Review of Married by Fate by Jenny Hickman

Synopsis:
He’s a Prince bound by duty.
She’s his brother’s fae bride.
Until fate intervenes.

Lady Roisin knew her fate was to marry a human prince, helping to heal the rift between the humans and the fae. Luckily, she fell desperately in love with her betrothed, the dashing heir to the Vellanian throne, Prince Alrec. One day soon, she will be his queen. A day Roisin has been looking forward to for as long as she can remember.

As the king’s youngest son, Prince Caiman knew his fate was to live in his older brother Alrec’s shadow. One day soon, Alrec will be crowned king. A day Caiman has been dreading for as long as he can remember.

When tragedy strikes the kingdom, Caiman is forced to ascend to the throne in his brother’s stead. But becoming King of Vellana means upholding the alliance with the fae by marrying his brother’s betrothed. And marrying a woman who has despised him for years cannot end in happily-ever-after . . .

Married by Fate is book 2 in the Arranged Marriages of the Fae, a multi-author collaboration of stand-alone novels.

Review:
From the review, I had thought I would like this. There was mention of enemies to lovers, and that sounded intriguing, but this wasn’t that. Roisin was unlikeable. From her perspective there were things she didn’t like or condone but she never once stepped up to stop them. She blindly listened to anything Alrec told her, and followed along with whatever her “lady-in-waiting” Lowri did. We began to see a different side of Roisin when she managed to get off by herself for a few moments, but she still went along with anything Alrec or Lowri said in public. Caiman was shown to be sensible, though perhaps not too sensible since he’d always been in love with Roisin. That being said, I thought towards the end that the story had managed to show some growth and fixed misunderstandings, until a past action of Caiman’s leaves Lowri completely ignoring him until a couple of chapters before the end- in which big things happen and everything is magically fixed between Caiman and Lowri all in a very short period of time that seemed rather rushed.

If I hadn’t already read Married by Scandal and this had been the first in this series I’d read, I certainly wouldn’t have continued to read more in the series.

Star rating: ✯✯✯