Penny

I was a little worried when I started reading because I saw some comments about how she is a pushover and lets the queen treat her terribly without retaliating… but I’m really glad I didn’t listen to that and read this anyway. I’m seeing a lot more badass vibes than pushover ones. My reasoning is as follows:
1.) The queen is a bitch, yes, but a bitch her brother loved. It makes sense to me that she would hesitate to kill the mother of the brother she is grieving so soon after his death. She kept her shit together and fought back without actually killing anyone while she was being tortured… that takes a lot of control when you have a gift like hers.
2.) Christa shows a strong level of responsibility for her people and country—she negotiated a treaty for them to end the war in a way that is fair for her people, even while plotting the death of the man she would be marrying.
3.) I’m starting to think that Christa reacts to pain in a very “it’s only pain” way, pretty badass. Perhaps to her own detriment, but I have a feeling her character arch will be addressing this.
4.) Her attitude is very no-nonsense and she’s willing to do what it takes without gloating or needing anyone else to tell her what to do. I hope the author leans into this and doesn’t focus solely on the romance—I can totally see Christa taking control of the Empire she’s just married into. So much potential…. Please deliver, author!

the situation is pretty fucked up, consent-wise, in a very historical ladies-rights way, but I think… if I’m not being premature, this dude might be a green flag. He knows that she’s had a shitty life, and that her pain tolerance is high (as he mentions in the carriage ride to his kingdom) so when he heard that the other ladies were having stomach pain after the tea party, he kept pushing to see if she was suffering the same effects because he knows she’s used to ignoring pain and he doesn’t want it to go untreated just because she can handle it. It takes a certain kind of mindset (empathy) to account for someone else’s unique circumstances in your care for them—this goes beyond ‘I don’t want to see you suffering’ and leans into ‘I don’t want you to suffer even if I can’t see it’ territory. Bravo, dude.