A review by floofymoosereads
A Warrior's Fate, by Melissa Kieran

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A Warrior’s Fate by Melissa Kieran is the first book in The Wolves of Morai series, a wolf shifter fantasy romance. It looks like book 2 is due out at the end of July 2023. The female main character, Isla, has no interest in looking for a fated mate, and wants to just focus on her upcoming warrior trial. But, Fate has another plan for her and before the start of the trial she meets her mate Kai (I’m not spoiling, this is all on the book jacket). They agree to ignore the bond and move on without each other. Fate has opinions about that and keeps throwing them back together. Layered against that plot line is political intrigue (and betrayal) and something dark and evil lurking in the kingdom. This is a spicy book for adults only.

The Lovely: I am in love with the development of the relationship between the two main characters, Isla and Kai. You can really feel how much they love each other, and neither are portrayed as subservient to the other. The spice was well written and not overwhelming in terms of the number of spicy scenes.

The Mundane: I felt like some of the secondary characters, in particular the males, were not well fleshed out and felt a bit flat. Sometimes I wasn’t even sure who was who (especially at the beginning) or who was with who.

The Dreadful: I didn’t feel like the tension (plot, not relationship) was consistent throughout the book. Sometimes it was, yes, yes, this is perfect and flowing and other times I started to get bored and needed it to move on. I think part of it was sometimes the scene descriptions (generally physical descriptions or thoughts) got a little long and verbose.

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Recommendation: I was unsure going into this book because I’m not normally into a lot of lycan shifter fiction but I was drawn to the tropes listed for this book. And I can confirm all the following are included, and done well: fated mates, protective, found family and slowburn. The slowburn is slowww in the first half. I absolutely cannot wait for book two to come out in two long months.