Melchior, King of the Bhresyas, has decided the war with the humans on his world has to stop. If the humans had honored their first treaty, and giving Melchior his bride as they promised, the war would never have happened in the first place. Now, Melchior once again approaches the most powerful human city and slaughters the royal family, save one – Queen Rhiannon, with whom he strikes a bargain. No more war, in exchange for his rightful due, the daughter Queen Rhiannon carries, who will be wed to him on her 19^th birthday. And thus the bargain is struck.

Serenity entered the world by force and knife point, but that did not dispel her ever present smile and cheerfulness. Growing up under constant threat of death due to the many assassination attempts, Serenity is sure in her destiny is to marry King Melchior. After all, she loves him and he of course will love her, right? But Serenity finds love doesn’t always conquer all, and it might not be enough to save two kingdoms from war.

D. Renee Bagby brings you into the fantastic universe of Gezane in Serenity. I found it to be a very sad book for the most part; bringing tears to my eyes in a lot of places. Poor Serenity gets more death, violence, and just plain meanness thrown at her in this book. I was quite depressed while reading about all of Serenity’s adversities. There are a few touching love scenes that save Serenity from being a complete tragedy such as the ending, which is truly beautiful and made me cry in happiness, and balanced all the previous sadness and tragedy. Over all, Serenity is a very emotional and a very heart-wrenching read, but if you like light romantic reads this is not for you. Serenity is very well written eliciting more emotions than your average book, and I, for one, haven’t cried this much in a long time as I was very attached to Melchior and Serenity. And you will definitely fall in love with the “Hounds of Hell” too.  Pick up Serenity if you’re in the mood for strong emotion, a lot of crying, and a happy ending.