Synopsis:
From USA Today Bestselling Author Holly Renee, author of the Stars and Shadows series, comes a scorching new fantasy romance that ignites the pages with relentless danger, forbidden passion, and the intoxicating allure of enemies to lovers.
Fleeing my father’s cruelty, the wicked king who robbed me of a future, I face death in the streets, caught between a rebellion and a tyrant’s reign.
Captured by those sworn to kill me, the rebels remain blind to my true identity-the missing daughter of the despised king. Faced with an impossible choice, I stand before them: join the rebels or face their blades.
Yet, Dacre, the son of the ruthless rebellion commander, becomes torn between suspicion and a desire that mirrors my own. He allows no one to touch me, tries to protect me, yet threatens me at every turn.
As secrets are weaved beyond our hidden realm, a fierce battle unfolds within me. As I get closer to the rebels, and their cause, my loyalty to my kingdom clashes with my undeniable devotion to Dacre and the burning connection between us.
In a world where love and hate are two edges of the same blade, I find myself caught in a delicate dance between forbidden desire and my looming destiny.
Publication: March 19th, 2024
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My Rating: 
My Favourite Quote: *subject to change*
“I’ll see you in the morning for training. Don’t be late,” Dacre said gruffly.
I turned toward him and saluted him […]. “I’ll be the weak one. You can’t miss me.”
My Review
A big shoutout and thank you to the author and ValentinePR for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review!
The Veiled Kingdom is the second series by Holly Renee that I’m reading. There’s two things I love about reading books from authors that I’ve enjoyed before; and they’re two contradictory feelings. One, when the book I’m reading reads nothing like their past work. Two, when I recognise the author’s writing and feel at home in it.
I know, I know. They’re nearly opposites of one another! I am a complex human being. Imagine being me trying to explain this to you.
The Veiled Kingdom was number one. It read nothing like the Stars and Shadows series and I was extremely surprised about that! The tone, the characters, the set-up everything was very different. If I hadn’t read the name of the author on the cover, I almost wouldn’t have guessed this book was written by Holly Renee! Which is amazing! It opens worlds of opportunities in the future for the author to write and the readers to enjoy.
But, it looks like a part of me expected this book to read like SaS series so I took an initial 10% to come to terms with the difference. But despite that, I sunk straight into the book surfaced twice—once in the middle and then again when I was done. This book was essentially a two-sitting read; extremely immersive and quick paced. The book is scene after scene, filled with emotion, or action, or introductions or some revelation!
The world building in the book is done with as much straightforwardness as possible. The story unravels in a first person dual POV, alternating neatly between Dacre and Nyra (though I think we’re more often in Nyra’s head than in Dacre’s). They establish their unique worlds, circumstances and personalities aiding nearly to laying the set-up and basic rules of the world. However, there’s still a lot to uncover and I’m curious to see where the rest of the series will take us. This book is nearly 300 pages on my Kindle and we’ve only just grazed the surface.
Everything about this book is done in sharp neat points. The characters are introduced very neatly, in a no-nonsense fashion. Their personalities are fairly established almost right along with their first appearance on screen and their roles are part hidden, part observable. Despite being primarily in the minds and thoughts of the primary characters, Dacre and Nyra, as readers we know maybe… four things about them. The suspenseeeee of everything we find out and don’t in this book paired with the way it ends is just … 🤌🏻✨.
The secondary characters, I’m going to categorise as people on page who surround the MMC and the FMC. I loved about half of them, am wary of one quarter of them and down right hate the last quarter. So, lots of feelings there clearly. For a 300 page book, there was a LOT going on!
The tertiary characters, I’m going to categorise as those who are mentioned by the protagonists or the secondary characters but are never seen on page. These characters too have a lot of weightage to the plot and importance to the emotional aspects of the story. Believe me you, we may have never met them and only Holly Renee knows if we will, but they leave an impression.
The plot is tied in with all these aspects and remains partly shrouded in lots of mystery and drama. I’m curious to see where this goes.
I wasn’t personally super fond of the relationship between the protagonists which dropped my rating a bit, but that’s about it. If I’m not wrong this series should go up on Kindle Unlimited!
3.75 stars! Happy reading! Check trigger warnings!
Meet Holly
USA Today Bestselling Author, Holly Renee brings readers a pinch of angst, an indulgence of heat, and the perfect amount of heart in every book.
Born and raised in East Tennessee, she is a married mom of two wild children. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, pretending to be a dragon for the hundredth time that day, being disgustingly in love with her husband, or chilling in the middle of the lake with her sunglasses and a float.
Holly is a lover of all things romance, Mexican food and yoga pants.
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