She Was Sold Like King Midas Sold His Daughter
She was sold like King Midas sold his daughter — and she knew it the whole time. That is the premise at the beating heart of Tempting Conner, the first book in my Tempting Series, and it is also the subject of my newest YouTube video. If you have ever felt like someone treated you as a prize rather than a person, Olivia’s story is going to hit you somewhere real.
I just released a new video exploring exactly this idea — the myth, the emotion, and how it shaped the Tempting Series. Watch it below, and then keep reading, because I want to tell you things about Olivia and Conner that the video only had time to touch.
What Does ‘Sold Like King Midas Sold His Daughter’ Actually Mean?
Most people remember the King Midas myth for the golden touch. Everything he laid his hands on became gold. Instant power. Instant wealth. Instant devastation — because the version that gets told at dinner tables usually stops before the part where he turns his daughter to gold.
He loved her. He reached for her out of pure instinct. And she became a statue.
The thing that wrecks me about that image is not the magic. It is the intention. He was not trying to hurt her. He was trying to hold on. And that impulse — to grip what you love so tightly you turn it into something that cannot breathe anymore — that is not a myth problem. That is a very human problem.
Olivia’s family in Tempting Conner loves her in exactly that way. They see an alliance. They see a future king. They see leverage dressed up in wedding invitations. And they hand her over to Conner without asking whether she wanted any part of it. They called it an opportunity. Olivia called it what it was.
You can explore the full world of royal romance and what it costs to wear a crown in my Forbidden King story — but what Olivia faces in the Tempting Series is something even more grounded and more furious: a woman who knows she has been sold and refuses to perform gratitude for the cage.
Who Is Olivia — And Why She Is Not a Passive Princess
I want to be very clear about something before you assume you know what kind of heroine Olivia is. She is not decorative. She is not waiting to be rescued. She walks into that royal engagement already knowing every political calculation her family made, already reading every person in the room, and already forming her own agenda.
Conner expects compliance. He has been trained his whole life for a throne and he has learned to treat the people around him like pieces on a board. His family expects the same of him. A useful bride. A stable union. Politics dressed as romance.
What he gets is someone who sees through every layer of the game he is playing. And that terrifies him more than any threat to the throne.
The King Midas parallel runs deep here. Midas did not mean to destroy what he loved. Conner does not mean to dismiss Olivia. But the habits of power — the way he has learned to hold people at arm’s length, to treat proximity as transaction — those habits are a kind of golden touch. Everything he reaches for becomes something cold and manageable instead of something real.
Olivia is the thing that will not go gold. She keeps being warm and sharp and inconveniently human no matter what he does. That is the romance.
She Was Sold Like King Midas Sold His Daughter: The Myth Behind the Trope
I did not set out to write a King Midas retelling. I set out to write a fake engagement story with real stakes — the kind where the danger is not just emotional but physical, where the threat woven through the series is something you cannot kiss away. The Tempting Series is romantic suspense. Five books. Five powerful men in the Hawke family. One deadly thread that runs through all of them.
But the more I wrote Olivia, the more I kept coming back to that image. Midas’s daughter, frozen mid-laugh. A person who became a possession in the hands of someone who meant well.
There is a whole taxonomy of this trope in romance fiction. The arranged marriage. The political alliance. The woman whose family sees her as a resource. We are drawn to these stories because they make explicit something that is often invisible — the way people who love you can still treat your autonomy as a negotiable thing.
What makes the romantic suspense version of this trope so electric is that the threat is real. Olivia is not just navigating hurt feelings and misunderstandings. She is in a situation where the danger is genuine, where the people around Conner are not safe, and where her sharp mind becomes the actual survival tool. The fake engagement is not just emotionally convenient cover — it is structurally necessary for what both of them are trying to survive.
If you love the push and pull of fake relationship romance where the stakes are impossibly high, the Tempting Series is built for exactly that kind of reader.
The Hawke Family: Five Brothers, One Deadly Threat
Let me give you the wider picture of the Tempting Series because I think it helps to understand why Olivia’s story lands so hard.
The Hawke family — Conner, James, Gabe, Harry, and Navid — are five men orbiting a threat that none of them can fully see coming. Each book follows one of them into a situation where the personal and the dangerous are completely tangled. Ex-Marines. Protective instincts turned up to maximum. Women who did not ask to be in the middle of any of this and are smart enough to know exactly where they are.
| Book | Hero | Heroine | Core Trope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tempting Conner | Conner (future King of Montina) | Olivia | Fake engagement, royal romance, romantic suspense |
| Tempting James | James Clancy | Scarlett | Protector romance, bodyguard |
| Tempting Gabe | Gabe | TBD | Family saga, romantic suspense |
| Tempting Harry | Harry | TBD | Action adventure, fake dating, bodyguard |
| Tempting Navid | Navid | TBD | Billionaire, boss/employee, family saga |
Every single book in this series carries that thread — people forced into impossible situations, finding that the person beside them is the one they were looking for all along.
Why I Keep Writing Women Who Were Treated Like Currency
Honestly? Because I think it is one of the most common experiences women carry quietly.
Not always as dramatic as a royal arranged marriage. Sometimes it is a family that defines your worth by who you marry. Sometimes it is a workplace that treats your ambition as a convenience or a threat depending on the day. Sometimes it is someone who loves you genuinely but still cannot see you as fully separate from what you do for them.
