The Veiled Kingdom

Written by bestselling romantasy author Holly Renee, The Veiled Kingdom (2024) is the first book in the series of the same name and follows Nyra, the daughter of a tyrannical king, as she escapes her father’s clutches and falls in with rebels who are unaware of her identity. Confronted with the moral ambiguities of rebellion and enamored of the rebel leader’s son, Nyra must decide whether to join forces with the rebels or choose a different path in her attempts to resist her father’s regime.

Holly Renee is a USA Today bestselling author in contemporary romance. To date, she has written 19 novels, and her series include The Veiled Kingdom, Stars and Shadows, Good Girls, Rock Bottom, and The Boys of Clermont Bay. Renee’s novels often employ popular conventions of the romance genre, such as the enemies-to-lovers and forbidden romance tropes, both of which play a major role in The Veiled Kingdom. This first novel in the series is followed by The Hunted Heir, and the third installment, The Rivaled Crown, is forthcoming.

This guide refers to the 2024 Kindle e-book edition.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide contain descriptions of violence, murder, torture, abuse, child loss, dubious consent, and sexual assault.

Plot Summary

One year ago, Nyra, who is really the fae Princess Verena of the Marmoris Kingdom, escaped from a rebellion raid on her father’s palace. Now, she is living on the streets of the kingdom’s capital city. She steals to survive and lives in an abandoned alcove with her friend, Micah. Nyra has no magic, which is unheard of for the fae species. Her father, King Roan, tortured her throughout her childhood to try to force her magic to manifest. Nyra’s mother, Queen Nyra, (whose name Nyra has adopted as a pseudonym) lost several pregnancies and died while trying to have another child to serve as the kingdom’s heir. King Roan does not want Nyra to be his heir, because she has no magical power. He also covets magic for his own use; each year, he hosts a tithe and requires all citizens to give him some of their magic.

Now, Nyra is evading guards as the date of the tithe approaches. Micah steals a parcel from one of King Roan’s messengers. One of the missives for the king features the symbol of the organized rebellion. Micah uses his magic to place this mark on Nyra, but they are separated when guards pursue them. Nyra is caught stealing and thrown in the dungeon.

Meanwhile, Dacre, who is the son of the rebellion’s leader, Davian, plans a rescue mission to the palace dungeon to retrieve his imprisoned sister and fellow rebellion warrior, Wren. Dacre is still grieving his mother’s death in the palace raid that took place last year. To fight off the guards and rescue Wren, Kai uses his smoke magic and Dacre uses his fire magic. Wren refuses to leave the dungeon without the other female prisoner, who turns out to be Nyra. Although Nyra tries to fight him off, Dacre takes her with them as they escape.

Dacre, Kai, and Wren take Nyra to the hidden city where the rebellion is housed. Dacre doesn’t trust Nyra; he immediately recognizes that her rebellion mark is fake, and she looks familiar to him. Nyra lies to Dacre, telling him that he knows her face because she was in the palace during the rebellion raid; she claims that her mother was working in the palace. Dacre doesn’t believe her, but the group brings her to the hidden city anyway.

Nyra finds the hidden city fascinating. Dacre gives Nyra and the other new recruits an ultimatum: Join the rebellion or die. One man chooses to die, as he is loyal to King Roan, but Nyra and the other recruits join. When Dacre asks her about her magical abilities, she tells him that she has none. He is suspicious but assigns her to train as a warrior, a group of fighters that he leads. Mal, another warrior, takes Nyra to her assigned room. Wren reveals that she will be Nyra’s roommate. She also tells Nyra that Dacre is her brother, which surprises Nyra.

The next day, Wren teaches Nyra some basic fighting stances until Dacre arrives and demands to train Nyra personally. They spar and argue. After training, Wren takes Nyra out for dinner at the pub, and they then go to the hot springs, a body of water with magical healing properties. Wren strips, but Nyra keeps her shirt on. Dacre arrives at the springs and antagonizes Nyra, who realizes that she finds him physically attractive.

