Indie-published in June 2023, the second book of the series follows Luna and Sebastian in the aftermath of harrowing events with the People of Night and the choice Sebastian made.
When Queen Marguerite demanded her son marry the silly human, she never expected he’d fall for her. This isn’t what she planned at all; she expected him to enjoy and drain her. The queen doesn’t like it when things don’t go the way she expects.
Summoning the pair back to Castle Sanguis to participate in her birthday celebration tournament is the perfect guise to test her son’s loyalty and get rid of his bride. To her immense surprise and displeasure, Luna and Sebastian make their way through the events, uncovering the hidden motives behind her request to participate.
Gallea’s writing remains geared toward her upper YA/NA audience, complete with plot holes that younger readers may forgive more easily and with plot threads left dangling without explanation, and worldbuilding that doesn’t always hold true.
Luna doesn’t act logically, although Gallea keeps describing her as the logical scholar. As for Sebastian, the mighty Prince of Darkness, he spends chapter upon chapter mopping around, looking at Luna with sadness and unable to tell her the truth. A savage, dark Prince, as Gallea says he’s supposed to be, would spit it out already and damn the consequences.
If there’s one line oversued in this one, it has to kiss, and kiss and kiss. Readers get it; they’re kissing. Give profound descriptions of the kiss instead of just repeating the word over and over and over again.
The annoying writing habits, the go-nowhere plotlines, the holes in the storyline, and the unstable worldbuilding make this another 2.5-star read.
ROXANNA CROSS 
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