Happy Wednesday! We're halfway through the week, and the weekend is calling my name. This is the third week of #BookTokmademereadit, and today's review is for King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair. I really enjoyed this enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance. The romance was top-tier, and the character building was wonderful. I'm interested to see where Scarlett St. Clair takes this series. I think it can be a fantastic one.
What is King of Battle and Blood about?
Isolde De Lara is the daughter of King Henri, one of the many rulers in Cordova. Ravekka is the home of the vampires, and of the vampire king, Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev -a.k.a. The Blood King. Everyone fears Adrian, including most of his own subjects. Adrian "requests" a meeting with King Henri, where he asks for Isolde's hand in marriage. Her father says no, but his daughter agrees with the intent of killing him. They are married quickly, and Adrian wastes no time whisking Isolde away to his kingdom. There, Isolde learns what it means to the Queen of Ravekka, and King Adrian's wife. Adrian seems to already deeply care for her, but Isolde can't figure out why. It turns out, Adrian is keeping a secret from her, one that will change her entire world. Sound like something you'd be interested in reading? Here are my thoughts.
Warning: The rest of this post contains spoilers. If you haven't read it, and you want to, come back later!
My Thoughts About King of Battle and Blood
This book is very fast-paced. I love how Scarlett immediately jumped into the story. I'm not a big fan of world-building. I don't really care if I can picture what everything looks like. Just give me good characters and a decent plot, and I'm invested. Isolde comes across as a very strong character. She's a warrior, and definitely Adrian's match in every way. I love that she's portrayed as athletic and strong, yet also soft. Her word means something to her, and so does honor and loyalty. Because of that, she really struggles with herself as she develops feelings for Adrian, even though they were always going to be there, no matter what she did to try to stop it. The history of Cordova was lost after Adrian became a vampire, and they were plunged into a dark era. They were taught the witches that were burned were evil, but of course, they weren't. After Isolde realizes who she really is, her intense fear of fire totally makes sense.
Even though Adrian is the "villain", I immediately loved how he treated Isolde from the beginning. He was always kind to her, which totally makes sense considering she's actually the love of his life reincarnated. That was a plot twist I didn't see coming. All throughout the book, Isolde is having visions from Yesenia, a witch who was killed during The Burning. At the end, you learn that she IS Yesenia. When Adrian and Isolde meet in the beginning when she gets attacked by a creature, and he heals her, he knew then he'd finally found her after 200 years of searching. He knew he was going to marry her and make her fall in love with again.
There was a healthy dose of betrayal mixed in when Isolde's father tries to murder her. He learned that after Adrian took Isolde's blood, they are connected through life, and if she dies, he does too. (I think that was a really cool addition to the plot twist. I love the whole connected-through-death/fated mates trope.) Cordova as a whole hates Adrian, so much so, her own father was willing to kill her to get rid of him for good. But everything Adrian did was out of revenge for Yesenia/Isolde. I can't be mad about that. Isolde sadly kills her father to save her own life. She's heartbroken over it, which is understandable. Even that, Adrian wanted to protect her from. If you haven't noticed, I really like Adrian. Everything he does for her makes me *swoon*.
Overall, I loved the book. There was a perfect mix of fantasy and romance, and I definitely want to explore other books by Scarlett St. Clair. I also can't wait to see where this story goes. Someone tried to kill Isolde, by poisoning her, but we haven't been told by who yet. I don't have anything negative to say, other than I wish the third book would be out already! I will wait to read the second one until the (hopeful) conclusion is published. If you've read it, what did you guys think? Let me know! I'll see you next week for the final book in this series.
-xxAlycia
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