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

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Thankfully, the sex scenes were well written overall (I’ve read some truly awful ones) and easy to skim. I just cannot describe or explain how she made me feel with the way she was always singing praises about her husband's body or constantly touching herself when he wasn't there. This is one of the most frustrating “tropes” (and I say trope because that’s literally what it is at this point) to read about. My opinion is unpopular (as always) so chances are, you’ll end up enjoying this more than I did (which I hope you do)!

I also loved that Adrian always cleaned her blade for her whenever she killer someone—so sweet of him. On the negative side, I didn’t like how the chapters were very long in length as I don’t like stopping in the middle of chapters, so I felt like I had to set aside longer periods of time to read this book instead of picking it up for a few minutes here and there.The commander had not been shy about expressing his opinion about the Blood King and his invasion of Cordova. 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. If you like enemies to lovers, the arranged marriage trope, insta-sexual attraction, a feisty dagger-wielding female MC, and vampires/witches/gods, then you’ll probably enjoy this book. Another thing that got me popping my vein is this branding that Clair had for coming up with the most condescending, crude heroines. They are just waiting and hoping that she will make a mistake so that they can swoop in and take her to the greenhouse prison.

Unfortunately for Cordova, the red sky did not follow evil, so there was no warning when the vampires began their invasion. It stared at me and then sniffed the air, a growl erupting from its throat as its lips curled back to show elongated teeth. This didn’t totally bother me because things were continually revealed as the book went on, and I know any plot holes or threads left over will be dealt with in further books. The vampire who had found me in the clearing, the one who had licked blood from my skin and sent me into a spiral of desire, was Adrian, the Blood King.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. Clair goes on to describe several spoiler-y scenes from different points in Aidan and Isolde’s relationship and how their changing reactions toward and treatment of one another illustrate the changing depth of their connection.

From then on, she goes on a journey of discovery of love, her powers and the place of people like her in the world of the gods and mortals. It meant he had feelings for me, and any excitement I’d once had at catching his attention, by now had evaporated. Adrian is not a bad character, and he didn't annoy me as Isolde did, but I am pretty indifferent to him. I would understand if Isolde only met like, one woman who was mean to her and who had to be “put in her place” but in this book, the author made it seem like pretty much all women were against the heroine (not even because the latter is human—a lot of the hate also came from human women— but simply because they felt like it).

It was said to be cursed by Dis, the Goddess of Spirit, to warn of the evil that was birthed there—the evil that began with the Blood King. Clair went to the University of Oklahoma, where she graduated with an undergraduate degree in English Writing.