Kingdom of Blood and Salt

This book was fire. Court intrigue, paranormal monsters, betrayal, a badass heroine, a sinfully hot MMC, and steam to boot. The cliffhanger ending is maddening and now I have to read the next book immediately.

This was such an incredibly intense story. The world building was simple and easy to follow, the characters were great, the magic system was interesting.Ara was such a great female lead. She had a strong sense of duty and loved her sisters fiercely, and wanted to serve her people.This whole book really dealt with her struggles to understand why things couldn’t change for the better of her people.Ryvin was a great male lead, he was morally grey, but also protective.The snarky banter and chemistry between them was great! There was so much happening, there was so much betrayal and heartache, and wrestling with your own desires and demons.I can’t wait to see what happens next.Unfortunately the biggest challenge was the narrator, she was all over the place, and really detracted from an epic story.

A compelling story and a good enemies to lovers. The author threw in a few surprises I didn’t even see coming which I applaud, because I tend to find books fairly predictable. I do like how strong the main female character is in this story, despite her limitations. And yes, at first she is a bit naive but that quickly remedies. I love that she’s not a spoiled petty princess like many authors tend to do, making her a damsel in distress always needing saving. No, she is pretty kick a** for a human, and holds her own fairly well despite not being the strongest out there.Another thing I liked was that despite the steamy part of the romance, the author wasn’t chasing that sex high like so many do, transforming the story into word porn. No, the story remained well in tact and interesting from cover to cover without all the romance getting in the way. Well done. I will be reading book 2 for sure.

The writing was done very well. The author knows how to paint a picture without overburdening the reader with too much detail. I was addicted to the storyline, but it was a stressful read. It was a depressing and anxious life for the main character and I kept waiting for her to wake up and change the trajectory that she was on. Never happened. She would lie to herself constantly and never considered otherwise. She was supposedly an illegitimate princess, but she never used that power. It was extremely frustrating to watch her character be so obtuse. I’m trying hard not to give away any spoilers. It’s a good story, but I won’t be continuing the series. Way too much anxiety and annoyance (on my part) to really want to continue. Even at the end of the book, it didn’t change. And I suspect that theme will be continued throughout subsequent novels. It’s a shame. I have no doubt that she will eventually stop lying to herself and change hers and kingdom’s fate. But based on this book- it won’t happen until the very end of book three-at least.

“I won’t touch you until you’re begging me to. And when you do, I’m going to break you down completely before I put you back together.”Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️I was hooked right from the beginning. I read this in one sitting.The world building was done well to where you don’t feel lost, the characters were amazing, liked the way the author wrote the magic system, and the spice was 🤌🏼Ara was a great FMC that was strong and determined to fight to protect her sisters and her people. (I am a sucker for a bad@ss FMC). I felt Ara’s struggles right along with her.Ryvin 🥵 he was Morally Grey but also protective and Shadow Daddy… EVERYTHING I love in a MMC.🫠The banter and chemistry between these two was perfect. The spice in this book was perfect 🤌🏼 it had me panting and fanning myself. Ryvin practically had me on knees begging him to touch me 🫠😂There was so much happening in this book that kept me on the edge of my seat and that kept me reading to find out what was gonna happen next between betrayal, heartache, action, suspense and wrestling with your own desires and demons.There are vampires, shifters, faes, dragons, I am hoping we get more of them.I can’t wait to dive into the next book

This is a very quick read which from some of the reviews I can understand why people thought of this as .5 novella but I love the slow burn romance, some struggle with book #2, but am really enjoying this series so far!

The other reviews were enough for me to give it a chance and I was NOT disappointed! It’s full of unrelenting twists that genuinely can’t all be predicted. I really hope there is a second book because I’m FULLY invested now! It’s adventurous and brave and sexy and full of sacrifice and betrayal. So goooooood!!!

This book was a little one dimensional but I really enjoyed it! I loved the main characters and their chemistry was off the charts!Enemies to lovers at its finest.4.65 ⭐️

i enjoyed the book ,overall the story is not unique but it was nice. Ara had i rough no judging her on her trust issues.some parts of the book felt a little bit on the "over explaining" side, after a certain point i kind of skipped over the phrases because they were basically repeating the same info with different words. i was an easy read, fast i read it all in a day( in a day off and i basically did nothing but)I'm going to jump on book 2 nowHappy Reading!!!

This book was good, good characters. The plot was interesting. It was nice and spicy, all around a good read.

The exposition was pretty short & the story moved in a fast pace from the beginning. The writing is very easy to read & understand. I really liked how the story unravelled in the first 40% of the book. But after that the back & forth in the FMC inner monologue & her dialogue with MMC was just stagnant and got incresingly annoying with every chapter. This is not an enemies to lovers, since there's literally no character devellopment. None.Also, about every even remotely spicy scene felt just forced. It matched neither the FMC's personality nor her inner monologue at all.The Plot twists at the end did not make sense considering the "history" of this world and the ending is just annoying and creating a "conflict" out of nowhere because of a character that appeared only twice (for a brief moment) in the whole book (it felt like thet character was only written into the story to get this unnecessary and just stupid "conflict" right at the end).While I generally really enjoy books with a plot similar to this one, this was just bad.I'm glad I read this book for free because I would've been really dissappointed if I had spent money on it.

A random choice I picked up because of the pretty cover. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it. I could not put it down.

I'm already onto the second book but wanted to leave a review about the first one. I love this story. It's well developed especially into the second book. The one thing I wish there was less of is the main character's internal dialogue. Some of it became repetitive and I found myself skimming. Otherwise, great book and I like book two even more.