For the first half of this book, I wondered if it might end up getting a full five stars from me. The novel gripped me instantly, I liked the worldbuilding and loved the characters. Sadly the second half of the book, while enjoyable, took a bit of a dip in quality and the ending felt rather rushed. I would however recommend this book to anyone who likes character-focused space opera with a fair bit of romance. 

I'm unsure why this book is marketed as fantasy, as it is fairly clearly soft sci-fi, with a plot revolving around diplomatic marriage between royalty from two different planets, and featuring aliens and advanced technology. 

The romance did work for me, though there are times when it maybe needed a little bit more development. I did like that I did not find it obvious from the beginning which man the main character was going to end up falling in love with (there were two possibilities). There was also a secondary romance between two male characters that I liked a lot but was very much in the background - perhaps one day the author will write their story as I would like to read it. 

Overall I enjoyed this book a fair bit, but it needed more work to be truly brilliant. I will be reading more by this author.