Nina Kimberly the Merciless — Christiana Ellis

She's on a mission... to kill the man who loves her. Why? Because he's an idiot. Ten years ago, Nina Kimberly the Merciless was cheated out of the life of adventure that she truly deserves. Her father, the fearsome barbarian conqueror Marcus the Merciless, met his first and only defeat at the hands of, well... a gopher hole. Ever since this epic humiliation, she and the rest of the horde have been stuck in the rural backwater kingdom of Langia. Now Francis IX, the idiotic king, has decided that he and Nina should be married. She can't kill him without starting a succession war, but the alternatives? Eww! No more waiting for a quest to find her, it's time to get proactive. She sets off into the big wide world, but the King decides to tag along, complete with a security spell to alert the Kingdom if he's killed. Nina is forced to swallow her pride and keep him safe... at least until she can find a way to break the spell. But nothing is ever simple in the life of a barbarian princess, and nothing is ever quite what it appears. While seeking the answer to all her problems, Miss the Merciless discovers that what she's always wanted may not actually be what she wants. Nina Kimberly the Merciless is a comic coming of age story filled with magic, mayhem and mercenaries, but mercy? Never.