I love Yuki Kairi's adaption of Saiunkoku Monogatari, but this series is proof that the writer makes a huge difference in the quality of a manga. The heroine is a weak-willed, impulsive girl disguised as a strong and beautiful princess. It's easy to miss this because she's impulsive and stubborn. How can you be weak-willed and stubborn? I don't know, but the author managed it somehow.
The premise is as follows: a princess who was locked away in a tower her whole life (as we are told at the start, a detail which is handily forgotten by the end) is 'captured' by the enemy... finding out, in the process, that her whole country has fallen. Oh, and she's supposed to be the "Princess of Light" and bring about great things for her country. Incidentally, she's also the fiancee of the enemy prince.
So, in order to because a wonderful queen/princess instead of a sheltered one, she needs to become a brave and strong woman, right? She needs to learn from her past mistakes, right? Nope. Never happens. She gets tricked and pushed down on several occasions, does impetuous things thinking that there won't be consequences (and surprise - there aren't! -- what a convenient plot!). Then she starts learning stuff. Sword-fighting? Useless. Studying, which she's done since her childhood? Useless. Learning not to trust someone who's betrayed you? Useless... she stops trusting him but runs right into his trap anyhow.
The supernatural/magic element of this plot is laughable and weakened the plot... literally providing a Deus Ex moment at a crucial point. There's also plot cliches galore - the poorly-done love triangle that even the author lost interest in writing about, the "childhood friend" trope (which appears twice), the "actually royalty and you didn't know it trope", the "you'll fall in love with me because I say so and love forcing you down" trope... now, except for the last one, these would all be fine, except that they are all piled on top of each other in such a short space so it feels really unnatural. The drama of the political situation and the romantic relationship was more than enough to sustain the story, and should have, but the author simply did not want to pass up the ol' shoujo standards.
Now, all these cruel things being said, the plot had a lot of potential and there were many places where the plot, politics, and character could have been well-developed but weren't. Instead the whole thing feels crammed together, and not enough time is given for personal development of any of the characters... so I was never invested. I'm thinking this author could do a lot better in the future, and for that reason, I'm willing to give it a mediocre rating for its effort.