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

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Let me describe this book poorly: woman gets new boyfriend, old boyfriend is jealous, woman is jealous of new boyfriend’s female acquaintance because he goes to her for his fix, but woman doesn’t want to help him, she just gets mad at the other woman. Oh and turns out new boyfriend was interested in woman because she reminds him of his ex. Oh and there’s vampires and witches and magic and stuff. Adrian was just...gah. I fell so hard for this man. This supposedly ruthless vampire who isn't at all what he appears to be. I loved discovering every new layer about this man through Isolde's eyes. The story is told in first POV only from Isolde's perspective. The pacing was perfection and I simply devoured this story.

Scarlett St. Clair’s “A Touch of Ruin” is set a few months following the events of the debut. Hades and Persephone have made their relationship public even though no one knows that Persephone is not a mortal. The only person aware of her immortality is Lexa, her best friend. Persephone is still butting heads with her mother who is displeased that she is dating Hades. Meanwhile, her boss wants an exclusive on their relationship and she just learned that Sybil, her friend who is Apollo’s oracle, has been stripped of all power after refusing to sleep with the god. Persephone the justice warrior steps in to help as everything goes wrong. Persephone is still dealing with her feelings of love and trust and Hades is catching up to him. Persephone is finding that she cannot control the manifestation of her powers and being in public with all the stress in her life is not helping. Everything seems to be going wrong, setting the novel up nicely for what comes in the books to follow. Upon meeting this monster, instead of feeling horror Isolde is inexplicably drawn towards Adrian. However, even their undeniable chemistry won't deter Isolde from her mission. ⁠ I can be anything. Your jailor, your savior, your lover.” His mouth was closer to my ear as he added, “Your monster.” I would rate this a 3.5/5 on a spice scale, especially because I appreciated all the ~self love~ scenes. I also adored how s3x positive this book was and how heroine refused to be shamed for it. That is always a hallmark of a stellar book and I adore heroines like Isolde so much. She is a warrior first and a queen second, she isn’t afraid to take action and ask for approval later. To be fair, there are several big-name female authors writing successful high fantasy stories that include significant romantic elements these days, such as Sarah J. Mass’ Crescent City books or Jennifer L. Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash series. But both those women initially found success in other genres, specifically young adult fiction and traditional romance.Far too many fantasy series tend to treat women as supporting figures: Love interests, damsels to be rescued, victims of violence, or passive figures who must spend their lives reacting to the action happening around them. But St. Clair had a very particular vision for the sort of heroine she wanted King of Battle and Blood’s Isolde to be—and it wasn’t any of those things. Please don't talk about character development because it's hardly so till the end and I am tired of excusing asshole people by discarding it as "their personality and that people are different." Because oh yeah? That still doesn't give you the license to be rude. And in that moment, he’d looked so broken, I hadn’t been able to utter another word—not to him, not to Killian. The romance was good and I liked how the tried to avoid miscommunication as much as possible. Their chemistry was immediate and you could tell how much he loved her from the very start. It isn’t my fave romance of all time, hence the 4.5 star, but it has so much potential. I also loved that Adrian always cleaned her blade for her whenever she killer someone—so sweet of him. I didn't hate the heroine which was a surprise bcz i usually hate NA heroines bcz they're all like "oh ik everything ill kill everyone" but actually never does it.

Why is Adrian being a one-dimensional character? All I know about him is that he is blonde hair, blue eye super handsome vampire that has a past and that is about it. Hell, I don’t even know the description of the other characters besides the five or six of the side characters that only appear once or twice, and that is it. Four are Lara’s father’s post guards and Adrian’s blood human that his wife, Lara, didn’t like.And Adrian wasn't an asshole. He didn't speak stupid things and was actually morally grey<3 (swoon) The man dropped his sword, as if he no longer perceived me as a threat, which made me want to be a threat, except that I dropped my arm too, my fingers loose around the hilt. I tried to tighten my hold but couldn’t.

THE MAIN THING that bothered me about Isolde was her nonstop horniness. Seriously, she was either leaking or aching for like 80% of the damn book Fantasy] is such a male-dominated genre traditionally,” St. Clair “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with combining those two genres. I love fantasy and I love romance. Why would I not want to write something with both?” The writing was a bit choppy, there wasn’t a lot of character development, and there were a few issues with plot continuity. In all honesty, I felt like I was reading a vampire story posted on Wattpad. It's readable and entertaining, but not exactly what I'd call 'fine literature'.Overall, it was an improvement from ATOD, and I did enjoy some parts of it. But will I read the next book? No. Will I read anything from this author again? Also no. This book did not deliver ANYTHING it promised, and it was not entirely original. Then he bent, and his tongue swept across the wound on my chest. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. The worst part was that this felt good. It felt possessive and sinful, and I found myself no longer trying to stab him, but clinging to him as he worked. Some of his citizens saw this as cowardice and dishonorable, while the majority preferred their lives to be spared. Isolde de Lara, warrior and the princess of Lara, disliked this idea her father had come up with – she hated the thought of surrendering to the blood king, but just like everyone else, there was nothing she could really do about the situation. King of Battle Blood is a medieval vampire fantasy romance book written by Scarlett St Clair; about the sacrifices made by the king and princess of Lara to save their people from the terror of the blood king and his army. Why does Isolde drinking Adrian's blood mean their lifelines are tied together? It's a curse but tell me more about it.

Still feeling woozy from her wounds getting infected, a vampire she’d not noticed, had helped heal her, making her feel the heat in unholy places in the process. By the way, please excuse this very messy review. 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. It’s about a princess named Isolde who, to save her kingdom, will marry its greatest enemy, a king named Adrian—who also happens to be the first vampire born of this world. While a lot steamier than the Shadow and Bone trilogy, KING OF BATTLE AND BLOOD explores the question of…what if Alina chose the Darkling instead? I have to admit…I’m very interested in those dynamics and the (usually) female’s choice to forego world domination…so here we are!Honestly, the “plot” twist was obvious from the first hint. “Your blood is truly a homecoming,” says Adrien, cryptically. There were so many obvious clues that Isolde was secretly a reincarnated witch from Adrien’s past. There is a difference between foreshadowing and lazy writing, Scarlett. nothing about this story is unique. ive read it all before. the plot in ‘the shadows between us,’ the twists in ‘city of thorns,’ and the overall vibe and world in ‘from blood and ash.’ this book is literally a combination all of these three with nothing that is new.