A Court This Cruel and Lovely
For years, when I fell asleep, I dreamed of a man with blazing green eyes and a cruel smile. The day I meet him, the ruthless mercenary leaves me for dead. Just hours after humans are born, the gods take what little power we have.
In return, they protect our borders from the vicious, merciless fae. The humans who manage to keep their power are known as the corrupt. And they are burned.
When my forbidden power is discovered, I’m forced to flee my tiny village and the life I adore. To survive, I make a desperate bargain with the mercenary who abandoned me at my weakest moment. Our deal is simple: I’ll help him and his mysterious friends sneak into the city, and he’ll help me learn to wield the strange, dark power I’ve always kept hidden—the power that may just be the key to my survival.
But the ruthless mercenary is hiding secrets of his own, secrets that threaten the safety of everyone I love, that could tear this kingdom—and perhaps even this world—apart. Please note: A Court This Cruel and Lovely is an NA/adult romantasy book with steam. While this series is slow burn, the chili-pepper rating will increase for each book.
- Pages
- 427
- First published
- March 15, 2023
- Language
- English
- Edition
- Ebook
- ISBN
- 9781405967723
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Reviews
Finished June 1, 2024
Finished March 23, 2025
Another fantasy world with a tyrant king who only allows people to have the power he chooses to give them and punishes everyone else with death. And as I do every time I ate it up. I loved Prisca as a main character and how much she grows during the course of this book, plus her violent streak is everything. Some twists and turns were predictable things that happen in every fantasy novel like this but I did have a couple surprised moments as well. I’m looking forward to reading the others and I think it’s just going to get better. 🌶️ 3/5 slight spice in this book but things are really just getting started, I wouldn’t say we are enemies in this book but we just might be in the next one and I’m looking forward to things getting even steamier with even more tension. Wanting Lorian become increasingly more obsessed with Prisca is so fun and I want to see him absolutely loose his mind next book.
Finished April 15, 2025
*❝ How do you control a population? You keep the people poor and uneducated. Tell them the same lie for centuries, and tie that lie to religion. Those people will believe you even when the truth is dancing naked in front of them. Because to believe otherwise would mean their entire world has always been a lie. And that realization is too difficult for most people to take. ❞* ❥ My thoughts This was chosen by our book club, Reading Between the Vines, and I'm satisfied with the first book in this four book series. Am I thoroughly impressed? No. Satisfied enough to continue? Yes. The beginning had me invested, questioning who to trust, making guesses. However, the pacing and mid-point of the story was a bit inconsistent and at times chaotic, making it hard to follow along. At times unsure what our goals were, but by the end I was hooked again. I loved the moral the book kept hitting on which is that when you brainwash a group of people enough, lies become truths. A Kingdom of Lies, indeed. ❥ Trigger warnings Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Murder Moderate: Death of parent, Confinement, Blood Minor: War, Vomit, Grief [Follow my Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/inkstainedemotions?igsh=aTh6eTZ6dGwxMXpy&utm_source=qr)
Started April 12, 2025 · Finished April 15, 2025
I am leaning on 3.5 for this one... There were for sure some moments where I rolled my eyes, and some moments where I was really peeved at the chapter layouts... If you switch POV just start a new chapter, why do you have to make a chapter an hour long... I digress. Other than that this was a solid read, I feel like the series will get a lot better and I am invested now. The twists at the end were pretty good too, I wasn't expecting some of that, but i totally get the "Kingdom of Lies" bit... yup that makes perfect sense... I suspect there will be more of that coming lol 🌶️ 3/5 I liked the relationship between the MCs, but I'm not gonna lie for the first 25% I was wondering if this was going to be a RH... Girl is traveling with FIVE dudes... c'mon... missed opportunity if you ask me haha... Spice was alright, there was this weird "love hate" thing I wasnt really buying it though, I may have been ok with this slow burning harder...
Started June 12, 2024 · Finished June 15, 2024
