Her Pretty Knight is a self-published sapphic fantasy romance novel by Mariah Rae Birch. It’s the first book in the Sapphic Lady Knights series.
I found this book after asking for recommendations for novels that felt like this:
The classic knight and damsel, but make it sapphic. This book absolutely nails this vibe perfectly.
Della and Annett are not only sisters, but witches that have been captured for their crime of being magic users. They’re stopped by Princess Cordelia, who has a proposition for them. She’s meant to marry the prince of a rival kingdom, but she wants to run away and start a new life for herself instead. Della looks surprisingly similar to Cordelia, so she asks Della to pretend to be her temporarily. Della must convincingly fake her death the night before the wedding using her magic. Doing this successfully and without setting the two kingdoms to war will buy her and her sister their freedom. Della agrees, and she sets off to the Kingdom of Glea with Annett posing as her maid.
Upon arriving to the kingdom, Della meets Prince Valin who tells her he’s assigned the head of his knights, Galeon, to her.
Della and Galeon are immediately attracted to one another but resist making it known to one another because of their duties; Della has to fight for her and her sister’s freedom, and Galeon is sworn to protect the princess.
But because of their close proximity to one another, things happen, and the two begin to fall for one another.
I really like their relationship. In many romance novels, there can be a tendency to ignore giving love interests any chemistry in favor of forcing a relationship. This book is not that. Della and Galeon actually have good chemistry with one another. Galeon is a traditional fantasy knight in every sense. She’s chivalrous, she’s strong, and she’s kind. Della is fiercely independent, outspoken, and knows what she wants. I think these two personalities complement each other very well.
The way they interact is also very sweet. Galeon reads her favorite book to Della since she never learned how, and they get into a passionate discussion over the plot. Della gives Galeon her favor at the tournament and it means the world to her. Their glances they share and linked arms as they walk together are all just very cute.
Prince Valin is a good antagonist for the story. He’s everything Galeon isn’t— materialistic, abusive, self-centered. He’s a monster. We learn that Prince Valin murdered a woman and stuffed her corpse behind a bookcase when he confesses to Galeon and admits to his violent urges. He physically assaults both Della and Galeon for angering him. Just an all around terrible guy that I wish the worst for.
There are a couple of things regarding Annett that prevented this from being a five-star read for me, however.
Annett is the driving force for Della to successfully complete this disguise mission, since if she fails, Annett will die. I would have liked to have seen more of Annett and have her be more relevant with her actions and abilities as a witch. Her power is to be able to manipulate people into doing whatever she wants, except they’re aware they’re being manipulated, making her ability essentially useless. Which is why I think we see her use her ability exactly zero times.
Her Pretty Knight is a very comfy take on familiar fantasy tropes. If you’re looking for a sapphic fantasy romance, this is a great read. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.
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