Now the feared dark queen of the fae, she rules a kingdom of thorns while waiting for the princess she cursed to wake — and choose.
- Score
- 76.8
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- first
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
If you liked this, read
What readers think
Readers praise the expanded worldbuilding of the Dark Court and the moral complexity of Alyce's century-long arc from outcast to ruthless ruler. The sapphic romance and its bittersweet, emotionally honest ending earn consistent admiration. The main criticisms are that Alyce sometimes reads as too emotionally young for a century-old ruler and that the middle section loses momentum before the final act accelerates. Some feel the Alyce–Aurora dynamic leans toxic rather than romantic, and a portion of readers would have preferred *Malice* as a standalone. Overall Goodreads rating sits around 3.72/5 from nearly 12,000 ratings.
Read it if
- · Readers who loved Malice and want Alyce's full villain arc resolved
- · Fans of sapphic dark fantasy with morally grey protagonists and bittersweet endings
- · Those who enjoy fairy tale retellings that prioritise emotional realism over genre convention
Skip it if
- · Readers who haven't read Malice first—this is a direct sequel with no setup recaps
- · Anyone who needs a clearly happy ending or a clean romance arc
- · Readers who find slow middles frustrating; pacing dips substantially before the finale
If you liked this
- · For fans of The Cruel Prince's morally grey fae politics, but through a sapphic lens
- · Like Malice but darker, with the world opened up and the romance under far more strain
- · For readers who wanted a villain-POV Sleeping Beauty where the curse is only the beginning
In this series
Part of Malice Duology — read in order:
Full series profile & spice/trope breakdown →Which dark romantasy heroine are you? Five choices in a forest that wants you dead.
Take the quiz →