Lor is an amazing fmc. She’s intelligent, resilient, and a totally bad ass human in a game full of fae. While she was a little naive, I loved watching her grow and get stronger and stronger throughout this book. i was getting TOG vibes. prison, cruel ruler, deadly competition, always there guard, secretly not a plain human but a long lost queen. The amount of clown memes I have stored is really being put to good use lmao 💀. If u liked this book, please uh, cover your eyes 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️. That said, the alternate POV chapters from a certain someone made it difficult to fully invest myself in any connection Lor formed with the people of Aphelion. But, it should be mentioned that I can be cynical and am usually suspicious of any good deed in romantic fantasy books where the stakes are high. To try and avoid any spoilers, I will wait to explain that further until this book has been released. didn’t mag or healers question her prison brand on her shoulder? or was it normal for some umbra citizen to have those?

i cringed every time atlas was in the scene. maybe it was me but his every remark felt condescending.

But, I understand it's hard to write a fantasy book and NOT have it compared to ACTOAR or SJM's work so while these are BROAD strokes, it's more of the vibe. And I loved ACOTAR and I really enjoyed this. I will say that the POV chapters from Naider's POV made it difficult to invest in Atlas. Because why would the non-love interest have their own chapters? actually when or if one of the tribute became the queen , suddenly all the staff that tortured them during the trials was going to kiss their ass. so my question was why madame odell was so stupid lol. she interacted with a potential future queen daily, so maybe show a little bit of respect?? Nope, there's no romance in the book, just insta-lust all over it. Their whole conversation is so cringeworthy I was tormented reading it. Anyway if anyone would like to know specifically what the main character did, DM me as I won’t be posting spoilers here. For now though I’m too frustrated to continue with this book but that’s never to say you’ll feel the same way so as I always say, give it a try.

Lor is rescued, or is it kidnapped? You will have to find out! She is forced to participate in the deadly Sun Queens Trials to rule beside the Sun King; Atlas. Her conditions seem to have improved drastically, now she has a chance to save her family and rule with a handsome and charming man beside her...but why does it still feel like a prison?But, with every answer we get, we end up with more questions along the way. There are hints dropped, clues provided, and easter eggs mentioned and I can only draw my own conclusions about what the author is trying to foreshadow. Some of them seem kind of obvious because they're repetitive, but I'm still not sure where she is going with this. I think it will be a very satisfying story once all of the pieces are put together... The Bachelor meets the Hunger Games. Ten women. A deadly contest. Only one can win the Sun King's heart. The fantasy aspect of the book was the only reason I didn't rate this lower. The general premise behind it, although predictable, was relatively interesting, but just was not fledged out. Nothing really got the time to fully be explained.