Although Ildiko is considered a great beauty by other humans, her pale skin, weird human eyes and bright red hair make Brishen think she is quite ugly. Brishen takes one look at his human bride and recoils in horror himself. They are blinded by the sun so are creatures of the night. Brishen is prince of the Kai, human-ish in appearance but with grey skin (hence the eel comment above), odd eyes and fangs for teeth. Growing up in a royal court, she has a duty to marry whomever is chosen for her, and she has always been prepared for this – but she isn’t prepared to marry someone who isn’t human. Our heroine is named Ildiko and is human belonging to the Gauri people. I really enjoyed that book and didn’t realize she had a new one out until Tori and Has started tweeting quite positively about it. I first read Grace Draven quite recently when I was looking for a fantasy book and was recommended Master of Crows. Is that quote romantic or what? No? Trust me, once you read this book, when that is spoken you will smile and swoon.

“For a boiled mollusk, you wear black quite well, my wife,” Brishen shot back, and his smile stretched a little wider.

“You make a very handsome dead eel, my husband,” she said and winked. Two people brought together by the trappings of duty and politics will discover they are destined for each other, even as the powers of a hostile kingdom scheme to tear them apart. Bound to her new husband, Ildiko will leave behind all she’s known to embrace a man shrouded in darkness but with a soul forged by light. Resigned to her fate, she is horrified to learn that her intended groom isn’t just a foreign aristocrat, but the younger prince of a people neither familiar nor human. Ildiko, niece of the Gauri king, has always known her only worth to the royal family lay in a strategic marriage. Always a dutiful son, Brishen agrees to the marriage and discovers his bride is as ugly as he expected and more beautiful than he could have imagined. A trade and political alliance between the human kingdom of Gaur and the Kai kingdom of Bast-Haradis requires that he marry a Gauri woman to seal the treaty. Radiance by Grace Draven (Wraith Kings #1)īrishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over.

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