In the morning, Dacre trains Nyra before his father calls him away. He tells Kai to continue training her, but another warrior, Eiran, steps in, even though Kai warns him that Dacre will be angry about this switch. When Dacre returns, he finds Nyra talking with Eiran and demands that Nyra spar with him to demonstrate what she has learned. They argue and spar before going back to their rooms.

After the next day’s training, Eiran invites Nyra to have drinks with the other warriors, but Dacre takes her to the hot springs instead, where he uses his healing magic to heal her sprained ankle. There is romantic tension between them. When they return to their rooms, Wren has left a sign indicating that she has a romantic partner in the room. Nyra plans to wait in the hallway, but Dacre picks her up and carries her to his room. He gives her fresh clothes, and they fall asleep in bed together.

Dacre wakes to his father knocking on the door to recruit him for a scouting mission, so he sneaks out of the room. When Nyra wakes up, Dacre is gone, and she cannot stop thinking about him.

Wren and Eiran take Nyra to a party in the cavern. When they arrive, they find a belligerently drunk Dacre. He argues with Nyra and makes sexual comments, then agrees to stop drinking if Nyra goes with him deeper into the cavern. Nyra agrees, and Dacre takes her to a small pool to talk. He tells her that he is drunk because he found the bodies of two boys on the scouting mission; Nyra knew these boys from her time in the palace. Dacre begins to flirt with Nyra. She tries to leave, but he corners her, and they end up kissing. Eiran and Wren find them and take Nyra back to the party.

Dacre is absent the next day, and Davian demands to take Wren and Nyra on a mission above the hidden city. Davian meets with Faris, a commander in King Roan’s army, to receive clandestine information about the lost princess. Faris hears Wren and Nyra hiding nearby and demands to see them; he recognizes Nyra as the lost princess and throws a dagger at her and Wren. Nyra blocks the dagger but suffers an injury, and Wren kills Faris, who utters the word “princess” as he dies. Davian strangles Nyra, demanding to know who she really is. He stops before he kills her, and Wren takes her back to the hidden city. There, Dacre is horrified by Nyra’s injuries. Nyra asks him to heal her, which shocks Wren, who knows that Dacre has not healed anyone since he failed to heal his mother during the raid on the palace. Dacre heals Nyra.

Later, Dacre takes Nyra with him to the surface to train with a bow and arrow. Dacre receives a message from a merchant in the market and then takes Nyra to his maternal grandmother’s house. Nyra realizes that Dacre and his grandmother are working on a project that they are keeping secret from Davian. Nyra also realizes that Dacre’s grandmother recognizes her. When they leave, Dacre takes Nyra to the coast for more training. While sparring, Nyra discovers that she does have magic, though she cannot wield it at will. Dacre suspects that she has been hiding her magic all along.

When they return to the hidden city, Nyra cannot sleep. She goes to train with the bow and finds Dacre in the training grounds. He is in a bad mood and tells her to leave, but she stays. He touches her intimately, but Davian interrupts him. Dacre dismisses Nyra, who is upset that she did not touch Dacre in return.

Dacre disappears for a couple of days. When Wren tells Nyra that Dacre is back, Nyra drunkenly goes to his room and tries to initiate intercourse with him, but he refuses because of her intoxication. She instead touches herself while he touches himself.

At training in the morning, Dacre is interrupted by his father’s summons about a letter that he intercepted from Dacre’s grandmother. The letter reveals that Nyra is the lost princess. Davian is angry that Dacre has endangered the rebellion by bringing Nyra to the hidden city; Dacre is angry that Nyra lied to him. Davian demands that Dacre bring Nyra to him. Dacre goes back to his room and finds Nyra. They have sex, during which Dacre reveals to Nyra that he knows her true identity. Nyra recoils and tries to push him away, implicitly withdrawing her consent, but Dacre sexually assaults her. Afterward, he tells Nyra to run before his father sends him to hunt her. Nyra flees.