Serena’s Review: “Throne in the Dark”

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Book: “Throne in the Dark” by A.K. Caggiano

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Casablanca, November 2025

Where Did I Get this Book: ARC from the publisher!

Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound

Book Description: His dark destiny awaits, and nothing will stand in his way. Except her.

Dark lord
Demon spawn
Prophesied realm destroyer

With a demon for a father, Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne’s destiny could be nothing but nefarious, and with the completion of his most vicious spell, Damien is on the cusp of fulfilling the evil inevitability all of his dark machinations have led to.

And then, her.

Bubbly
Obnoxious
Blonde

Harboring secrets of her own, a tiny yet troublesome thief calling herself Amma completely upsets Damien’s malevolent plans when she mistakenly gets chained to his side through magic, forcing him to drag her across the realm. Killing her would fix things, of course, but the nauseatingly sweet Amma proves herself useful on Damien’s unholy crusade and then proves herself the source of something even more sinister: feelings.

Will Damien be forced to abandon his villainous birthright to help the tender thorn in his side? Or will he manage to overcome the virtue Amma insists on inspiring and instead cut it out at the heart?

Review:I lurk on a lot of fantasy/fantasy romance subReddits and, as such, I’d heard quite a lot about this book before it was picked up by a traditional publisher. Suffice it to say, it’s very beloved by many indie readers, often recommended as an improvement on some of the lower-quality fare that has been coming out recently, now that romantasy is trending so hard. So, I was excited to see what all the fuss was about. And… I’m still wondering, honestly.

Here’s the thing: this book will be a hit for a lot of readers, and I can understand why it is so beloved by those who read it as an indie book first. If you’re a fan of the grumpy x sunshine dynamic, this is the epitome of everything that romance has to offer. Beyond that, on a technical level, the writing flows easily, and the banter can be quite witty at times. Unfortunately, subjectively, I really dislike a lot of what this book was doing. That being the case, go ahead and take this entire review with a grain of salt. If you like the things I just mentioned, you should probably check this one out. If you are questioning things, let’s get into my problems.

For one thing, while the writing was fine, I really dislike the inclusion of modern lingo in books like this. Now, again, I get that this is a fairly standard approach for fantasy romcoms like this, à la Assistant to the Villain and books of that ilk. However, I will probably never not hate it. Like those other books, I immediately felt disconnected from the world and characters, attempting to strike some mental balance where I’m in this high fantasy world but regularly coming across words like “kiddo” and “pops.” All the worse, these two examples, at least, were coming from the “villainous” love interest. Which, I get what the book was trying to do—defying genre conventions and all that—but in reality, it just made me cringe and have a hard time taking him seriously in any capacity, evil or not.

However, my real problem stemmed from the FMC. Man, did I dislike her. If you want to look up the dictionary definition of “character with no agency” or “damsel in distress,” here’s your girl. Again, there are “reasons” and all of that for these choices. But that doesn’t do away with the fact that I’m left with a fairly hefty book where the female main character does practically nothing. What’s worse, we’re stuck in her mind for a good chunk of the time and, boy, nothing is happening there either. If I had to sum up her personality, it would be “nice” and “whiny.” (It’s not lost on me that those two traits shouldn’t go together, and you’d be right there too.) And, let me be clear, when I say “nice,” I’m going full Minnesotan on the word and really mean “boring as hell.” I didn’t find her panic in the face of danger cute. I didn’t enjoy her cutesy response to the brooding MMC. And no reveal toward the end would change this.

I don’t want to rant anymore about this because, again, as I said at the top, much of my dislike of this book is fully wrapped up in my own personal preferences for romances. I’ve long known that I usually struggle with grumpy/sunshine (too often I feel like authors think “sunshine” simply means “dumb as a rock”). And I also often have a hard time buying into the cozy factor of these romcom-like romantasies. However, the romance fantasy subReddit really sold me this book hard, and I was incredibly disappointed with what I got. That said, if you enjoyed Assistant to the Villain or the grumpy/sunshine trope in general, I really do recommend you check out this book! It just wasn’t for me.

Rating 6: Why, oh why, do authors write “sunshine” characters as just plain ridiculous and stupid?? This one was definitely not for me, but I do think that it will appeal to readers who enjoy romcom fantasy novels!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Throne in the Dark” can be found on these Goodreads lists: Shadow Men Megathread and Cozy Fantasy Books.