4⭐️
2.5🌶️

Thank you Netgalley, HarperCollins UK, and One More Chapter for reaching out to me to read a copy of the arc for this book!

This book was definitely one that got better as you kept reading! I will admit, I struggled with it at first to get into it. I liked the story but the writing felt a bit wordy and it doesn’t help that being American and trying to read more British style slang and writing threw me off a time or two, but I kept going! 😊

The Promised Queen follows our FMC, Amber, who works as a thief to help her family stay afloat (her father and 2 brothers), unappreciatively I might add. On her latest heist though, she stumbles upon a young girl chain to a slab screaming for help. After freeing the girl, who gifts her a gaudy looking necklace, Ember herself is then captured by a group of people looking to sacrifice her. It’s only then that she plummets to a new realm unexpectedly, with people declaring her the Promised One sent to save their kingdom and restore magic to their sacred tree. A prophecy foretold her coming, but Ember tries to insist it’s a mistake and she wasn’t supposed to be the one who’s there.

Right away, she’s engaged to the prince, who is massive and only sparks stories calling him a beast and ugly upon compare. Her sole duty? Have heirs. But for a realm whose birth rate has dropped and anyone shown to be getting rid of pregnancies, Ember has a major secret she must keep or risk death.

Our MMC, Rhaell, Captain of the Guard, and insistent on being around Ember, knowing she truly is the Promised One but is looking to save magic in a different way than the king believes. He recruits Ember and her special thieving skills to acquire the stones for the heart of the tree, knowing a secret to the kingdom’s history no one else has discovered. They work together to capture the stones, save the realm, so Ember can get herself back to her world. It’s starts to get complicated not only when this tasks becomes beyond deadly, but also their obvious attraction for one another. Torn between wanting to go home to a loveless family, but still home, and staying to be married to a beast, Ember doesn’t know what she truly wants.

Again, this was a book that got better as I read. If I was going to rate based on the first part of the book, it might have been 3 stars, but as the plot developed, the spice kicked in, and some major plot twists I didn’t see coming, I ended up liking this book a lot more than I expected!

The spice 🌶️ is slow burn and we deal with a size difference trope but it was written well and went on for a good length, which I liked. If I’m going to invest in a slow burn, I want it to count and this did, so I was happy!

For the longest time, I actually thought this was going to be a stand alone book, because I figured things were wrapping up, but then BAM, plot twists and so much more that I was wrong and it’s set up nicely to continue into a next book! I will be curious to see where it goes and who the true villain will end up being!