I really liked the couple’s interactions, the witty banter and sharp conversation. What I liked is that Ildiko is not at all intimidated by Brishen’s fearsome appearance and the two soon form a close friendship. Sharing the same wicked sense of humour they make fun of each other’s appearance in a lighthearted way, both believing the other to be unattractive and ugly, and even scary. Starting after an accidental meeting on their wedding day they begin to form a bond based on mutual respect and honesty. This is not your usual ‘forced together’ love story and in this case they don’t hate each other from the onset. The story follows Ildiko and Brishen, two people from completely different cultures brought together in an arranged marriage in order to seal a treaty between their kingdoms. 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.

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.Brishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over.

~THE NOBLEWOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE~ Ildiko, niece of the Gauri king, has always known her only worth to the royal family lay in a strategic marriage. ~THE PRINCE OF NO VALUE~ Brishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over.

Radiance novel grace draven