crothe77 's review for:

Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer
emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
 
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer is a first person multi-POV polyamorous fantasy romance. Jory has been arranged to marry the king of an enemy kingdom and move to his realm. Her childhood friend and assassin, Asher, swears to do whatever he can to see her again. But when Asher sees that both Jory and Ky, her betrothed, have a bounty on their heads, he needs to do whatever he can to save Jory. What none of them planned on was for the three of them to be attracted to each other.

One of the things that really worked well for me is that Asher and Jory already are attracted to each other and they are both aware of it by the time the book opens. Nothing has really happened between them, but they both do want something more. The one holding them back is Asher, for several reasons, including that he knows that he and Jory cannot be together despite him being born into the upper class as he was enslaved during their childhood. Because Asher and Jory already romantically care for each other and there is this barrier between them they have both acknowledged, it makes it easier to buy into what comes after Ky enters the mix.

Ky and Jory are attracted to each other fairly quickly after meeting and there is a bit of a mutual admiration as Ky notices Jory’s bravery and she sees that he’s not the monster that she was lead to believe he was due to his fire magic and the prejudices that tend to come with two countries being at war. When Ky meets Asher, it takes longer for something to start between them, but the both of them notice at about the halfway point that the other is attractive and that they are intrigued by the other. The two are connected through Jory at first, but they develop their own bond within the relationship.

This is definitely what I would call a fantasy romance. Everything revolves around the romance, we get the POVs of all members of the romance, and the plot takes its time to make sure everyone is comfortable with what is happening. As such, not a ton outside of the romance happens, but that’s fairly normal with a fantasy romance as a Romantasy and a romantic fantasy would put more weight behind the fantasy aspects.

Content warning for depictions of enslavement and mentions of sexual assault, forced prostitution, and torture

I would recommend this to fans of fantasy romance looking for a polyamorous book