I love Fae stories. When I read about this book a month before it was released I happily added it to my wishlist and counted down the days until I could buy it.
What really got my interest was the unusual set up; an arranged marriage between a convent educated woman and the son of a Fae Lord. Oh, also, the added spark that the Fae Lords ere EVIL. Evil, maniacal dictators who have divided England into their own personal playlands where they arbitrarily kill and maim people for sport. Their main sport is fighting for the King. Yep, the King of England is their trophy and they advance huge armies in a continual game to capture the King (who is rather aptly described as a silly, dull, chubby man who is a fashion obsessed).
Into this exciting world enters our heroine, Cassandra. Fair Cassandra has been trained as an assassin. Her entire life's work is training to kill the Fire Lord. Her route of access to him is through his complicit son, Dominic, who is half human, half fae and all sexy.
Just a little tidbit about the Fae Lords and their powers. They have the typical super magics and the Fire Lord, of course, works magical fire and can raze a building to the ground in an instant. Anyway, Cassandra isn't without a touch of powers herself. She dances. Not just dances, but she does magical sexy dances and when needed, death dances. Here's where the story hits its first snag for me, 'DANCING?!!! What the hell?'
Anyway, I was totally grooving with the dancing, I mean sure, it's not as super duper as invisibility or magical potions but oh well, Cassandra has killer moves, sure, why not.
Moving along to the arranged marriage now, because by this point in the book you already know enough about the world Cassandra lives in. Just a little clarification, I'm a fan of arranged marriage romances. I like it when the author puts the hero and heroine in this super intimate position without having an emotional connection and then lets them fall in love gradually after spending time with each other. The key word here is 'gradually.' There is no gradual emotional response in this book. Cassandra loves Dominic pretty much from the get go and Dominic takes just a couple of hours to fall in with her womanly ways.
Anyway, on to the main gist of the story. Cassandra's super plan is to marry Dominic, the Fire Lord's, cold, unfeeling, bastard son and use him to get to his father. Cassandra, who is described as sorta plain and unnoticeable is going to use her position and her feminine wiles to learn any weakpoints that the totally awesome Fae duo have. As a trained assassin she will use her keen intellect, her fighting skills, dancing and most of all, patience, to annihilate her enemies. Here's where the story hits its second snag, for a trained assassin she behaves a lot like an impatient schoolgirl.
Okay, on with the wedding. After a bout of dirty dancing,Miss Cassandra and her new hubby adjourn to their bed chamber for a bout of heated lovemaking. What?! I know, she hardly knows Dominic and as I've already stated, he's cold and unfeeling, but Cassandra turns all eager and lovelorn once she gets a look at his manly chest. I thought to myself, okay, sure, he is a hottie and he is her hubby, maybe it is best to try to enjoy the sex part, but from here on out, she's not just in love with him, she's crazy, writing-his-name-on-her-binder in love with him.
Same, same with Dominic, except he fights his feelings for her by hanging out with some trash whore his father approves of.
Now, just to clarify, I picked this book up because it's a romance. But I can't totally feel the romance if the characters fall in love and in bed with each other way before the halfway point. Talk about disappointing.
So, with the romance gone, all that's left is the secondary plot of the resistance trying to overthrow the Fae Lords. This plot was okay, except when Cassandra would muck things up by being impatient and lame.
So, I guess my feelings about this book are a little less than positive. There's a lot of cool stuff going on but I didn't love the heroine and after Dominic fell in love with her he seemed less like the strong, decisive, smart Alpha male and more like a thoughtless, emotional teenager with his first girlfriend.
Borrow this from a friend.