I write romance because I believe in the HEA — the happily ever after. But the HEA only means something if the journey to get there is real. If the heroine had to fight for her own personhood before she got to choose love, then the love she chooses at the end is actually earned. It belongs to her.
Olivia’s arc in Tempting Conner is not really about Conner. It is about Olivia deciding that the life her family brokered for her is not the only version of her life available. The romance with Conner is the reward at the end of that journey — but only after she has claimed herself first.
That is why the King Midas image matters so much to me. Midas’s daughter could not choose. She was acted upon. My heroines always find the moment where they choose. That is the turn the myth never got to write.
If that kind of romantic suspense story is what you have been looking for, I want you to explore the full romantic suspense collection on my site — the Tempting Series is there with the full reading order and every retailer listed.
What Happens When Both People Were Sold Into Something?
Here is the piece of Conner’s story that I think gets overlooked: he was sold too.
Not in the same way. He has power Olivia does not. He walks into the room with the weight of a crown behind him. But the throne he is inheriting comes with obligations, with threats, with a version of his future that was plotted before he had opinions about it. His entire life is a transaction his bloodline made on his behalf.
That is what makes the enemies-to-partners arc in Tempting Conner so satisfying to write. Neither of them chose this. Both of them are navigating something that was built around them. And the moment they stop treating each other as part of the problem and start treating each other as the one ally they can actually trust — that is where the story becomes a love story.
Two people who were used as currency, choosing each other freely. That is the whole mythology of romance rewritten in one arc.
You can watch me talk through the full Midas angle in the YouTube video — watch the full take on YouTube if you want the longer conversation. I go deeper into the myth and exactly how it shaped Olivia and Conner’s dynamic.
Where to Start With the Tempting Series in 2026
If you are new to the Tempting Series, start with Tempting Conner. It introduces the Hawke world, establishes the threat threading through all five books, and gives you Olivia — who is genuinely one of my favorite heroines I have ever written because of exactly the quality I described above. She will not go gold.
From there, Tempting James picks up the bodyguard thread with Scarlett — a heroine who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and a hero who was trained to keep people like her alive but not to fall for them. And then the series just keeps building.
Tempting Gabe is available with a free reader magnet — sign up for my newsletter and get Tempting Gabe delivered straight to your inbox. It is my thank you for joining the reader community, and it is a gorgeous entry point into the Hawke family saga.
All five books are available wide — on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and more. Every retailer is listed at victoriapinder.com/romantic-suspense so you can grab it wherever you read.
And if you love the royal fake engagement element of Conner and Olivia’s story, you will also want to look at Forbidden King from my Princes of Avce series — a boss and secretary, a royal clock ticking, and a completely different flavor of the same impossible situation. Both books explore what it costs to be handed a life you did not choose and whether love can exist inside a transaction that was never supposed to be personal.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Tempting Series by Victoria Pinder about?
The Tempting Series is a five-book romantic suspense saga following the Hawke family — five powerful men connected by a deadly threat none of them can fully see. Each book pairs one of the brothers with a heroine thrown into impossible circumstances. Tropes include fake engagement, royal romance, bodyguard romance, and action adventure. Start with Tempting Conner, available on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Google Play.
How does the King Midas myth connect to Tempting Conner?
In the Greek myth, King Midas’s golden touch turned his daughter to gold — an act of love that became an act of destruction. In Tempting Conner, heroine Olivia is sold into a royal engagement by her family, who love her but treat her as currency. The parallel is the way controlling love, even well-intentioned love, can freeze a person in place. Olivia’s arc is about refusing to become gold.
Is Tempting Conner a standalone romance or part of a series?
Tempting Conner is the first book in the five-book Tempting Series by USA Today Bestselling Author Victoria Pinder. Each book follows a different couple within the Hawke family and can be enjoyed individually, but the books share a suspense thread that builds across all five. Reading in order starting with Tempting Conner gives you the fullest experience of the overarching story.
Where can I read books about heroines sold into arranged marriages or political alliances?
Victoria Pinder’s Tempting Series and Princes of Avce series both explore heroines navigating arranged marriages, royal alliances, and political fake engagements. Tempting Conner features a future king and a heroine sold into their engagement by her own family. Forbidden King from the Princes of Avce series covers a boss-secretary dynamic with a royal clock ticking. Both are available on all major retailers.
What is the reading order for the Tempting Series?
The Tempting Series reading order is: 1) Tempting Conner, 2) Tempting James, 3) Tempting Gabe, 4) Tempting Harry, 5) Tempting Navid. Start with Tempting Conner for the full series setup. Tempting Gabe is available as a free reader magnet through Victoria Pinder’s newsletter. All books are available wide on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Google Play.
What makes romantic suspense different from regular contemporary romance?
Romantic suspense weaves a genuine external threat — danger, mystery, or conspiracy — through the love story, so the stakes are not only emotional but physical. In Victoria Pinder’s Tempting Series, the Hawke brothers are navigating a deadly threat that connects all five books while also falling for heroines they were never supposed to love. The romance and the suspense are inseparable — removing either collapses the story.
Does Victoria Pinder have any free books in the Tempting Series?
Yes — Tempting Gabe is available as a free reader magnet when you sign up for Victoria Pinder’s newsletter. It is delivered via BookFunnel directly to your preferred reading device. The newsletter also includes new release alerts, bonus content, and early access to epilogues. Sign up at victoriapinder.com to get your free copy.
