Title: Road to Fire (Broken Crown #1)
Author: Maria Luis
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Type: Standalone
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense
Narration: Dual POV
Primary Characters: Saxon and Isla
Source: Courtesy of Author/ Publisher – ARC
Buy Link : https://www.amazon.com/Road-Fire-Romance-Broken-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B087WVHT1D
Blurb
“I’m not scared of you.”
I meet her gaze. “You should be.”
Bound by a secret oath spanning generations, I am loyal to no one but the queen.
Spy.
Defender of the Crown.
To all of England, I’m Saxon Priest. Traitor. Murderer. Owner of London’s most infamous anti-loyalist pub.
And then she appears.
Isla Quinn may claim that she’s only looking to bus tables, but I’m no fool. Bitterness bleeds from her hard-blue eyes, and her hatred for the queen is so palpable, I can practically taste it off every sharp-tongued word slipping from her full mouth.
“Hire me,” she begs.
We’re on opposite sides of this war. Enemies from the start.
Isla thought she found an ally, but she’s found me instead.
Savage.
Ruthless.
A man with no heart, no matter how the dead space inside my chest lurches whenever she’s near.
And so I lean over, dragging her deep into this twisted game of crowns and thrones, and offer a single vow: “I could use you.”
Review
Honestly this book was hard to rate, it started a wee bit slowly for my taste. I thought it will pick up, but as book progressed somehow it became difficult to connect with current world scenario. I understood and liked the concept but connecting and getting attached to the story became tough for me.
Saxon and Isla were good together, their banter was great, anti-loyalist vs loyalist was also good, but not realistic. Isla’s reasoning to be what she is or why she became an anti-loyalist was driven by rage and nothing else. She wouldn’t question herself. Same goes with Saxon, even though he has questions we can understand his binding to crown, but I couldn’t relate it with Isla.
Too much of internal monologue between the main protagonists and this took too much time between conversation and by the time conversation continues back, I forgot what the question was or what conversation is going on, it literally made me to go back and see what was going on.
Secondary Characters – I was more intrigued with Guy than Damien. Peter and Josie seemed more mature than Isla in some scenarios.
Overall, it has a spy, murder, suspense, democracy Vs monarchy, loyalty Vs anti-loyalty group everything surrounding a kingdom. If you can ignore the internal monolog and if you can connect and imagine this kingdom story to real world then this is for you.
Meander - Read & Roam 