The Queen's Bastard
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Belinda Primrose deals in secrets.
Since childhood, Belinda has known she was the unacknowledged daughter of Lorraine, the unwed queen of Aulun, an island nation on the edge of the vast Echonian continent. Belinda is a spy, an assassin...and a danger to her mother, should she ever be discovered. She can be anyone, and will do anything, to cement Lorraine's position of power within the treacherous Echonian courts.
But as she infiltrates the glamorous royal palaces where her mother's rivals scheme, a new power awakens in Belinda. The witchlight she commands is a dangerous aphrodisiac—one that could bring down everything she's worked for when she finds a teacher in the sensual prince of Gallin. Javier harbors secret witchbreed magic of his own...and a claim to the Aulunian throne that ranks him highly among Lorraine's enemies.
Belinda has never wavered in her mission, but love and loyalty will collide as her secrets are revealed...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taking a break from urban fantasy, Murphy (House of Cards) turns to this uneven opener for a Reformation-inspired fantasy series. Belinda Primrose is a lovely young woman whose mysterious father, Lord Drake, has trained her to be an assassin serving Lorraine, the queen of Aulun. While Belinda is Lorraine's unacknowledged bastard, young Prince Javier of Gallin was secretly adopted by Lorraine's dangerous rival, Queen Sandalia, when her husband's untimely death caused her to miscarry the child who was to be Gallin's heir. When Javier encounters Belinda while she's on a spy mission in Gallin, he falls hopelessly in love with her, a devotion that deepens when they discover they're both "witchbreed" magic users. Murphy excels in depicting their passion, but readers looking for romance will be shocked when Belinda incites and abets Javier's rape of another woman, and the talky political intrigue frequently comes at the expense of much-needed action.
