The book's blurb - a promise of a lesbian romance, sounded intriguing. Unfortunately, the romance was the only halfway decent thing about this nook. 
 The complaints about this book are pretty similar across the board, from the other reviews I've read, and I agree wholeheartedly. 
 - There was no world building. We are immediately plunged into kingdoms and political situations without knowing what the hell we're getting into. Why is she betrothed to marry someone? Is there magic in this world? Why is magic reviled? Is there a political situation that requires such a marriage? So on and so forth. There is very little world-building at all, which is shameful, considering the premise of this world could have been a fantastic one, had it been properly written. This lack of world building and, specifically for the lesbian romance of this book, made it unbelievable. 
 - The characters were terrible. Black and white. Good and bad. Obedient and rebellious. There was no depth to either Denna or Mare. Denna is undoubtedly the good character. She is quiet, sweet. Mare is the "bad" one. She is a princess, yet is TOTALLY AGAINST PRINCESSY THINGS. She's tomboyish, disobedient. An embarrassment to her royal brother. A picture book could provide more depth of characters than this one. 
 - The romance. Admittedly, this was ok. But it's like - what made the book seem like a forbidden romance really isn't such. It's just pure bullheaded stupidity on both princess' parts. Homosexuality is accepted in this book, so why are they denying each other so much and going through so much bullshit before they can accept that they've fallen in love. But then again, lol, that's the difficulty for every single book relationship ever. 
 Overall, boring book, poorly written world, stupid characters.