In one chapter she walks into the king's council room and she's immediately disgusted because they're all men. Adrian and his vampires did not tell everything to Isolde because she made it no secret that she still considered them to be her enemies and didn’t trust them, so of course, they wouldn’t trust her with their secrets and battle plans, yet Isolde was hurt every single time she learned that they didn’t share something with her. This upsets Isolde because she feels Killian is over-possessive even though he does not realize this.

This did not read or feel like a work by a published, popular author, and felt exactly like something you’d read on fan fiction sites as a 13 year old, written by a 14 year old. I was promised enemies to lovers but all I see is insta-lust (and oh boy do I hate this) Isolde supposedly hated him while he 'loved' her for absolutely no reason but yk going at it means nothing .Look, this book is damn entertaining, and I think it’ll hit its mark with most of its audience, but I was frustrated that so much of the plot is devoted to other woman/other man drama. It wasn’t a perfect five for me, but it has been a hot minute since a fantasy romance captured me so entirely. It has no definite plot , no intrigue or excitement and read like some fanfiction by a 13 year old and fell FLATT. This was such a fun ride and while I was able to predict the twist early on, it didn’t hinder my enjoyment. Again, I imagine this book is absolutely going to hit its mark amongst the audience it’s intended for, and I *was* absolutely entertained.

As such it was not surprising that she made her debut with Greek retelling work “When Stars Come Out” that she published in 2018. Similarly, I loved Adrian and Isolde’s instant chemistry and passion; it’s filled with spice and romance throughout. This is the 30th book, but considering Alex has survived "Kill Alex Cross" before, chances are he survives this one. This sort of stigma attached to the romance genre is not new, whether those stories are set in fantasy worlds or in contemporary America.I finished this whole book and I still know absolutely nothing about him as an individual character. Even walk willingly into the arms of a monster who she's been taught to hate and fear all of her life. Things used to be normal for Isolde until the arrival of the blood king, and her father’s decision to surrender.

I think one way this could be improved is if the witches part of the plot were introduced earlier on (I loved that spin! Hades and Persephone have made their relationship public even though no one knows that Persephone is not a mortal. Also I just want to add that anyone who read From Blood and Ash will see a lot of similarities here. To end a years-long war, Princess Isolde of Lara is willing to do whatever it takes, even if that means marrying her enemy, the ruthless vampire king, Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him.

I very much expected the vampire porn this book has to deliver (why else do you think I'm reading this? Todo hace parte de una extraña negociación disfrazada de amenaza para proteger al reino de aquellos seres de la noche.

Isolde is a victim of patriarchal womanhood and it frustrates me that plots like this are still being written—we’re well past the days of stories like this. In an attempt to get away from all the frustration, Isolde ran from commander Killian but met a strange on her way to the castle. That was why I hadn’t been able to grip my sword, why my body seemed to be at odds with my mind, why I suddenly felt desperate to be crushed beneath the weight of a warm body that could fill me better than anything I’d ever had before. 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.But as Adrian guides her in her new role as queen, and she gets to know the vampires around her, she starts to learn that everything she was brought up to believe was a lie. King of Battle and Blood features multiple explicit sexual scenes, but none of the encounters feel exploitive or are solely meant to titillate. 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. I feel like there’s this tendency in traditional publishing to not recognize what readers actually want.