A cursed human princess finds herself irresistibly drawn to a powerful, stern prince from her people's enemy species in the thrillingly epic, unabashedly sexy high fantasy monster romance Bound to the Shadow Prince by indie publishing sensation Ruby Dixon (Ice Planet Barbarians series). Dixon originally published this lavish forced-proximity love story as an online serial, and the collected print edition is so easily devourable that one wonders how readers of the serial version managed to wait between installments.

Princess Candromeda of Lios has never excelled at royal duty. She and her two sisters are born of the revered Vestalin dynasty, "the blood of heroes," a line of royals whose ancestor sacrificed herself to save their kingdom. Unfortunately, Candra also carries a family curse that renders her barren and therefore undesirable as a bride. The curse also leaves her dizzy and nauseated unless she injects a medicinal potion every day. Candra has never taken her royal status seriously because of her "tainted" blood. In fact, "I'm the one who got caught losing her virginity in the chapel with one of the court knights... and gets in trouble for embroidering mustaches onto all the important historical tapestries." Her sisters serve several purposes. Meryliese has trained from an early age to serve their people's goddess. Erynne is Queen of Lios and expecting a royal heir with her husband, King Lionel, or as Candra knows him, "my nemesis." What's an extra princess to do other than amuse herself with unintelligent men, since "they're usually the prettiest ones"?

Then Meryliese dies in a shipwreck, and King Lionel orders Candra to take on her sister's holy duty. The golden moon, symbol of the goddess of chaos, appears in the skies every 30 years. Dangerous seas and foul weather proliferate during its seven-year ascendancy, and the Golden Moon Goddess requires a royal sacrifice for appeasement. A member of the Vestalin bloodline must spend seven years locked in the Tower of Balance with no servants, never stepping outside until the golden moon sets again. Candra has never started a fire, dressed herself, or cooked in her pampered life, let alone make and inject her own medication. It would be a death sentence. Besides, she has parties to attend. "I am... too popular. Yes, that's it," she tells herself, but gives in when the king threatens to send her pregnant sister, his wife, instead.

The Tower is fully dark inside, and Candra isn't alone there. The Liosians' enemies, the Fellians, also send a required sacrifice from their royal house of Darkfell. Candra has never seen a Fellian but has "heard that they are devils, so hideous and unholy to look upon that they avoid the Absent God's light." She assumes her new companion will also be a princess and is shocked when a decidedly masculine voice scolds her from the shadows as she explores her surroundings: "This chamber is mine."

Prince Nemeth is hostile, imperious, and massive, made of "deep gray muscle," crowned with a sweep of horns, and cloaked by strange, leathery-looking wings. The reluctant roommates verbally spar, but their mutual disdain doesn't stop Nemeth from walking in on Candra's bath or Candra from noticing his muscled thighs. Then, Nemeth comes to her rescue when Candra runs out of firewood and can't make more medicine, and the two forge a peace. The gruff Fellian injects Candra's daily potion so she won't have to and arranges a meager feast day with their pooled supplies to cheer her. Faster than one can say "tale as old as time," Candra begins to feel a reluctant attraction to her fellow sacrifice. Their friendship boils over in a moment of white-hot passion, but Nemeth quickly sets a boundary. If the playgirl princess wants more than friendship, she'll have to embrace a commitment beyond their years in the Tower and lose her place among her people forever.

Dixon welcomes readers into an expansive, mythology-inspired high fantasy world rich in detail and filled with peril, politics, and consequences. Bound to the Shadow Prince raises the forced proximity trope to new heights as its heroes navigate every challenge and deprivation of life in the Tower, with only each other for support, and then must unexpectedly test their love against the reality of the outside world. Candra begins as shallow and flippant, but her love for her family, her sense of humor, and her zest for life make her compelling despite her flaws. Her journey to maturity feels as rewarding as it does hard-won. The chemistry she has with stern, protective Nemeth runs effervescent and scorching by turns, and Dixon gives a master class in using love scenes to advance an emotional story arc. Her frank, sympathetic portrayal of Candra's chronic illness emphasizes both the struggles and normalcy of life with a disability. Monster romance longtimers and first-timers alike will fall under the spell of this very spicy, complex story of perseverance, betrayal, and true love. --Jaclyn Fulwood

Ruby Dixon (photo: Lea Robinson)

Ruby Dixon writes science fiction and fantasy romance, including the fantasy series Aspect and Anchor; the intergalactic Risdaverse series; and her breakout science fiction romance series, Ice Planet Barbarians. She loves fated mates, baby-filled epilogues, and cinnamon roll heroes. She also loves coffee and dirty books and will probably be a cat lady at some point. W by Wattpad Books will publish Bound to the Shadow Prince on July 2, 2024. Dixon recently gave Shelf Awareness her insight on monster lovers, mythological inspirations, and disability representation in romance.

