New York Times bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer makes her adult debut with this irresistible and steamy fantasy about three characters whose paths will collide in surprising ways – two royals pushed into a political engagement, and the assassin tasked with hunting them down.
WARRIOR. King Maddox Kyronan’s fire magic has earned him a ruthless reputation on the battlefield, but now his kingdom is slowly burning. Ky’s only chance to save his people is to enter a marriage alliance with the neighboring nation of Astranza, and hope that the royal family’s power to manipulate the weather will help his land flourish once more. He just needs to ensure no one finds out how the blaze began.
PRINCESS. With war looming on the horizon, Princess Jory’s home needs the protection of the fearsome warrior king, but she is hiding a dangerous her family’s magic is fading. Tempting as it is to reject her duties and run away with her childhood friend, Asher, Jory knows that she is the kingdom’s last hope. When she meets her intended, Jory is surprised to discover that beneath Ky’s daunting exterior is a compassionate and sharp-witted man who sets her heart aflame. But what will he do when he realizes she's deceiving him?
ASSASSIN. Asher’s done what he must to survive, even if that means getting his hands dirty. Once a young nobleman in Astranza’s palace, where he and Jory caused mischief together, now he’s part of the Hunter’s Guild, employing much darker skills. When a lucrative job comes his way, Asher can’t say no—until he discovers the targets. Someone wants Ky and Jory dead. With the Guild watching, Asher must decide what he’s willing to do to protect the woman he loves.
A tale of three complex characters torn between chasing, betraying, and falling in love with each other, Warrior Princess Assassin marks the beginning of a thrilling new fantasy trilogy filled with enchantment, adventure, and passionate romance.
WARRIOR. King Maddox Kyronan’s fire magic has earned him a ruthless reputation on the battlefield, but now his kingdom is slowly burning. Ky’s only chance to save his people is to enter a marriage alliance with the neighboring nation of Astranza, and hope that the royal family’s power to manipulate the weather will help his land flourish once more. He just needs to ensure no one finds out how the blaze began.
PRINCESS. With war looming on the horizon, Princess Jory’s home needs the protection of the fearsome warrior king, but she is hiding a dangerous her family’s magic is fading. Tempting as it is to reject her duties and run away with her childhood friend, Asher, Jory knows that she is the kingdom’s last hope. When she meets her intended, Jory is surprised to discover that beneath Ky’s daunting exterior is a compassionate and sharp-witted man who sets her heart aflame. But what will he do when he realizes she's deceiving him?
ASSASSIN. Asher’s done what he must to survive, even if that means getting his hands dirty. Once a young nobleman in Astranza’s palace, where he and Jory caused mischief together, now he’s part of the Hunter’s Guild, employing much darker skills. When a lucrative job comes his way, Asher can’t say no—until he discovers the targets. Someone wants Ky and Jory dead. With the Guild watching, Asher must decide what he’s willing to do to protect the woman he loves.
A tale of three complex characters torn between chasing, betraying, and falling in love with each other, Warrior Princess Assassin marks the beginning of a thrilling new fantasy trilogy filled with enchantment, adventure, and passionate romance.
Title: Warrior Princess Assassin
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Publisher: Avon
Expected Publication Date: August 12, 2025
Review:
Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
To say I was excited for Kemmerer to be releasing an adult fantasy title is an understatement. I'm a huge fan of Kemmerer's book and have been reading her since the first book she published. I had very high expectations for this book as I know I usually love Kemmerer's writing and her story lines. Unfortunately, this book just did not meet those expectations at all.
Let's start with the things I did enjoy. First, the cover and stenciled edges are just gorgeous. Yes, I do judge a book by it's cover and I judged that I would love this one.The book started off well, with the characters each having their own chapters. It's three points of view. I love books with different points of view as it shows the story through more than one set of eyes and makes it more interesting to me. The set up for the story was there, with the bones starting from page one, but that was where it fell off for me.
The world building in this book is thoroughly lacking. While the magic is somewhat explained, even by half way through the book I had no idea where it came from or how it truly worked. All I knew where there were countries (maybe territories) that were enemies but needed each other to try and defeat a common enemy. I didn't truly understand how their alliance would help do this even by 50% in. The book is very focused on character interaction, which would be fine if it were a romance, but this was billed as a fantasy, so where was that part of the story line? By the end I didn't understand the political relationships or why there was conflict between the different territories.
The characters were very flat for me. I didn't like any of them. I didn't feel like they were all that reliable. I think out of the three, the Warrior POV seemed most realistic. However, it was hard to distinguish between the POVs, I found myself flipping back to make sure I knew which POV I was reading on many an occasion. I'm wondering if the audio might help with this. I saw Teddy Hamilton was one of the narrators and I truly love him. But I don't love the characters enough to go back and try this on audio. And the chemistry between the characters was just not there. If you're going to build a throuple, there really needs to be a lot of chemistry and engagement between the characters. A build up so we understand the why choose. Early on in the book there is a scene where the two male characters are interacting and one of them notes the other might be hard. But it just did not fit into that part of the story. There was nothing organic about the romance and it was more uncomfortable than anything else.
And the writing definitely skewed YA to me, even though this is an adult title. I just didn't believe the characters were the ages they were billed to be. They all seemed very young and naive despite being told the two male characters have some life experience.
Overall I am just very disappointed in this title. I spent much of the time while reading it bored and forced myself to keep turning the pages in the hopes that something, anything, interesting and exciting would happen. I kept waiting for it to ramp up and give me a great plot but it never did. I needed swooning, intrigue, higher stakes, and much more yearning. I got none of this. And the cliffhanger was predictable. I wanted to love it, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I won't be pursuing the future books in this series and this saddens me.
Author:
Brigid Kemmerer is the New York Times bestselling author of dark and alluring YA novels like A Curse So Dark and Lonely, Defy the Night, and Letters to the Lost. A full time writer, Brigid lives in the Baltimore area with her family. When she’s not writing or being a mom, you can usually find her with her hands wrapped around a barbell.
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