Book Description
Revenge is a curse that can only destroy.
Princess Annika loves dancing, wearing bright gowns, and enjoying life. When she travels to the neighbouring kingdom of Walhack for the spring festival, she expects to make new friends. What she doesn’t expect is to meet Wlad, the former prince of Walhack now a slave in his own kingdom, starved and beaten by the violent usurper. Her attempt to help the fallen prince ends with her being assaulted and her father damaged for life.
Revenge is the only thing that keeps Wlad alive after the invaders occupied his kingdom, killed his parents, and turned him into a slave. Annika is the first ray of sunlight in years of pain and humiliation. Her kindness and compassion awaken the most dangerous feeling of all in his heart—hope.
Desperate to take his kingdom back, he makes a pact with the Sister Witches. He’ll be cursed forever in exchange for the supernatural powers that will allow him to defeat his enemy.
Eight years later
Annika doesn’t dance anymore. Doesn’t wear bright gowns anymore. As she struggles with her trauma, she has to meet King Wlad the Dracul—the Dragon King of Walhack—who slaughtered his way back to the throne. Everyone says he’s cursed, turned into an immortal creature who seeks blood to survive. But she hopes he’s still the kind young man she met years ago.
~This is a standalone, steamy paranormal/historical romance with a happily ever after. Trigger warning for explicit sex scenes, assault (off page), violence (off page), and trauma. There’s a time jump after the first few chapters. Cinnamon roll hero.~
My Review
When we first meet Annika she is bright, fun loving and happy. She dances all the time and is good at it. When she and her father, travel to Walhack for the Spring festival she isn't expecting anything bad to happen but when she spots Wlad, a servant who is being treated badly, she implores the King there to treat Wlad and his brother better. But Wlad and Roman are the former King's sons and when this horrible king took over this kingdom and killed their parents, he let them live so he could torture them. So he's really angry that Annika and her father lecture him about how he's treating them. Since Annika's father is a King of his own kingdom I think that might be the only thing that saved him from being killed when the King of Walhack and his men attacked Annika and her father.
While her father came away with broken bones and many cuts and bruises, Annika was assaulted by the King in a way that left such deep emotional scars that she was never the same again. Wlad doesn't know how bad things got for Annika and her father before they left, he only knows that she was kind to him, gave him food and an expensive broach to sell so he could have the money needed so he and his brother could escape. He never forgets her kindness, even after years have passed and he's overthrown the former King to take back his Kingdom with the help of some witches. But he's had to change who he is and has a reputation of being a monster to those who wronged him and doesn't want to bring that to her door, so he never reaches out to her until another Spring festival comes around and this time Annika and her father are hosting it in their kingdom.
Once he comes face to face with Annika again, he realizes that he's not the only one who has changed. So has she and not for the better. She is no longer the bright light that she used to be. She looks dull, lifeless and wears grey, drab dresses unlike the bright, fun dresses she used to wear and she doesn't dance any longer. Wlad doesn't know what happened to create such a drastic change in her personality but when they come face to face he sees the spark in her eyes that he used to see. He wants nothing more than to spend some time with her and after a little while, she enjoys spending time with him as well. Annika's father is so happy to see her enjoying herself even a little after everything she's gone through and would love nothing more than for Wlad to marry his daughter.
But Annika has another suitor even though she's turned him down more than once, he wants to marry her so he will be King at some point. This guy ends up causing trouble more than once for her and I was happy to see him get what was coming to him. But Wlad has a lot of secrets and when they are revealed we see what he had to give up to the witches in order for him to become powerful enough to get his kingdom back and be is afraid once Annika finds out the truth about him, she'll be disgusted by him.
I really enjoyed this book, Wlad has a lot of similarities with Vlad The Impaler and Dracula so this really ended up surprising me because I wasn't expecting that. Turned out to be a great book.
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.
Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.