Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy Romance Novella
Length: 250 pages
Author: Barbara Kloss
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: October 7th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads
BOOK SUMMARY:
Married by Treachery is book 5 in the Arranged Marriages of the Fae series.
Raquel never expected to marry a bear. To be fair, Prince Edom wasn’t actually a bear, but it was impossible to see his face through his mess of wild hair. Not that she needed to see his face. In fact, it was probably better that she didn’t.
Because she was going to kill him.
It had been seven years since Prince Edom had galloped off with her best friend through the magicked veil, and taken her into his magicked kingdom. Seven long years of resolve, of hard work and training, so that Raquel would be ready for this day: the day she would exact vengeance upon Prince Edom, for all the brides he’d stolen.
For all the brides he’d murdered.
Raquel vowed she would be the last, but she wasn’t prepared for what lay on the veil’s other side. It was not the lush and magnificent kingdom from the stories of her youth, and, as it turned out, its prince was not what she’d expected either.
No, Prince Edom was not what she’d expected at all.
Thank you to Barbara Kloss for an eARC!
A GOOD TIME.
I really enjoyed this!! I thought it was a fun idea to see a bunch of fantasy romance authors get together for a mash-up of loved tropes and romantic novellas.
There was some great banter here and I loved the initial reactions between Raquel and Jake. Their natures really bounced off of one another until the undeniable magnetism took hold. I thought the dreams were a unique sequence to kind of further the romantic plot and help change the characters mind about how they were responding to each other.
I do think being a touch longer would have helped. I was a little confused by some magic system and plot aspects which I know can be hard to wrap all up into a novella. This as a full length series?? YES. Maybe that’s in the works and this is a starting point?! No idea, but one can hope!
The pacing made for a quick, finish in a day read and it hit well. I liked the movement and how things all wrapped up in the end. I love Kloss’s writing style and look forward to her next book(s)!
Overall audience notes:
- Fantasy Romance Novella
- Language: some
- Romance: very brief fade to black
- Violence: medium
- Trigger/Content Warnings: kidnapping, loss of loved ones, battle scenes, grave wounds
Instagram || Goodreads || The StoryGraph
GoodeyReads 