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musetraxed's review
It's so funny to me that many reviewers are like "Please look past this cover" and then I found this book because it went on sale because BookTok went nuts for the cover. Then I read the front matter and the author has a very prudish thanks to the cover artist that immediately makes me roll my eyes.
There are some engaging, interesting elements of the plot that held me strong for the first 200 pages. The prose and characterization were fine (YMMV). Then we got to Wintercraig and I started looking for reviews because I needed to know if Khamsin would ever have a single ally she could trust.
FANTASY: There is worldbuilding and major stakes. Two kingdoms go to war over a legendary magical weapon; another legendary weapon nearly destroys everything. The impact of the gods on our protagonists is personal and significant, even if those gods do not appear directly. There is politicking from small to large scale. Human enemies unite for the final battle against an existential threat. Personally, I loved the big, sweeping stuff. The petty politicking made sense but wasn't enjoyable or compelling reading.
ROMANCE: There is a lot of instant-love/instant-lust between Khamsin and Wynter to ease the noncon/dubcon moments. Wynter's possessive, domineering behavior gets the usual paranormal romance "wolf" justifications. Both leads have unresolved trauma and grief but Wynter physically avoids Khamsin when he decides its best for her/him/them. He has her kept under watch for personal as much as political reasons. Wynter only addresses Khamsin's concerns about the jealous recurring minor character by promising his wife of his marital fidelity; he otherwise does not acknowledge the multiple threats this character ultimately poses, so he doesn't support Khamsin much in dealing with her.
I understood from reading around this was an intentional 'throwback' to 80s epic fantasy romance. It's definitely a long book with interesting worldbuilding but can I suggest Kit Rocha or maybe Kati Wilde's barbarian romances or Mallory Dunlin for darker fantasy monster romance? These aren't 1:1 recs, I just think that you can have worldbuilding/scope and without isolating your protagonists or so much dubcon, etc. etc.
There are some engaging, interesting elements of the plot that held me strong for the first 200 pages. The prose and characterization were fine (YMMV). Then we got to Wintercraig and I started looking for reviews because I needed to know if Khamsin would ever have a single ally she could trust.
FANTASY: There is worldbuilding and major stakes. Two kingdoms go to war over a legendary magical weapon; another legendary weapon nearly destroys everything. The impact of the gods on our protagonists is personal and significant, even if those gods do not appear directly. There is politicking from small to large scale. Human enemies unite for the final battle against an existential threat. Personally, I loved the big, sweeping stuff. The petty politicking made sense but wasn't enjoyable or compelling reading.
ROMANCE: There is a lot of instant-love/instant-lust between Khamsin and Wynter to ease the noncon/dubcon moments. Wynter's possessive, domineering behavior gets the usual paranormal romance "wolf" justifications. Both leads have unresolved trauma and grief but Wynter physically avoids Khamsin when he decides its best for her/him/them. He has her kept under watch for personal as much as political reasons. Wynter only addresses Khamsin's concerns about the jealous recurring minor character by promising his wife of his marital fidelity; he otherwise does not acknowledge the multiple threats this character ultimately poses, so he doesn't support Khamsin much in dealing with her.
I understood from reading around this was an intentional 'throwback' to 80s epic fantasy romance. It's definitely a long book with interesting worldbuilding but can I suggest Kit Rocha or maybe Kati Wilde's barbarian romances or Mallory Dunlin for darker fantasy monster romance? These aren't 1:1 recs, I just think that you can have worldbuilding/scope and without isolating your protagonists or so much dubcon, etc. etc.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Grief, Emotional abuse, Child death, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Abandonment, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Confinement, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War
Three years later, Wynter arrives in Summerlea and explains that as part of his revenge his terms of surrender requires the king give him one of his 3 beloved daughters to marry. What is revealed through the dual POV is that a 4th daughter, Khamsin, was disowned by her father for accidentally killing her mother with her unpredictable storm powers when she was 3 years old. Her father hates her and abuses her, including slapping her face (later also burning it with his signet ring) and having her 'caned'. The latter punishment is used to coerce Khamsin deceiving and marry Wynter in her sisters' place.
Wynter first sees Khamsin at a distance when he entered the city. Later, she disguises herself as a serving girl to search his rooms for her mother's things and Wynter physically restrains her against a wall to stop her escape. A heightened sense of smell makes Wynter aware of her arousal and he imagines coaxing her to stay and have sex. While she is restrained, Wynter kisses her, gropes her, and partially unbuttons her bodice before she escapes. His internal monologue expresses his shock: "[But] one thing he'd never been was a rapist." He also rationalizes his actions as compulsion, using the term "primitive" and comparing his behavior to wolves.
The above encounter is directly after Wynter gave his terms of surrender to the Summerlea king. Khamsin is caught by palace staff while escaping and brought to her father who decides to sacrifice her to the arranged marriage which requires intensive deception as Wynter does not know there is a 4th princess. Khamsin initially refuses and the king almost beats her to death. These injuries are not fully healed before the wedding although Khamsin goes through with the ceremony, the feast, and the consummation despite this. Later, the wounds are infected and she nearly dies of sepsis before she uses her magic to heal herself.
