The planet of Iskat is in charge of a small empire of planets on the edge of the larger known galaxy. They’re held together by arranged marriages. (Fortunately, the Emperor has a lot of grandchildren.) When Prince Taam, who’s married to Count Jainan of Thea, is killed in an accident, Prince Kiem is quickly lined up to take Taam’s place.
Kiem is the opposite of Taam, who was in the military. Kiem’s been the (not so) black sheep of the family, and can make friends with anyone. Neither party to this new marriage quite knows what to make of the other. Naturally, intrigue ends up following.
This is some interesting world building – the different planets in the empire are well drawn, and it’s an interesting society. (I love that Iskat is populated with animals with nice, fluffy names that end up being reptilian predators – just says so much about Iskat up front.)
Kiem and Jainan are really easy to root for, and there’s some interesting set up for the wider universe of this story. Definitely interested to see where it goes from here.