3 stars

Fantasy romance is one of my favorite genre, and while I never read Gaelen Foley's book before when I see she have one of fantasy romance titles I decide to buy the ebook in Kobo (that now the title only available through Amazon). While I do enjoy the adventure of Wrynne du Mere with her Paladin lover (later, husband) Thaydor Clarenbeld and their merry comrades, I feel some things are lacking, since for a fantasy novel, the world building is not that strong. Some aspects also grating my nerves especially the way Foley describe the religion in the Kingdom of Veraidel. Basically there are several religion, with main religion is Ilian, they worship the God of Light, Ilios, in which their believer describe as a VERY GOOD persons, like goody two legs. No kidding. Both Thaydor and Wrynne constantly chastised another religion and think that another religion -like the worshiper of war god Xoltheus (the Bloodletter), the goddess of prostitute Fonja (that remind me of myth of Innana/Ishtar), the Dark God Okteus that is the antithesis of Ilios, and the hermaphrodite god/goddess Efrena that prefer harmony of all things, - are beneath their Ilian's religion. Too blatant for my taste, too BLACK and WHITE. I know that evil vs good trope is staple in fantasy, but I don't like how they presented in here. It make the conflicts are just too simple, too straightforward. 

I do enjoy Wrynne but found that Thaydor is just so-so. While I know he's a paladin that stay true to his path and oath, I think he's a boring fellow of sort. Why, even the author herself assert that Thaydor is boring as stick. And even one of their comrade, Jonty the Bard said that both Wrynne and Thaydor is holier-than-thou, lel. I find myself more interested to another characters, like Jonty himself, then Thaydor's rival, the grumpy Sir Reynulf and the enigmatic sorcerer that follow the dark God as opposed to the Ilian, Novus. I also find that Wrynne and Thaydor fallen in love too fast, but eh, I'm not stranger to insta love. True to their holiness attitude, although both Wrynne and Thaydor can't take their hands off of each other, they decide to consummated their love (aka having sex) after they were married. How delightful, how charming ☻️😌. Their relationship is too perfect to my taste at first, although the challenge that Foley throw to both MCs in the last part of story make their interaction improved. Just a little bit, like how Wrynne amend her past judgement especially to the follower of the Fonja. 

Sadly, there's no female friendship found here, and the amount of slut-shaming is plenty. The only friendship Wrynne had is with her fairy comrade, and the fact that I forget the fairy name speaks volume because the fairy itself just have a minor role. Another female characters either just describe as a side character (like Wrynne's sister and mother or Thaydor's sister) or a very evil and nasty person, like the King's mistress. Too said this book is full of testosterone since Wrynne is apparently the only female that have ability here is an understatement, but when I see the date when this book was written which is in 2015, maybe that's why. Maybe it will be different if written in circa 2020'-ish. I said that the world building is not that strong, because I don't have a clue in where this Veraidel kingdom located. There's a mention of Highlander and Jonty's accents is pretty much Scottish. So is this a Britain-inspired kingdom or just a mismatched world with medieval setting? Although its have some exotic and mythical beast like the Urmgoth that pretty much remind me of orcs, dire wolves and rocs birds. 

Although not that good, this book is not that bad either and somehow remind me of a good ol' fantasy book. Sadly, even though Foley said that she envisioned this series to have 3 books more after Paladin's Prize to at least give Jonty, Sir Reynulf and Novus their respectively HEA, she said that she had postponed to write the continuation. It had been 8 years after this book released, so I don't know if she will be back to the Kingdom of Veraidel world. I so want to read about Jonty, from the blurb of Muse of Fire that Foley provide in the end of the Paladin's Prize book. At least Jonty is interesting enough, he's one of my favorite character to date and without Jonty's antic or Reynulf's redemption and Novus's help despite he's a sorcerer that dab in dark magic, I might DNF'd this book. 

Oh well, if you like a fantasy romance that not heavy on world building also okay with the amount of preaching about religion (that in my mind, hit too close to reality) and like the Dungeon & Dragons archetype character, this book might be your forte.