When the gods unite two unlikely wolves, Rosalie Thorne feels as if it's a cruel joke. She is taken from her family and held at Moon's Reach in the teeth of the seemingly venomous queen Soraya Stormrend. As days turn into weeks, a fragile but persistent feeling begins to blossom in Rosalie, for the once thought cruel ruler of Moon's Reach. Just as the two women begin to fully accept their bond, the kingdom is plunged into the grips of death and chaos by the betrayal of an unlikely enemy. Whether a cruel joke or the strings of destiny itself, the two mates must test their fated bond and battle with blood to defend their home.
Will the gods be forgiving with their trials, or have they decided to test their decision between the two mates?
Meet Lucinda Wicked – a cosplayer with over a decade of experience turning epic characters into reality. When she’s not in costume, she’s crafting magic for her spooky shop at lucindawicked.com. Think haunting stickers and cozy, eerie sweaters – perfect for anyone who loves a touch of the macabre.
Luci isn’t just about business, though. She’s part of the LGBT+, BIPOC, neurodivergent, and spoonie communities. Living with a chronic illness, she knows what it’s like to balance creativity with life’s challenges and pours that energy into everything she does.
When she’s not creating, Luci’s writing dark stories, geeking out over spooky vibes, or chasing a little cosmic wonder. Welcome to Lucinda Wicked – where the supernatural meets everyday life.
Soooooo, this book is about a pair of switching identical twins, one called Soraya, the other called Soriya, that belong to a race of shifters that drink too much alcohol, so much, that their blood ignites with a match. Ok ok, I am joking. The book screams for editing and the story needs to be developed a lot more. The bones are promising, but that lack of fleshing left me very indifferent to everything. I would love to read a more polished version of this.
Bound to the queen is a must read in Lucinda’s collection of published work. After being an Arc reader for Restless I had to see what else she had to offer. It does not disappoint!
Check your triggers! Betrayal blood and injury captivity or confinement Dark magic & ritual Death Emotional abuse Gender roles and expectations Manipulation Mental health struggles Mind control or coercion Physical abuse Power dynamics Sexual content Toxic relationship Trauma and ptsd Violence Weapons usage
In my opinion Bound to the Queen Is a beautiful love story between to strong females . Soraya is the queen who has ruled since she was 10years old. She hasn’t needed a partner but the is about to change. There are several groups coming to the castle for her to potentially find a mate. Rosalie has just stolen a coin from the queen and got away little does she know she is about to go with her pack/family to attend the party at the castle of the queen. Once soraya locks eyes with rosalie its fate and soraya will stop at nothing to get Rosalie. Of course there are bumps on the journey but in the end it’s perfect.
This book is a face paced, action packed lesbian love story! Bi awakening could also describe it. But the fated mate is exactly what will happen when it’s ready! The love these 2 have is undeniable and the war that is raged is brutal!
A good word processor with spelling and grammar check and a find and replace tool would clean up the majority of the editing errors, but I could forgive those easily if the story were more developed. The plot itself was fine, but it all just sort of happened with no build up or lead in to each scene, the relationship between the main characters was super rushed, and the spicy scenes were well written but sort of randomly tossed in, while pivitol things like their first time together after accepting that they were mates were skipped entirely. They had a kink dynamic, but it wasn't developed, it just came out of nowhere with no emotional connection for the reader to explore, though presumably we're suppose to just assume it's there. They adopt this random kid, but there's no emotional relationship shown being built, just a few conversations and a whim. The bad guys were random seeming with no motive for a full rebellion, and the final boss bad guy didn't even get a name, just a vague description. The rebel army was only 300 strong, and they're going to be held off with twelve wolves, okay, I can get behind that because they have a plan and defensible position, but then at the end there's an army of 3500 who basically all died? And the whole city was evacuated and apparently slaughtered, but wait nevermind, they're all fine, no explanation? This story needed developmental editing badly. By the end, I couldn't have cared less that the main character's name was spelled at least three different ways throughout, (sometimes on the same page), and was more frustrated by the lack of many much more important things: follow through on character and subplot development, motives for all characters, emotional depth, reasonable backstory, and continutity.
Spicy scenes were great, but would have hit better if placed differently. The initial character devewas intriguing. The pacing was good. The elements of a solid story were there. This reads like a good first draft. It's the sort of story I'd love to get my hands on to develop.
Lucinda Wicked really said, "Let me take werewolf fated mates and crank the sapphic tension up to divine punishment."
I just finished Bound to the Queen and I feel like I need a therapist, holy water, and maybe a sword. This wasn't a book. It was a possession. I haven't had air in my lungs since Rosalie stole that coin. I died the moment Soraya walked into the room, a queer war goddess from my nightmares. These two women could burn an empire down with their gaze, then kiss in the ashes.
The plot? Game of Thrones meets Killing Eve if both had a sapphic baby raised on blood, betrayal, and unholy chemistry. The prose? Viciously cinematic. Each chapter was like a fever dream wrapped in silk and barbed wire. There's wars and prophecies and teeth and blood and lust and politics and trauma bonding and the kind of "I hate you so much I might die without you" energy that rewires your neurons.
When Soraya said "Deny me then", I straight-up blacked out. When she said "You can hate me all you want. It changes nothing the gods haven't already decided for us", I ascended. I write this review from beyond the grave.
And by the time we hit the war arc? I was screaming into a pillow, crying, feral, and possibly ready to pledge fealty to this fictional queen. And that ending, burning, brutal, tender, had me clutching my chest like a widow. Then that epilogue? Soft sapphic domesticity with an heir and bite marks? Yeah, I sobbed like an idiot.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 I'd sell my soul to the Valkaran gods for more. I would let Soraya ruin me and thank her. Would die for Rosalie's feral little heart.
Lucinda Wicked, you didn't just write a book, you committed a war crime and called it romance.