alisonalisonalison's review against another edition
4.0
This is a nice, pleasant, fast-paced fantasy adventure romance. There's magic and epic battles and eeevil and magical creatures and love and it's a very enjoyable and easy book. I liked the main characters, especially Five, and the secondary characters play a pretty big role. It's not a really heavy story or particularly dark or complex, so if you like your fantasy romance on the lighter side, this is worth a look. The writing is good, the story is exciting, the characters are engaging, and it's a quality book that really held my attention. I was confused by a few things early on, but don't worry, everything is explained by the end. I love the cover!
syral's review against another edition
5.0
Love, blood, and magic
Fun world filled with all sorts of creatures and magic. Plenty of adventure. Well rounded characters. Fantastic way of using and explaining a magic system. Cute romance. Lots of bloods, but the scales are so worth it.
Fun world filled with all sorts of creatures and magic. Plenty of adventure. Well rounded characters. Fantastic way of using and explaining a magic system. Cute romance. Lots of bloods, but the scales are so worth it.
mrella's review against another edition
3.0
This was a 2 star read for me.
WARNING! NOT a spoiler (people need to know about this, before they get into the book. Granted, the scene was short): Jerk off session with a man-lizard (and not a Cardassian kind). Half shifted form.
Among crazy amount of magical species (what the hell is wosu?), lectures on magic and local history, we follow pain and suffering of Tarquin the Prince, his man-lizard, his brother, his cousin, his sister-in-law... wash and repeat 3-4 times. Tarquin is constantly injured, bleeding, sick and dying. Five, his man-lizard lover, is constantly injured from fighting, he is always cold, he is underfed and mute and is suffering from amnesia on top of everything. Fali, Tarquin's brother, is suffering from a curse. Tarquin, in turn, is suffering from guilt. And it just goes round and round. More pain, more suffering, more grief and guilt.
I am not going to get into how unprepared higher ups are when it's time to come up with a strategy to defend the Capital. They don't even know when that attack is going to happen, two days? four days? Send out a scout or two for god's sake! There is no higher military personnel to guide the Queen, either. A very odd country, I don't know how they survived to the day.
Another issue I have, which seems to be a trend in m/m books lately - a 20-something virgin. I am talking about strong, healthy, capable men who did not jerk off once in their entire life since they hit puberty. Tarquin's "first time" was with Five, jerking each other off. Tarquin, of course, had no idea how amazing "sex" was until then *desk, meet face* OK, maybe I will just roll my eyes, it'll hurt less.
In the end the author manages to pull everything together, more or less. Quite an imagination and I wish it was used evenly throughout the book. This is no [b:Rifter Series|10428720|The Shattered Gates (Rifter #1)|Ginn Hale|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1302422743s/10428720.jpg|15333129] with twists and turns so wicked it holds you all the way to the amazing end. This particular ending is lost on me simply because I was tired and bored for 75% of the book, which was mostly spent in the castle and the sickroom. But whatevers, I will throw in a star for the potential.
Oh, and did I mention, there is absolutely no chemistry between MCs? None whatsoever until the last 20% or so. Yep :(
WARNING! NOT a spoiler (people need to know about this, before they get into the book. Granted, the scene was short): Jerk off session with a man-lizard (and not a Cardassian kind). Half shifted form.
Among crazy amount of magical species (what the hell is wosu?), lectures on magic and local history, we follow pain and suffering of Tarquin the Prince, his man-lizard, his brother, his cousin, his sister-in-law... wash and repeat 3-4 times. Tarquin is constantly injured, bleeding, sick and dying. Five, his man-lizard lover, is constantly injured from fighting, he is always cold, he is underfed and mute and is suffering from amnesia on top of everything. Fali, Tarquin's brother, is suffering from a curse. Tarquin, in turn, is suffering from guilt. And it just goes round and round. More pain, more suffering, more grief and guilt.
I am not going to get into how unprepared higher ups are when it's time to come up with a strategy to defend the Capital. They don't even know when that attack is going to happen, two days? four days? Send out a scout or two for god's sake! There is no higher military personnel to guide the Queen, either. A very odd country, I don't know how they survived to the day.
Another issue I have, which seems to be a trend in m/m books lately - a 20-something virgin. I am talking about strong, healthy, capable men who did not jerk off once in their entire life since they hit puberty. Tarquin's "first time" was with Five, jerking each other off. Tarquin, of course, had no idea how amazing "sex" was until then *desk, meet face* OK, maybe I will just roll my eyes, it'll hurt less.
In the end the author manages to pull everything together, more or less. Quite an imagination and I wish it was used evenly throughout the book. This is no [b:Rifter Series|10428720|The Shattered Gates (Rifter #1)|Ginn Hale|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1302422743s/10428720.jpg|15333129] with twists and turns so wicked it holds you all the way to the amazing end. This particular ending is lost on me simply because I was tired and bored for 75% of the book, which was mostly spent in the castle and the sickroom. But whatevers, I will throw in a star for the potential.
Oh, and did I mention, there is absolutely no chemistry between MCs? None whatsoever until the last 20% or so. Yep :(
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