King of Battle and Blood (Adrian X Isolde Book 1)

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The stakes are higher than ever as they confront mythical beasts, malevolent gods, and personal sacrifices.

The story progresses quickly, with the first meeting between our MCs already occurring after the first few pages, and while I found it easy to predict everything that would unfold between them, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as I was intrigued by this world’s interesting history. I really liked her in the first few chapters; she was strong, and independent, and saying how she wanted to rule without having to marry because she was raised to be a good ruler… Then I stopped liking her when she started traveling with Adrian and his vampires because she couldn’t stop acting like a jealous teen and she was so contradictory! Their union is his revenge" immediately gave me enemies-to-lovers vibes, which this book was apparently about, so that's a tick.I’ve been focusing on my bookstagram lately so I feel like I haven’t written a proper review in a while — which means that I’m very aware that this is kind of all over the place lol. That’s not to say that this book is flawless but I enjoyed the writing and world-building more and I found the characters (way) less frustrating! Again, I imagine this book is absolutely going to hit its mark amongst the audience it’s intended for, and I *was* absolutely entertained. TL;DR: If you love vampires, witches, and other paranormal creatures, a fantasy world full of political intrigue and backstabbing drama, and an extremely steamy but nonetheless swoony romance between fated lovers, then I would recommend checking this one out!

I admit it – ever since I read Dracula at the tender age of eight, I’ve had a thing for vampires and will read almost anything with them in it.

Two books I've read from her, and I HATED her female characters and couldn't give a damn about the males. But hey, at least I could read it in a satirical way, and that was the only thing giving me the strength to finish. In fact, I get tired of seeing characters like Isolde labeled “strong female characters” when they devote so much of their time to woman vs. However, what I have come to find is that there’s a very thin line between being a powerful and fierce heroine and being aggressive and mean for no reason whatsoever.

There is A LOT of smut in this one, and by the 50% mark, it even started to feel a little repetitive.

You don’t get to say terrible things to someone and push them away, and then whine when they don’t pay you the attention you secretly want from them?

Isolde is the ultimate female power fantasy—strong, just, wise, and willing to get her hands dirty when need be. This was strongly reminiscent of JLA’s From Blood and Ash books with the same addicting qualities to it but I personally enjoyed my reading experience of this one so much more (take that as you will but pls no attack lol)!

Despite their undeniable chemistry, she wonders why the king——fierce, savage, merciless—chose her as consort. Isolde is jealous, she’s petty, and rather than help a specific character and realize she’s a product of the station she holds, she belittles and embarrasses them. Another thing that got me popping my vein is this branding that Clair had for coming up with the most condescending, crude heroines. He’s a pretty typical paranormal romantasy hero in many ways—he’s a tough but fair ruler whose people adore and fear him in equal measure, but when it comes to his queen, he’s an insane softie and worships the ground she walks on. It mostly develops because they kept on having great sex together, and Isolde couldn’t endure being apart from Adrian because of the sex, not because she cared that much about him.