Review -A Marriage of Necessity by Lisa Oliver
A Marriage of Necessity
by Lisa Oliver
My rating: 
Heat level: 
Volume 5 of Another Arranged Marriage
Posted in Book Reviews on 30 August, 2026
Crown Prince Avalon vowed to never consider marriage again, which hasn’t stopped his father from asking from time to time. When the king presents Avalon with an appeal from a neighboring queen to safeguard her youngest son who was kidnapped and mutilated, Avalon feels compelled to agree to a marriage contract, even if it’s only a marriage of necessity. Even before his kidnapping, Jasper was an outsider at court, usually kept hidden away. His kidnappers threatened to harm the queen if Jasper should ever identify them. Jasper feels like he’s being watched, so the only way to protect his mother is to escape the court, but with his disfigurement, the young man believes no royal from another court would have him. His only prospects would be an avaricious noble seeking to buy favor at court.
This tale from the Another Arranged Marriage series features yet another very unlikely pairing. All the stories of the series are set in the same medieval fantasy world where small kingdoms are ruled by hereditary rulers and stability is maintained by strategic marriages between the royal families. While there are mentions of some of the other couples featured in other books of the series, you can easily read the books independently, in any order. Magic plays a bigger role in this story that the other books.
Avalon comes across as quite an heroic figure. His determination to make Jasper safe from added trauma is admirable, if not entirely altruistic. The marriage means Avalon is no longer subjected to the string of prospective brides that constantly present themselves to him. Still, his insistence on offering Jasper friendship when the young man expects to be hidden away somewhere is compelling proof of Avalon’s heroism.
Jasper has quite a story to tell. It takes a while before he trusts Avalon enough to reveal all the secrets he has had to keep hidden for his whole life. As is often the case in these stories, there’s a lot more to Jasper than anyone realizes. He is far from the helpless victim you may think he is when the story starts.
“A Marriage of Necessity” is available from Smashwords or from independent booksellers through Bookshop.org.