Reviews with content warning for Death - King's Bride

Was loving it until the main couple had sex once and then the girl got maigic pregnant (which the guy (a god) could choose if impregnatio happen or not happen) an they'd had no conversation about this. So like 1 month into their marriage she gets pregnant and has a 1 month pregnancy to TRIPLETS!! Oh yes and theres a war going on and she married him to murder him but falls in love with him in like 3 days.

The kids honestly ruined it for me. (They also magically age so they're like a week old and look like they're 6 and will be fully grown in a year (while being able to live hundreds of years)).

Content Warnings

koistyfishy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

4.5 Little Thorn Stars ⭐️
Spicy Rating 🌶️🌶️🌶️/5

There are many books which claim that they are the “cure” for a book hangover. But trust me when I say if you are suffering from a book depression or reading slump and need something to drag you back out, THIS IS THE BOOK TO DO IT! I don't think up until now I have read a book that resonates more with that claim, than King’s Bride!

This was a good ol’ bowl of trope soup, but I love tropes and GOD WAS IT DELICIOUS. I feel like Beck Michaels climbed into my mind and withdrew exactly what I wanted to read AND in my eyes bring on the bread for the soup! Anyone should be able to dip into this book, as you will find a trope in this for you!

We have
❆ Enemies to Lovers
❆ Beauty and the Beast Retelling
❆ Slow Burn with Spicy Payoff
❆ Dagger to the Throat
❆ Arranged Marriage
❆ Touch her you die
❆ One Horse
❆ Rhysand Teaching her how to read

This is a stand-alone NA third-person narrative following Sunnëva set in Urn (the same universe as The Guardians of the Maiden Series). Sunnëva is living in a village that is really suffering. They are in the Everfrost, which is a land completely covered in snow and ice. This means food is very scarce and limited. One day her bother is bitten by a warg, and the only way to save him is for Sunnëva to steal one of the God Kings Roses. Things do not go as planned and events lead to Jökull giving her the impossible choice of becoming his bride or she and her entire clan dies. (I mean that seems like a pretty easy choice to me)... Sunnëva uses this as an opportunity to find his weakness to kill him once and for all.

Something I loved is you can always see how much care and thought Beck Michaels puts into her story and writing with how well thought out the plot is and how magnificent everything manages to wrap up together. There are influences of mythology, aspects from the traditional Beauty and the Beast Story and glorious nuggets from the original Guardians of the Maidens Story. It’s just so brilliant in its complexity that it made me giddy (But do not worry if you have not read GotM you won’t miss out on anything)

Obviously we know this is Enemies to Lovers, but what pans out is a beautiful slowburn romance that really does take the proper steps of “relationship progression” to lovers. Sunnëva’ hatred starts to thaw as she uncovers who Jökull is, learns and understands his motivations and reasons for his actions. And I believed every step of the journey.

In general, the banter between the two was just perfect and the tension between them could have been cut with a knife, it hung so thick in the air. Jökull is quite protective and possessive of his bride in a very typical alpha male way, and takes the trope “touch her you die” to the next level... Like if you just breathe wrong in her direction, he might rip out your spine.

I also really loved the way Sunnëva was portrayed as a character. She has had a lot of hardship thrust on to her. Not just difficult living conditions but is also recovering from a past assault that has physcially and mentally scarred her. She carries these scars and the trauma of that night with her and defines herself by them. It was really moving and inspiring to see how she learns to overcome this skewed definition of herself as her relationship with Jökull progresses.

Ultimately I loved it! I loved every moment of this! I am so glad that Beck Michaels has dipped her toes into more NA and embraced spicy. It might be because it plays into every trope that I love, but I am a girl of simple pleasures if they are done right, and this DOES IT RIGHT. I stand by if those tropes make you tingle, this is the book for you!

Also if you haven’t read The Gaurdians of the Maiden books yet! GO READ THOSE TOO!!!!

Thank you so much to Beck Michael’s for this eARC in exchange for a review!
All thoughts and feelings are my own

Content Warnings

bellebookcorner's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

“He saw her for who she was, rotten and ruined, and found it beautiful.”

King’s Bride is a standalone prequel to the Guardians of the Maiden series.
Good news is you don’t have to read Guardians of the Maiden series before reading this one. But if you do, you'll find some information that will surprise you!

It started out with a strong opening and the plot keep me interested until the end with lots of twists throughout the story.
The main and side characters are loveable and well developed, even I like the villain once I found out more about his background story.

Sunneva is a badass FMC and I admire her ferocity and strength to protect the one she loves. I love her friendship with some of the side characters like Aero and Tally.
Jokull, the love interest is supposed to be this frightening and vicious king (which he is) but he can also be protective and supportive towards Sunneva.

“I have waited a thousand years for you. I would have waited a thousand more. You are my end and my beginning.”

As for the romance, I really like the enemies to lovers part. There’s progress from hatred to love as Sunneva slowly get the chance to get to know Jokull.

I love most parts of the story, however I do wish things are a bit more drawn out near the ending so the events leading to the ending doesn’t feel rushed.

Overall, this is a prety well written companion book. I enjoy my time reading about one of the legends in Land of Urn and I also adore the love story of Sunneva and Jokull.
I’m really looking forward to read another story from the Land of Urn!

I received an advanced review copy for free from the author, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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