What do you find compelling about writing monster romance, and what do you think brings readers to this section of the romance market?

I like to think monster romance is a fantasy story that's driven specifically by the relationship. Instead of the setting being the "otherworldly," it's the hero. It's for all the women who fell for the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. It's picking the terrifying but somehow sexy demon lord in the movie Legend over bland but pretty Tom Cruise. It's the Goblin King in Labyrinth. It's the guy that's all wrong for you and who your family would not approve of, and who you shouldn't be with, all wrapped up into one slightly intimidating package. It's a fantasy, of course, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun.

Bound to the Shadow Prince found its first readership on the serialized fiction platform Yonder. Do you approach writing serials differently than novels?

Sometimes I get ideas for stories that I know are going to have a longer page count. Usually when I start working something out in my head, I can guess the length, and I knew that Bound to the Shadow Prince would have a longer story to tell. As someone who really enjoys writing a serial, I thought this might be the perfect format for it. Not long enough to be a trilogy, but just long enough to be a really meaty, twisty-and-turny journey for these two characters. To me, my serials are super-size novels. They might have a few more setbacks and twists in the middle of the story, but it's still moving somewhere specific.

You've built such a strong fantasy world here with rich lore. Could you talk about the inspiration for this world and its development?

I've wanted to do a play on light versus dark for a long time. It's my interpretation of the Ljósálfar and Dökkálfar from Norse mythology. I like to take a concept and pick it apart, then paste the pieces together into something new. In this one, I played with themes of dark and light, good versus evil, and how not everything is as clear cut as all that. I also drew on takes from various bits of legend, specifically the fall of Troy. This might not make sense to anyone that reads the book, but these were the bases that I pulled my story from. Then I picked it apart and questioned, "Why this person? Why now?" and let my imagination fill in the pieces.

While this fantasy world is broad and deep, your characters spend a lot of time trapped together in a small environment, unaware of events in the outside world. How did you balance that intimate setting with the external plot without losing steam in the overall plot arc?

The story is told from Candra's point of view, so it stays close to her perspective. I was less interested in telling the nitty gritty of the war itself and rather how the war affects the people involved, even in a tertiary sort of way. I think of the first-person point of view as the character having blinders on, and it helps to build that layer of mystery. There might be all kinds of plot going on around them, but I can only tell what they see right in front of them. For me, that means dribbling bits of the bigger story of war in between the smaller, more personal story of Candra's romance. We can think of it like a pie! The romance is the delicious filling while the plot of the war between kingdoms is the crust itself.

Candra is definitely not the stereotypical gently bred princess--she's someone who would be fun at a party.

I am such a sucker for a heroine who is underestimated. I love a spoiled, seemingly useless person who comes to find their own strength. Being a noble at court, but being seen as useless, has made Candra a bit of a hedonist. Why wouldn't she be? It makes perfect sense. But when Candra's stripped out of the court, she realizes that she has to rely on herself, and she grows as a person. I won't say she changes, because there's nothing wrong with being fun-loving and a bit free with affection, but she does learn to be more independent.

In addition, I wanted Candra to have a chronic illness because I wanted to see it represented and normalized in romance and in fantasy. It doesn't mean that you can't be the Big Damn Hero just because you need medicine on a daily basis. It just means you need medicine. That's all. While it'd be hard for anyone to live in an enclosed tower, unprepared, it's doubly hard for Candra due to her illness, but she doesn't let it stop her.

Candra is the one telling us the story, so we primarily have her point of view. Nemeth starts out as her enemy. What steps did you take to make him both potentially menacing yet believable as a good romantic partner?

A lot of it is appearances and perception. Candra's been told "Fellian equals bad." She takes one look at a big, monstrous guy with wings who lives in the shadows, and it reinforces her beliefs. She can't wrap him around her finger with a flirty smile. I'm also a huge sucker for a cinnamon roll hero who looks terrifying but is secretly soft on the inside. It was a lot of fun to make Nemeth a scholar. Here's this big, terrifying gargoyle who loves to read poetry. If he was hard inside and out, I don't think he'd be right for someone like Candra, but he's got that secret dreamy side to him.

Do you have plans to tell more stories in Candra and Nemeth's world?

Bound to the Shadow Prince stands completely alone. There are no other stories in this world, so if you have ever wanted to try my books, or any romantic fantasy, and didn't know where to start, this is a great one. The title is similar to the title of another book of mine, but only because I'm terrible at remembering titles. Please don't think you have to read something else before this one!

As for what's next, I have another romantasy coming out this fall. It's called Bull Moon Rising. It features another monster hero because I am here for a good time. This one has a scholar heroine in a marriage of convenience with a grumpy adventurer hero who is a minotaur. --Jaclyn Fulwood