Arwen Valondale lives in the small town of Abbington in the Kingdom of Amber with her sick mother and younger sister. Her brother Ryder has been drafted to fight in a war against the much larger and richer Kingdom of Onyx – a war that everybody knows was started by Onyx because their King is driven by pure greed. The war is not going well, and their brother might very well be dead.

But Ryder returns home suddenly, not only alive but a deserter and a thief fleeing with a bag of Onyx money. He’s being pursued to Onyx soldiers so the entire family needs to get out of town fast. Arwen is the only one who doesn’t get away in time and she is transported back to Onyx as a prisoner.

Arwen is a healer, and although she starts off as a prisoner she manages to barter her abilities into a position in the castle. She makes friends with some of the people there, most importantly with the King of Onyx himself, Kane Ravenwood. She starts to learn that not everything she learned in Amber was entirely accurate.

I gotta tell you, I am not entirely sure what to make of Kane. The man is a mass of contradictions.

He has zero problem with killing and torturing people, but I guess he draws the line at rape because he kills Lieutenant Bert when he tries to assault Arwen. He tells Arwen there are eyes all over the castle and he knows everything that happens when she visits Halden in the dungeon – but he claims he didn’t know Bert was a rapist. Bert also threatened to kill her before she healed Barney, did Kane know Bert was killing young women who he deemed “no use” to him? Women in the exact target age group he was searching for? If she hadn’t figured out she could heal – or if her fae powers had taken less obvious path – their “save the world” plot would have ended right there.

I had to laugh when Kane tells Arwen that he can’t afford emotions, that Kings who listen to their emotions make bad decisions that harm their people. He is easily the most emotional character in the book and pretty much all his decisions are based on how mad (or horny) he is at any given moment. I’m pretty sure Commander Griffin would back me up here.

Arwen’s family didn’t really make much of an impression on me in terms of their personalities, but we didn’t spend a lot of time with them so maybe they’ll get to stretch in the other books. Halden I recognized right away – everybody knows that one guy from school who just seemed like an average dude and then years later you see him on the news waving a Proud Boys flag.

Mari is a huge nerd and I can’t help picturing her looking just like Merida. Given how Arwen seems to be able to just walk right up to the throne room without being stopped I’m kind of surprised Mari hadn’t explored every inch of the place. But maybe that’s a privilege reserved for the first full-blood fae in centuries.

I also really loved the moments of humour. The moment where she dropped her sword and ran away from Dagan was legitimately funny. Her rambling about killing Kane and ruling Onxy with Barney at her side. She finds out Griffin is a Griffin and stops mid-battle to say, “Seriously?” I loved those moments.

The Public Library supports my book habit and as soon as I finished this one I put holds on the next to books. Wish me luck they get here soon, because I really want to find out what happens next!