Episode 20: Ivan

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Deacon

by Kit Rocha

We’re back, friends, with our final full-length installment for a little bit. Ivan is the third novel in the Gideon’s Riders books, and our last official novel for the moment. Stay tuned, though, because we’ve still got several short story episodes and an AMA with the author duo Bree and Donna all about the process of writing these books we’ve spent the last year diving in to!

This week, we dig into our most Regency-style romance to date, the forbidden romance between bodyguard Ivan and princess Maricela. We discuss found and biological families, the ways in which we talk about how to value life, and the importance and validity of love as a lasting legacy. As always, it was a blast, and we hope you have as much fun listening as we did recording!

As the sheltered princess of Sector One, Maricela’s life is defined by duty: to her people and to her family. Her wealth and influence have allowed her to build a better world, but they come with a price—the responsibility to secure political stability with a practical marriage. Maricela cherishes the idea of marrying for love, but there’s not much romance in the endless line of suitors interested only in prestige and power.
And her handsome, brooding new bodyguard isn’t helping the situation.
Ivan is the perfect, deadly warrior, a man trained from childhood to be the ultimate protector to the Rios family. His focus on keeping her safe is intense–and a little intoxicating. When the threat of danger cracks his icy control, Maricela realizes she’s not the only one fighting against temptation.
Ivan knows that the blood on his hands makes him unworthy of the pure-hearted princess. But from the first kiss, their forbidden affair feels inevitable. He can give her a glimpse of life outside her gilded cage and a lover who wants the woman instead of the crown. The only thing he can never do is promise her forever.
Because spurning her noble suitors to marry her bodyguard wouldn’t just be a scandal. It could set off a political firestorm that would tear Sector One apart.