No one in Attolia likes the new king, Eugenides, including Costis, a young guard at the palace. So it’s both a relief and a burden to Costis that rather than being put to death for punching the king, he is made Eugenides’ personal bodyguard. Now Costis is responsible for the safety of a king who is despised both personally and politically. Costis is loyal to the Queen of Atollia, whom he believes was forced into marriage with Eugenides as part of truce between their kingdoms. But from his new vantage point, the guard begins to see that Eugenides is neither rogue nor scoundrel. The king is both brilliant and compassionate, although he carefully guards both facts even as he pulls strings without others knowing. Soon, Costis is privy to another carefully kept secret: the king and queen, whose relationship appears in public to be one of mutual disdain, are deeply in love. Megan Whalen Turner’s richly complex characters and tightly woven plot of political intrigue bring the story begun in The Thief (Greenwillow / HarperCollins, 1996) and continued in The Queen of Attolia (Greenwillow / HarperCollins, 2000) to a greatly satisfying conclusion. (Ages 11–14)