Karina Halle

I honestly loved this book! The author captures your attention from the very first page. I found it hard to put this book down! This was one of my first enemies to lovers books that I have read and boyyyy I was not prepared for the STEAMY scenes. I found myself blushing a lot while reading this book. I love the edginess and how dark the characters could be at times. This book was very well thought out and well written. The characters evolved nicely and I can’t wait to read the second book in this series.… (more)

December 2022 reread: the king still fucks and I love it lol. So many things just work for me in this, but upon re-read I can certainly see where it may not work for others.

Like the dead wife stuff wasn't handled in the best way. The background is she was cheating on Aksel with a long-time assistant and after Aksel found out he confronted them both while driving on a rainy night (a lot of romance reasons happening around this plot point). Anyway - she dies, Aksel and the assistant live and the assistant becomes secretary to Aksel as a way to keep him from going public and to keep up the appearance of the dead wife as the nation's beautiful queen. I didn't really pause for all that the first read but the second read it did bother me. so heads up!

The King of Denmark fucks lol
anyway this age-gap, forbidden nanny romance was really good. I love King Aksel - it was extremely important to him that Aurora never felt forced into a sexual relationship with him due to his status as a king and her employer. He is certifiably an alpha but not an asshole which I appreciate.

CW: death of previous partner, cheating (not mc's, previous partners)… (more)