Interesting premise and the payoff was great!

This book won me over with the Immortals After Dark series which I am totally not reading in order.

We have Sabine (h) and Rydstrom (H) as our centuries old protagonists on the Lore. H is our Demon King who is just and right while h is a wicked sorceress who would rather be nefarious and wrong. But h is put in a desperate position and needs H to comply:

Breed me or die.

Well, not those words specifically, but the basis is, she wants his protection, her queendom, and a round belly and he wants her trust and, well, her. But when she kidnaps him and becomes a seductress and he lies to her and dishes back his suffering on her, their romance and sensuality gets murky what with all the prophecies and poisons.

I appreciated both these protagonists so much because of how distinct they were in their voice and their motives. Sabine being a liar and the queen of illusions made me admire her strength. I understood her need for lies. But I also understood Rydstrom’s frustration and need to temper his kingdom.

I’m happy with how the miscommunication didn’t last forever and a day. Honestly, it was refreshing. No, they didn’t unload their secrets so quickly, but when the third act struck and I feared we would have a separation arc…it didn’t happen because Sabine understood Rydstrom’s choice!

We stan a conscientious queen.

I has nitpicky qualms with this. I think, considering Sabine, it didn’t make sense how quickly she spoke to Rydstrom after he threw away her gold. It would have been nice to see Sabine go completely silent and closed off and Rydstrom to understand more about sorceri and gold.

I also wish we saw more of the hidden emotional state of Sabine, but that is just me.

And I will just…never like Nix, no matter how hard I try. She is the snarky OP caricature character and I have loathed those sorts of characters since they keep appearing.

4.5 ⭐️s for this. I wonder when I’ll actually read the series in order.