From the Bookshelf of More Spice, Please!…

King of Battle and Blood (Adrian x Isolde, #1)

Scarlett St. Clair

Start date: September 8, 2023

Finish date: October 5, 2023

Discussion: Spicy Group Reads

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What Members Thought

Oct 04, 2023 Literary Lusts rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, paranormal, sexually-explicit, vampires, romantic-fantasy, paranormal-romance

I liked this enough to finish it. But I wouldn't recommend it. The FMC had very "I'm not like other girls" energy. I appreciated her assertiveness and willingness to fight for what she believes in. But for someone raised in a royal family she had terrible people skills. The only female character she had any kind of relationship with was her motherly-like handmaiden. And the handmaiden is barely in the book.

There's this repetitive assertion that Isolde is making this huge sacrifice for her peopl I liked this enough to finish it. But I wouldn't recommend it. The FMC had very "I'm not like other girls" energy. I appreciated her assertiveness and willingness to fight for what she believes in. But for someone raised in a royal family she had terrible people skills. The only female character she had any kind of relationship with was her motherly-like handmaiden. And the handmaiden is barely in the book.

There's this repetitive assertion that Isolde is making this huge sacrifice for her people. She even attempts to save a group of her own people who attack her while she's traveling after the wedding. However, it's not really explained *why* she has this deep connection to her people and was willing to make the sacrifice. You are told she deeply loves her father and her handmaiden. But it's not really shown. The only character from her court that she interacts with is this military commander who's essentially a toxic ex-boyfriend.

The beginning of the romantic relationship was promising. The writer did a good job of creating the volatile chemistry between the two characters. The spicy scenes were also well done at first. However, as the book went along the FMC began to get on my nerves. She kept holding on to her prejudices way past what I would think is reasonable. I didn't really feel that she developed or grew as the story progressed. She'd also get so wrapped up in her conflicting feelings that they'd interrupt the spicy scenes. Several times the spicy scenes actually stop. That was very disappointing.

The MMC was also not well developed at all. I didn't get a sense of his personality other than he will do whatever the FMC asks him to do. He's often escaping the FMC's wrath or getting kicked out of her room. He doesn't even get a complete backstory. Also, the big "secret" was completely not a secret or a plot twist. I'm usually terrible at guessing even fairly obvious plot points. And I could see this coming a mile away.

It wasn't terrible and there were some things I enjoyed about it. It's just always so frustrating when a book has potential and you have certain expectations. But then the book fails to deliver what you wanted. I think that's more annoying than a straight up bad book. ...more

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