Paved with good intentions by Peter McLean

Series: War for the Rose Throne (#5)

Format: 265 pages, Paperback

Published: January 15, 2026 by Arcadia

Fantasy/own

This takes place after the previous books, and yes I did miss Priest. But you do not have to have read those to understand this one. It is a new chapter.

Eline kills her husband because he was a controlling, abusive ahole. But then she also realises that she killed her husband and this is bad. The Queen's Men show up and offer her a deal and it is a bad deal, but it is better than being hanged.

Take a job at a local brothel and solve who killed a Duke.

Little bit of mystery, thriller in a dark fantasy setting. The world feels very bleak. But Eline is tougher than she thinks and grows a lot in this book.

I liked it.

Eline is a mother, a wife, and a survivor. But her life is about to change dramatically. Following an act of horrific - if righteous - vengeance, Eline is blackmailed into the service of the Queen's Men. She knows it will be a hard life of violence and fear. But Eline will do what it takes to survive, and to protect her children . . . and if she's lucky, she won't die in the process.

But the Queen's Men aren't just asking her to risk herself. They're asking her to risk everything she knows and loves. And if she fails . . . civil war and the deaths of everyone she loves will be just the beginning.