Crown Me Yours – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️

Title: Crown Me Dead (#1)

Author: Liv Zander

Format: ebook

Pages: 270

Format: ebook (Kindle Unlimited)

Publication Date: 4/10/26

Categories: Dark Romance, Dark Fantasy, Series

Wed me. Bed me. Slit my throat.

Born in dirt, raised in rot, I dig graves for the dead, while the living decay around me.

When my brother coughs blood, he appears.

A man too polished for the graveyard, with a bargain too cruel for the Seduce the King. Become the Queen. Die. And my brother lives.

Kael is a nightmare of living ruin, the rotting ruler of a festering realm. And Vale is his shadow, the cold architect of my demise.

One man needs my heart to beat. The other plans to stop it forever.

They think I’m a pawn. But I’m the gravedigger’s daughter. And I know exactly where to bury them.

Welcome to the funeral.

Content Warning: violence, death, body horror, maggots

World Building: This is a dark fantasy where a whole kingdom is rotting, and I don’t only mean the crops and buildings, but the people too. There is a curse that the current King Kael is trying to starve out, he’s supposed to take a wife he loves and slice her throat to feed his crown blood, but he refuses to do it but it means people will rot and die. There is body horror and…maggots. So if you are totally grossed out about both those things, this might not be for you.

Characters: I love Elara. She is always around death because she is a gravedigger along with her mom and brother. She’s not afraid of it and has seen so much of it that it doesn’t phase which makes her perfect to be King Kael’s bride since he is rotting. King Kael is someone who wants to end the curse, he’s rotting, he’s angry, lashes out but he softens towards Elara’s brash attitude and I was enjoying their growing friendship. Vale is a mystery – he’s handsome, and claims he is a steward for the king. His plan, to get Elara to make the king fall in love with her, so he can sacrifice her and feed the crown – which would remove the rot killing everything in the land.

Romance: For a moment in this book I thought there would be a love triangle. Elara is getting to know Kael, but her body wants Vale. And I was all for her attraction to the dark, mysterious man, even though I thought Kael was the nicer one of the two. There is a lot of mystery around both men, and you can never tell who is good or bad, who to trust. There is spice but nothing too overboard.

Story: I could not put this book down and I didn’t realize it was under 300 pages until I finished it so quick! I love Elara and how strong and brave she is. She loves her family and will do whatever it takes, even give up her life to save them from rotting. She gets under Vale’s skin and she befriends the Kael. There are secrets and lies and everything comes to a head in a cliffhanger. But thank goodness book two is out – because I had to read it right away. There were decisions that Elara made that I was frustrated about, but I understand she was trying to play her own game too and survive the situation she was in.

Vibes: dark vibes, some gross moments, but death is all around

Final Thoughts:

I love this book and only lowered my rating because some of the body horror was gross. But I was horrified and couldn’t look away – and I love Elara. I had to see if they could break the curse! It’s why I had to read book two right away.

Read if you like:

dark romance
dark fantasy
secrets, betrayal

Book Links:

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating: 🌶️🌶️

Title: Crown Me Yours (Heartstrings Duet, #2)

Author: Liv Zander

Format: ebook

Pages: 244

Format: ebook (Kindle Unlimited)

Publication Date: 4/16/26

Categories: Dark Romance, Dark Fantasy, Series

Wed him. Bed him. Slit his throat.

I killed the king.
Crowned myself in his blood,
But the curse still festers.

To break it, I need Death,
On his knees,
A ring on his finger.
My blade at his throat.

The god fights me to the grave,
Evades my touch,
Mocks my wanting.

He would rather tear himself apart,
Than let me close enough to end this.
But I didn’t come this far to lose.
I came to crown him mine.

Welcome to your wedding, my love.

Content Warning: violence, death, body horror

Part two in this duet – this is a love story that makes me cry because what do you mean Elara makes Death fall in love with her? He tries his hardest to not succumb to her but he cannot resist. I love them together. There is spice and banter, it’s less dark than book one – less body horror and there is a battle of wills but Elara is a force.

And the ending chapters which is basically an epilogue? Ugh…my heart! For some reason it was reminding me of Jack and Sally in Nightmare Before Christmas 😅 maybe because of all the skeleton parts of Death when he is revealed as himself. But hello his heartstrings? I could not take it. 💔 What a beautiful ending to this story to show us that love is always worth it, even through loss and pain.

I will say this was shorter than book one and I feel like both books could have been combined since most romantasy books these days are long. I was totally engaged in this story and I really loved it.

Quote from the book:

“You can’t have love without embracing grief. Pain is the price we pay for participating in life.” – Liv Zander, Crown Me Yours

Final Thoughts:

I love this duology which I feel could have just been one book – but besides that, what a story. It’s dark, but so heartfelt at the end. It pulled at my heartstrings. I’ll be looking forward to reading more from this author!

Read if you like: