I've been following Isabelle Adler on Twitter for a while now, and I've been long curious about reading her books: the occasional lineshares on Twitter as well as the author's personality made me think she writes the kind of thing I like to read. I only just finally tested the theory—my TBR is vast and insurmountable and fitting new reads there can be tricky, I'm sure you know how it works—and yup! I really loved this book! It was adventurous, romantic, with great characters, interesting bits of worldbuilding, and a political intrigue that had me guessing. There were also interesting family dynamics, and one of my favorite tropes: "keep your magic hidden."

I absolutely love the inclusivity of the setting here. No one is assumed to be straight, cis isn't the absolute default either, nonbinary people casually exist and aren't questioned, and there's zero conflict hinging on the queerness of the main characters (or anyone at all). The MCs were very much my kind of people, Derek especially with his soft manners concealing a steel core of responsibility, duty, and determination.

The romantic storyline itself developed a bit too quickly for my taste. It is, however, entirely a matter of personal preference: in the context of the plot, it worked perfectly. The characters got into some pretty extreme circumstances, having to endure a kidnapping and a prison break together, and that made pushed them together and made them realize things about each other at an equally fast pace. I admit I would have enjoyed following the same two people with the same two traumatic backstories get to know each other at a slower pace, but it would have been a totally different book then. I did very much enjoy the book I got, anyway.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable "arranged marriage turns real" m/m fantasy romance, and I'm excited to read more by this author in the nearest future! :)