This book surprised me.

I'm used to being underwhelmed by popular books. But this one I enjoyed. This book doesn't have the usual tropes that make me sick.

And this book gets a praise for being way less problematic than some other enemies to lovers books. Like From Blood and Ash is a train wreck that has no understanding of consent and really feels like a violation that you can only enjoy if you think it's written as a joke for people who can put aside their feminism.
And this doesn't have that 500 year age gap between the characters! The huge age gap is starting to feel more like a joke every time I read another book like that because how would anyone know how a 500-year-old people would act if they had the body of a 20-something.

Yet this book has exciting fantasy characters, including the broody, dark haired love interest. The main character who is married to a king and made a queen against her will DOESN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT HEIRS. Like, that whole idea about "well, you're married to a man you don't really know and you're expected to give him an heir" is such bullshit and makes my skin crawl with disgust. I'm glad to be rid of it.

And, in case you heard from BookTok that this book is spicy or "basically porn": it's not. There are couple kissing scenes and there's one sex scene. The other times are only implied.