quick and straightforward. Which was ok, since the was always meant to be a Why Choose romance and not a royal thriller.

All in all, it was a fairly predictable plot that we ended up getting, but still sufficiently entertaining. I remain firm in my belief that while the spice was ok, it was still super weird how Kat went from naive virgin to full polyamory with intense masochist vibes in a few short weeks. And that this duet desperately needs another good round of proofing.