Tricia Levenseller

The Shadows Between Us gives its narrator an opening line about planning to marry the king and then murder him for his throne, and it does not soften her afterwards.

Levenseller writes young adult fantasy with heroines who are openly ambitious and unapologetic, and Daughter of the Pirate King does the same with a captain's daughter who lets herself be captured on purpose.

The books are short, fast and light on worldbuilding by design, and readers who want depth in the politics will be disappointed by choice rather than by failure.