Escaping into My Books

This book did not cause me near as much pain as I feared.

Mainly because  it skipped the usual things that frustrate me an cause me stress in love stories about star-crossed, shouldn't be lovers....the pages and pages of plot device misunderstandings and tragic near misses that keep them apart and fighting for endless chapter. Thank god, cause this story was tragic enough. There was conflict, but it was understandable and needed, else nothing else would make sense

Shazi, our heroine basically volunteers to be the bride of The King, a King who is known to basically...murder his brides the night of their wedding, with no explanation. Shazi volunteers bent on revenge, as her best friend Shiva was the latest victim of this monster King. So she goes into the palace as his new bride with the plan to murder the King....and make it past her wedding night. Of course...there ended up being a slight glitch in her plan.

I thought the build up of this story was great. And like an onion, each layer of the story and the characters is slowly peeled away to reveal more and more secrets. While reading you understand why these two people are so drawn to each other, and why Shazi becomes so unsure of her original plan. Why she becomes so conflicted. I love a slow build romance, and this delivered....and like I mentioned without unnecessary misunderstandings and drama. The story had drama enough. And just the fact that Shazi entered that palace created five more lines of drama that brewed  in the background. While you are enjoying the main story...these other events are developing on the sides...you just stare at it at the side of your eyes with impending doom. And the doom comes at the end of the book for sure.

But I see the them of this book being about love, and the different way people love,  and lie to themselves about love; how that love or lack of it can make or break us. Make us angels, or turn us into monsters. And sometimes while fighting a monster chasing revenge and retribution, you can't avoid becoming a monster yourself.

Once again this is a series...and once again I must wait for the next book. Life is hard.