Book Review: Throne of Secrets

I’m a big fan of Kerri Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked and Prince of Sin series. Her latest book in the Prince of Sin series, Throne of Secrets, came out in the fall and I just read it this week.

Throne of the Fallen followed Prince Envy and this one follows Prince Gluttony aka Axton and Adriana Saint Lucent. We met Adriana in the Kingdom of the Wicked series and in Throne of the Fallen. She belongs to House Gluttony and is a gossip reporter. In the previous books, we always see her at Gluttony’s parties, writing stories to rip into him, criticizing everything about him and his parties.

In Throne of Secrets we learn that Adriana has been targeting Axton because something happened between them 10 years ago that upset her so much she’s been writing scathing articles about him ever since. The two are rivals/enemies, but something still draws the two together. When the ice dragons in the north start acting strange and their change in behavior starts to threaten Axton’s court, he must create a distraction so the public doesn’t begin to worry until he and his brothers can figure out what is going on and how to fix it. And what better way to cause a distraction that to house an inter-house competition to find Axton a wife! Maybe if Adriana is busy with the gossip of the competition she won’t look into what is going on with the ice dragons.

I loved this book. It felt lighter and more playful than the previous books that had heavier and darker themes and motifs. I loved Axton and Adriana and their banter and how much they fought their feelings and attraction to one another.

This is a slow burn with lots of tension, which I love, but (minor spoiler alert) my one criticism of the book is that I wish they gave in to their feelings for each other and truly got together a bit earlier in the book so we, the readers, could enjoy them being together and solve the conflicts together. It wasn’t until the last 15% or maybe later that they got together.

You don’t have to read the other books in the series to read Throne of Secrets, but you will get spoilers of the previous books. Read this if you want a spicy fantasy romance with the rivals/enemies to lovers trope.

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