Series: Adrian x Isolde
Author: Scarlett St. Clair
Genre: Fantasy Romance, YA, New Adult
Published Date: November 30, 2021
Book description: Their Union Is His Revenge.
Isolde de Lara considers her wedding day her death day. To end a years-long war, she is to marry vampire king, Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him.
But her assassination attempt is thwarted and Adrian threatens that if Isolde tries to kill him again, he will raise her as the undead. Faced with the possibility of becoming the thing she hates most, Isolde seeks other ways to defy him and survive the brutal vampire court.
Except it isn’t the court she fears most — it’s Adrian. Despite their undeniable chemistry, she wonders why the king — fierce, savage, merciless — chose her as consort.
The answer will shatter her world.
Thoughts:
I'm going to admit this was a bit of a disappointment. It could be my fault, but I was expecting something different. I thought this was going to be a fantasy world with strong romance elements. No, what I got was vampire erotica with a few sprinkles of mythology and political fantasy.
This made me cringe since the first few pages, but I decided to give it a few chapters. I normally dislike instant sexual attraction if it's not done right. Isolde is supposed to hate vampires, yes her hate is born from ignorance and blatant lies. But she meets some random "monster" in her palace grounds and she's immediately burning to have him fuck her.
This is not going to be among my favorite enemies to-lovers recommendation list.
The world is something I was more interested in. We have a few realms that are in the brink of war, the only reason is to conquer. It's a good enough reason, the existence of multiple gods and their will among mortals, the creation of creatures to attack and destroy humans. The vampire and their secret abilities, the witches and their execution. It had good start points, but it felt like it was underdeveloped. It tried to touch on social commentaries, like men who fear women with power and what they do to clench that, etc. I wanted more from this book.
Nothing about the storyline was unique. It has been done before and it will continue to be so. But if you get hooked then you will at least have an ok or great time. The secret is to fall for the characters, if you care what happens to them then you're set. Just be aware- there is too much time spent on relationship drama, which makes me cringe so yes. Mixed feelings overall.
Now that I have ranted lets get into the story itself.
Look, this book is damn entertaining, and I think it’ll hit its mark with most of its audience, if you read it and you're not the target audience you will probably get annoyed, and join the club. I see it more of a me-problem, but I was frustrated that so much of the plot is devoted to other woman/other man drama.
Isolde is the typical "strong independent woman", classic I'm not like other girls. She likes to fight, and sucks at ladylike skills why? Because she was raised without a mother. She enjoys sex and it means "nothing" to her just sexual release because she's a liberal woman. That made me cringe so bad her interaction with her previous lover.
She is the princess, the apple of the eye, her father's precious daughter. The king is willing to go to war to 'protect' her. But she sacrifices herself and decides to marry the enemy King, a monster! She fails to kill said king on their wedding night.
And off they go travelling back to his magical lands where the vampires can live without fearing the sun. The magic system here is never explained but is always so very convenient to make things easier for them with zero logic.
Isolde is not likable, even if she's meant to be. She spends so much time hating other women over a man. It's like the exact opposite of the message this book is supposed to send. Being a strong female character does not mean to belittle and lord over all other women. Isolde NEVER treated another woman as an equal, that’s not to say she doesn’t have female friends, but the women in this book are either threats to her (at any threat she abuses her power and makes them suffer) or subordinates. This book would have really hit the mark for me if that part of the plot had been cut, or simply rewritten to show Isolde being altruistic and understanding, despite the petty drama around her.
What I really liked was the witches, their involvement should have been a bit more pronounced, or the other mythical creatures.
On another note, I am disappointed by the sex scenes in this book. That's totally a thing for me. Maybe other people enjoy having a bunch of sex scenes in their stories, so take my word on the fact that it just feels like their lust for each other was amazing. The world is falling apart- I'm distracted because I want you inside me. Cringe for me. Another of my complaints is that several serious conversations are happening while the characters are having sex. Characters who can’t talk to each other unless their clothes are off, seem weird and like that relationship needs to learn to communicate.
With that said, I am intrigued enough by what happens with this war and will be continuing with the series. I imagine this book is absolutely going to hit its mark amongst the audience it’s intended for, and I was entertained. The woman vs. woman subplots were irksome and degraded the women in this book.
I gave this
This book was used for the following challenges:
#AYearAthon September's theme was Mythology, retelling and fairytales
Books by Indigenous authors
Positive representation LGBT+ characters (in which their queerness is not their only plot point or characteristic).
Feminism - this was a bad representation though so we're going to say this aspect was a failure.
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