My brain has blocked out the specifics of this book to protect me from emotional damage, and honestly? That's valid. Self-preservation is real.
What I know: there was joy. There was heartbreak. There was the constant whiplash of this series giving you everything you want in one chapter and then RIPPING it away in the next. The twins fighting for their throne, the Heirs being forced to pick sides, alliances shifting, Lionel being the worst villain in all of fiction — it was all happening at full speed and I was holding on for dear life.
Darius and Tory's dynamic reached a fever pitch here. The push and pull, the impossible choices, the weight of fate literally written in the stars working against them — it was agonizing. Orion and Darcy still forbidden and still devastating. And through it all, Geraldine remained an unshakeable queen.
This series has broken me so many times that my brain started filing it under "trauma I don't need to revisit." But I gave it 4.5 stars so clearly, even through the pain, it was WORTH it. The Peckham and Valenti chokehold is real and inescapable.
👑 4.5/5 stars. Joy and heartbreak in equal measure. My therapist could never.