This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Harper Gray. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Paranormal Romance category.

Here is Harper Gray's review:

This book, like the one I reviewed previously, is part of another series, but boy howdy am I happy to say that it’s the first one. Some iffy points stand out, but overall I enjoyed this book so, so much. Scott blends coming-of-age, political intrigue, high fantasy, and romantic themes into a coherent and compelling story—I finished this book in two days, mostly because pesky things like work got in the way of tearing through it in a single sitting.

The world is at Sophie’s feet, or at least, as much as it can be for a minor noble. She’s the favoured lady-in-waiting to the crown princess, and days away from her twentieth birthday and the ceremony that will see her manifest power and become a royal witch, or not and remain a minor noble. She’s not obtuse, but she has the naïveté of a young woman who has never had a reason to question the traditions she follows. She’s sweet, she’s clever, she’d like to flirt, but she’s not somebody important, and ultimately she’s okay with that. Besides, she reasons, who would flirt with her, when they had the striking beauty of the widowed Princess Eloisa before them?

Not Cam, at any rate. Yes, somewhat unusually for a romance, we first meet Cam in flagrante delicto with Eloisa. There is much lip service paid to the fact that they both know this relationship can’t go anywhere, and Cam does ruminate constantly on whether it’s just sex. But we never get Eloisa’s view on this, and while it builds part of the conflict later, I can’t help feel that the princess was rather poorly done by, both by Cam and by the story. For as complex a figure as Eloisa becomes, she remains rather two-dimensional, and that disappointed me a bit.

Cam and Sophie, of course, have met, but neither gives the other much thought beyond acknowledging their existence. When Eloisa – whose magic is quite powerful, even for a royal witch – foresees A Thing, she sends her favourites out to the harbour on a shopping trip. The Thing duly happens: explosions rock the palace, and Lt. Cam Mackenzie, a blood mage of the royal guard, whisks Sophie away in order to protect the one member of the royal family whom he can. But he’s still thinking about and would rather protect Eloisa. Shh. Anyway.

Cam’s older brother (the second one) has an estate in the north, so Cam decides to take Sophie there until they know it’s safe to return. En route, they move from grudging respect to actually vaguely enjoying each other’s company. It’s a gradual process made faster by escape, but it doesn’t feel at all forced. Midway to the estate, Sophie has her birthday, and it appears that the ceremony is in fact not remotely necessary to manifest a woman’s magic. The ley lines! They’re so shiny! Cam tries to protect her from the force of new magic, but instead they both get caught up in it and have sexy times right there in the grass. Whoops. But hey, if neither says anything, no one will ever know, right? Guys? Right?

They get to Cam’s brother, but by then the all-clear has sounded, so they pack up and go straight back. But the trip is a sad one: the explosions took place in some of the most populated areas of the palace, meaning that the death toll is high. Very high. Including Cam’s father. They had a tense relationship, but Cam still feels the loss acutely. For Sophie, the worst part is knowing that her parents were undergoing a sea voyage for her birthday ceremony, but since the harbours were closed during the attack there is no word on whether they are safe or not.

When they return, Cam continues to look out for Sophie from a distance. They need to maintain appearances, mostly for Sophie’s sake, but their relationship is also only as firm as a few days on the run can make it. Nevertheless, the ceremony fails. The goddess rejects Sophie, even though her magic manifests so strongly.

Why? Because Sophie is not a virgin. She was ‘bound’ to someone else before the goddess.

Sophie does research afterwards, to see how this binding business works. She talks to a free (read: unbound) witch. Sex can disrupt the normal the normal flow of magic, it’s true, but so can many other things. Performing powerful magic in advance of the ceremony could even do it. Basically, anything that denies the goddess a monopoly on one’s power. Is this a manifestation of that grating trope, the Mystical Virgin? Or was it the easiest thing for the Domina (like a bishop or archbishop) to latch onto as an explanation? It’s unclear, but it grated nevertheless.

Leaving the Mystical Virginness aside, this opens up to Sophie a world she hadn’t seen before: how drastically a royal witch’s power is limited by being bound to the goddess, but also the Domina’s gradual manipulation of Eloisa. She also takes advantage of Sophie’s unrestricted power to heal Eloisa, for her own gain and with no regard for Sophie. Old lies and new truths, as the cover copy says. The conflict you think you’re going to get if you read the blurb is not at all the one you actually wind up with, but it sure gets that right.

Sophie and Cam are still attracted to each other, of course, and luckily for them they’re now betrothed; although as far as their caring for each other progresses, they never break out those three wee words. In all fairness, their relationship progresses alongside their new queen’s extreme disfavour, (suspicious) accusations that a foreign power caused the attacks, calls led by the Domina to engage in war, and warnings that, thanks to having become third in line to the throne as well as being unbound, Sophie has unwittingly become a potentially powerful tool in the political machinations at play. So there’s not a terrible amount of space left for feelings. They do develop, and by the end you do believe that these two people genuinely like each other and are working towards a deep and meaningful relationship, but that relationship definitely spent a lot of time on the backburner.

Ultimately Sophie and Cam are forced to flee, and I hope that the following book will still follow them, because their relationship still feels very much like the progress bar of a software update that makes leaps and bounds, but in between creeps along while you go do other things. And the final chapter…feels like the ending of a chapter. You can hang by your fingertips from higher cliffs, but I still had the impression that the book just sort of stopped halfway through. It doesn’t help that the preview is for a book completely unconnected to the series, and written in a much different tone. The ploy worked, I definitely want to read the next book, but I’ll stew in my grumpiness until it comes out.

Overall, I had a fantastic time, and would definitely recommend this book, especially to fans of Tamora Pierce. A+ for enjoyment, to an A for the sudden ending and finally to an A- for Eloisa and the hazy Mystical Virgin.