Holly Renee has quickly become one of my “read everything” authors - everything that she puts out is automatically going on my TBR list and her books are always on pre-order.
Her newest romantasy, “The Veiled Kingdom,” did not disappoint. After Renee’s Stars and Shadows series and the epic love story that was Adara and Evren, I didn’t think she could make me love a book couple more - until this newest book. Enter Dacre and Nyra. It has all of my favorite tropes - enemies to lovers to enemies again, friend’s brother, slow burn, world entrenched in magic, hidden identity, forced proximity, found family, and only THE BEST angst and banter. I could go on…but this book is EVERYTHING.
The book had me by the throat from the very beginning and was perfectly paced, in a way few authors of this genre can do well - Renee being one of them. It was so well done that I could not put the book down until I was done with it. The novel - told in dual POV between Dacre and Nyra - tells the story of one runaway princess (Nyra), desperately seeking to flee her kingdom and her magic-obsessed, abusive father who wants to use the magically inclined and will stop at nothing to get what he desires. She runs quite literally into Dacre - a leader in the rebellion against her father. Nyra must hide who she truly is in order to be taken in by the rebellion and trained as one of their soldiers. You can only imagine all that could go wrong in that scenario…and it does.
I absolutely loved the characters. Nyra is not the prim princess that needs to be saved. She’s experienced trauma at the hands of her own father and despite this, remains diligent in her quest to free herself from his wrath. She’s strong but also has moments of vulnerability - especially as she begins to find herself when she’s in hiding with the rebellion (ironic, I know).
Dacre is everything I want in a morally gray MMC. The tension between Dacre and Nyra was thick from the start and was set on fire the moment Dacre took it upon himself to train Nyra in the rebellion ways. The “touch her and die” vibes he gives to basically any male that looks at Nyra is liquid fire to my loins. Dacre may just be my new favorite book boyfriend.
If you enjoyed Renee’s first series, this is an obvious shoo-in to your collection. A must-read for romantasy readers everywhere…but beware the cliff! I am ecstatic that a second book is coming out - I could NOT get enough of the first. I’m just disappointed that June is so far off!
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