To deceive Wynter into marrying Khamsin, the royal family (including Khamsin's nurse) use heavy veils and perfumes along with other staging and deception to make Wynter believe he is marrying Autumn. Khamsin refuses to let her sister stand in her place during the ceremony or the feast and her inner monologue is explicit about the pain she is in because of her still-healing wounds.
The Summerlea king gives Wynter and Khamsin a drugged drink at their wedding feast. The drug is primarily a stimulant and an aphrodisiac with side effects on memory. Under these circumstances, Wynter's POV describes hurting Khamsin during the start of their PiV intercourse because of their drugged urgency. He later wakes up alone and believes the additional blood from her back wounds means he raped her under the drug's effect. He's immediately remorseful and determined to make restitution when he finds her.
The deception is revealed while Khamsin and Wynter are preparing to leave Summerlea. Confronting the king in his study, Wynter discovers the wounds on Khamsin's back and the burn wound on her cheek. As retribution for the deception and the harm done to Khamsin, Wynter uses his weapon to freeze the king's right arm until the limb dies.
The journey from Summerlea back to Wintercraig describes Khamsin's difficulty with eating as her wounds fester. It also describes her pain and claustrophobia inside the travel carriage. Wynter threatens her verbally and physically to coerce her to eat. Khamsin and her maid conspire to hide the disposal of the food she isn't eating over the next 4 days. There are descriptions of medical treatments over 3 days as Wynter's surgeon tries to save Khamsin's life. In a fevered delirium, Khamsin creates a dangerous storm. She strikes herself with lightning and heals her wounds completely.
Wynter has been using the Ice Heart at a cost to himself. He uses it to starve the storm Khamsin created before it can hurt anyone and it takes him to a detached, emotionless state that reverses as he comes closer to and ultimately touches Khamsin. Although Khamsin explained briefly that the king blamed her for her mother's death, she has a deeply emotional moment when Wynter reassures her that she didn't kill anyone. He reflects on his own fears of and guilt with collateral damage since taking the Ice Heart.
Wynter wants to have sex now that Khamsin is physically healed and they are no longer drugged. He tries to control her with commands, then threats, then ultimately manipulates her by citing their wedding vows. He uses the bath as an excuse to physically arouse her then confronts her about her part in the deceptions arranging their marriage. She, in turn, confronts him about his threat to leave his wife to die of exposure if she does not have a child within a year of their marriage, taking another Summerlea princess with the same deadline until he has an heir. Acting under these threats as much as her attraction to him, Khamsin initiates sex.
Khamsin decides to see this marriage as freedom from her family and her attraction to her husband as a chance to 'live large' before dying if she cannot deliver a child under his threat. Even though she is healed, she has a claustrophobic reaction to the travel carriage. They agree to share a saddle and ride hard for Wintercraig which causes new physical damage to Khamsin. Wynter tends these injuries until they reach the capital.
The above is about 200 pages in the book. There's racism up to this point but Khamsin's experiences of racial othering and exclusion in Wintercraig explores this at length. A one-off character poisons Khamsin and it causes her to miscarry. The Summerlea maid is revealed to also be poisoning Khamsin both to prevent her from having a child and to get her killed (by Wynter's threat if nothing else). A recurring minor female character causes escalating harm because she wants Wynter for herself.
Wynter and Khamsin have a turbulent relationship for all the reasons you might expect in a politically arranged marriage between enemies with powerful magic, especially since Khamsin believes Wynter will kill her in a year if she doesn't have a child (he reveals what he threatened was a dangerous exile, not an outright execution, but c'mon now). Wynter also struggles with the Ice Heart and tries to prevent the return of the destructive god it originated from.
The jealous recurring minor female character is the cousin of Wynter's ex-fiance, the one who ran off with Khasmin's brother in the prologue. This character escalates from petty social/political maneuvering with Khamsin to leading her into a lethal trap to eventually revealing her part in using/manipulating the Ice Heart to complete Wynter's possession by the evil god. She brings her cousin and Khamsin's brother back to Wintercraig as part of her coup.
Khamsin's brother and father lead an invasion of Wintercraig as the Ice Heart takes hold of Wynter. Khamsin discovers that her brother did sanction the destruction of a Wintercraig town to cover his escape and he also intentionally killed Wynter's brother. Both brother and father are trying to recover the legendary sword Blazing that was created by the sun god that founded their royal line. Because of their evil, the sword only recognizes Khamsin as its true Heir.
Khamsin's struggle to free herself result in her father's death and her rejection of her brother, who she ultimately offers exile if he fights against the existential threat of the returning evil god. She brings the Summerlea and foreign armies to her cause against the possessed Wynter. The jealous minor character is also killed before the evil god is stopped and Khamsin nearly dies taking a blow for Wynter just after he's freed from the Ice Heart. An epilogue shows her pregnant with twins and establishes the next book's pairing.
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