By Ajigozen and Yura Chujo. Released in Japan as “Hitojichi Hime ga, Shōsoku wo Tatta. Kuro Ōkami no Kishi wa Rinkoku no Shiitagerareta Hime wo Zenryoku de Aishimasu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Emily Hemphill.

This is another in the Heart imprint that is primarily narrated by the male love interest, though the princess does get several POV scenes throughout. It’s important in this story because it helps drive the narrative more if we’re following the Knight gradually realizing what has happened to the princess and the circumstances she’s had to live with before we move to her side and get her own thoughts on this. It also helps sell the love a bit better, which is good, as this is a series that very, very much runs on “love at first sight”, and if that’s not a favorite of yours you should be very aware. But it’s fine, they’re both good kids, and frankly it’s a lot less terrifying than the power couple that may have happened if the royal hostage had not vanished. Sonia and Alphonse are, at their core, far too similar to work in a series like this.

Brigandia and Sylvario were at war, and Brigandia has won. Now it’s time for reparation, but Sylvario suggests that in return for less of those, they offer their fourth princess in marriage to Brigandia’s third prince. Which is fine… but the princess leaves Sylvario and never turns up in her new country. Ark, the head of the knights, goes to figure out how in God’s name a princess’ carriage with full guards and accoutrements could have been waylaid by bandits or other such reasons for “vanishing”. Unfortunately, he rapidly finds that no one in the towns along the way even noticed a royal carriage. And when he gets to the royal residence, he finds to his horror that Princess Sonia was an unwanted child who was abused by everyone around her. The reason she vanished… is she left in an unmarked carriage with two servants and zero guards.

This book assumes that you are familiar with and enjoy the tropes associated with this sort of series, and therefore does not need to go into great detail about them. Sonia’s only loyal servants, Laura and Tom, are both clearly far more than they seem and trained as spies/fighters/etc., but that never comes up in the actual narrative because “battle maid/butler” is just what you’d expect from the only loyal servants of an abused princess. I also appreciated Sonia’s intellect and craftiness, with possibly the best scene in the book having her take on a rival love interest in what amounts to a rapid-fire quiz game. She’s a sweet girl, and the dorky love that she and Ark fall into is cute, assuming you like dorks who blush a lot, but I also appreciate that she’s not the usual “nice and forgiving” trope we tend to see, and that she really does want to see her abusive family destroyed, and will happily do what it takes to help that along.

This will not set any originality records, but it hit all the right buttons for me. I greatly look forward to the second book (which is apparently the final book).