Carys has entered the competition for the crown to the Eastern Kingdom, and she’s a clear favorite. But then Ersan, her ex-Fated, joins the competition. He lost her trust and broke her heart many years ago when he kept the secret of her half-sister from her. But he has not given up on the hope of winning her back. She will not let herself be distracted by him, though, because the threat of the Violet Witch still hangs over the Kingdom. Carys wants to be strong and help save the Kingdom, but she doesn’t know if she has the strength to stand by herself.

This was a disappointing end to this steamy epic fantasy-romance series. I wanted to like it because the romantic leads were dealing with depression or had a disability, but I felt those things were not handled well (e.g. the disability would disappear sometimes). Things were inconsistent all over (flow, jumps between chapters, descriptions, characters actions, etc), and there were parts where it felt like things were missing from the text (scenes, explanations, etc). Even though this is the final book in the series, it felt like the shortest as it rushed to give an ending to the overarching story and didn’t have much of a story for Carys herself. I also dislike when the main conflict between two characters stems entirely from one refusing to tell the other something. The romance was definitely steamy, but felt forced. Overall just disappointed with this one.

Content warning: severe depression, suicidal ideation