This book drove me mad. 
 I hate hate hate love triangles, and guess what the entire first half of the book was about? A love triangle. The twist? That we don't know who is the prince and who is the assassin. Brilliant!! Because I probably would have rooted for the assassin because I like assassins and the underdog. and did I mention assassins? 
 Funny enough, I rightly guessed the assassin and was rooting for him anyway!! 
 In the first half of the book the only thing that kept me engaged was figuring out who was who. I found a lot of the circumstances a bit implausible.. Chances that the assassin would wait to get to know her before killing her? And the prince who vowed not to speak with her also stays to get to know her? No other assassins finding her? 
 The world building could have also been a bit better in the first half of the book, but it was thankfully much better in the second half! the first half also seemed somewhat contrived, small silly problems which I know is actually all Lia wanted and that was why she wanted to leave. It just wasn't that entertaining to read. 
 The second half of the book was way better in the sense that things actually started happening. The lore and story line pick up a lot and the hint of an unfulfilled prophesy and the potential for a very great story is laid out clearly before us. We delve a bit deeper into character development and the plot really develops. 
 Lia is a great main character. She has gumption. I mean a lot of princess main characters are rough and tumble but she literally leaves her crown and privilege behind to become a peasant for the chance to find true love and have a hand in her own destiny. Very brave. In the first half of the book she was a bit of a silly teenage girl but that's exactly who she was at the time so it's not really the authors fault I find that so incredibly annoying. But overall I liked her a lot! 
 The romance wasn't quite tangible. I am rooting hard for the assassin, and very intrigued as to the plot. There is so much potential here.