As all good stories go, it all started long ago when a woman, a court maid was jilted and scorned by her lover- the king, who chose another woman instead of her. The king was treacherous- he killed anyone who got in his way. He is also quite a dumb and temperamental king who lashes out in anger when he doesn’t get what he wants. He’s dumb because when something goes wrong, he doesn’t even know how to investigate properly. Lol..

Then you have the Crown Prince, who I suppose is still young and naive; what wants to do good and help the people. But he does not yet have the power and authority, therefore he is trapped in his own prison having to succumb to the will of the palace.

The road to the throne develops quite interestingly with a good steady pace. It wasn’t as evil- deceitful-betraying as Scarlet Heart Ryeo, and our crown Prince turns out to be a very good King. But as Lady Court Seo points out to the ever-lovable Royal Head Guard- “A good king does not necessarily make a good husband”.

First one third of the series had its funny moments, we learn that the FL Sung Deok-Im is a free-spirited, bright, intelligent woman who knows how to earn her keep. She and the ML crown Prince Yi San cross paths when they’re young, and then meet again 10 years later. Initially he is taken aback by her arrogance and boldness (because she didn’t know he was the crown Prince) but soon he starts to fall in love with her. Towards the middle, the story focuses more on the evil plots to prevent the crown Prince from advancing to the throne. And there’s one great fight scene(only one!) in episode 7. Then the last 3 episodes are all about the love and relationship between FL and ML.

How do I start to describe their relationship? It was doomed from the beginning? Either one party would not be truly happy because both had different destinies and both wanted different lives. HE loved her so desperately.. wanted to keep her by his side. SHE rejected him many times because she wanted her freedom, she didn’t want to be confined to the palace and not having him all to herself. It was truly truly very sad... The chemistry between both leads were very very good though, some sweet and gentle PDA scenes.

I did wish we could see more of their happiness towards the end. The last episode was just tragedy after tragedy.. my gosh. My heart couldn’t take it sob sob. [SPOILER: It was unclear though how both of them succumbed to illness and died?? I’m still trying to figure that out. And to lose their son as well... heartbreaking. END SPOILER]

Definitely a highly recommended watch. A tad too melodramatic for me... too much crying. Maybe a few more fight scenes and conspiracies would have been better lol. Well done to all the actors- they did such a good job! The OST was not as memorable for me... it didn’t have that one or two particular songs that moved my emotions.

I will end my review with a quote from the Queen Dowager- “The palace is a dazzling..... prison”.