Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole

6 reviews

booksandteatime's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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katyhosbein's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Overall I enjoyed the story of Sabine and Rhydstrom. Sabine is one of my favorite MCs in the series so far because she was so self-sufficient and sure of herself.

Rhydstrom’s character development was a rollercoaster ride for me but I am happy where he ended up.

There were a few moments of homophobia that were really hard to get past. This side scene in the book was unnecessary and disappointing and knocked my review down.

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heydebigale's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

CW: Graphic violence, flippant homophobia, pregnancy attempts

Rydstrom is the former king of Rothkalina. Rydstrom lost his crown to the evil sorcerer Omort several centeries ago. Sabine is Omort's half-sister who is also trying to overthrow Omort, but Omort believes Sabine is serving him. The events in this book are concurrent with events in Book 5 (Cade's book).

I have conflicted feelings about this one. I overall liked it, Sabine was a really interesting MC. Actually both Sabine and Rydstrom made morally questionable decisions. For some reason I found Sabine much more forgivable, probably because she was physically weaker and vulnerable.

My favorite aspect of this book was the relationship between Sabine and her sister Lanthe. I am guessing we will likely see a book featuring Lanthe & Thronos??

This book felt heavier to me than any of the other ones. We needed more lightening with the Valkyries or something. And, I really wish those throwaway homophobic comments had been deleted. I try so hard not to dislike books for minor details, but this was upsetting to me.

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overflowingshelf's review

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

CW: Edging; sexual torture; incest; violence; dubious consent

You know when you get a snippet of a couple who will be the center of a future book and you think, “that’s a book I will love!” Well, that was me with Sabine and Rydstrom. I think I’ve found my new favorite book in the Immortals After Dark series. After being introduced to them in Dark Desires After Dusk, I could not wait to get their story. And boy, did their story live up to my wildest expectations.

Sabine, Queen of Illusions, captures Rydstrom Woede, the fallen king of the rage demons, to become his queen and beget his heir who is foretold to unlock great power. She keeps him on edge until he gives in to her demands. Meanwhile, Rydstrom is plotting how he’ll get his revenge on her and her half-brother Omort the Deathless while captive. As soon as he gets free, the tables turn on Sabine, and Rydstrom is determined to get his revenge. However, with each day and each sexual encounter that passes, the two cannot seem to deny some burgeoning feelings are developing between them.

Y’all this book was HOT! The power struggle between Sabine and Rydstrom, the edging, the need for revenge. Dear God, I love it. This might be the hottest book thus far in the Immortals After Dark series, and I feel like that’s saying something as Cole excels in the sexy times.

This is a true enemies-to-lovers tale. It is hate turned to love in the best possible way. Sabine and Rydstrom should not work together, but my god, do they, even if they both wished they didn’t have to have feelings for the other. Watching these two go toe-to-toe and push each other to the brink was so thrilling and engaging. I felt like I couldn’t read this story fast enough.

I was hooked on this one from the very first page. Sabine is quite possibly my favorite female character in the Immortals After Dark series. She’s more on the evil side, and honestly, she doesn’t care. She doesn’t mind violence, and I’m here for it. She revels in her power and will do what she needs to get what she wants. She’s a badass bitch, and honestly, I’d love more stories focused on villainess. She’s aligned with her half-brother, Omort the Deathless, but not by choice. He keeps her and her sister Lanthe poisoned, so she’s forced to stick around, but she’s only playing by his rules and his game until she can figure out a way to get free. He also lusts after her, but luckily her plans for Rydstrom keep him at arm’s length. She also truly deserves the title Queen of Illusions as her Sorceri powers are insanely powerful.

I enjoyed Rydstrom. We’ve gotten to know him over a few other books, and it was interesting to get into his head. He’s been trying to find his mate for years, attempting with many females, and yet fate is a cruel mistress as his fated mate is one of his enemies. He’ll do anything to take down Omort the Deathless and reclaim his throne. I feel like Sabine reinvigorates him, even if it drives him to seek out revenge against her. He’s a bit of an alpha male, but Sabine is also an alpha, so they go toe-to-toe constantly.

The journey Rydstrom and Sabine go on in their relationship is incredible. These two genuinely hate each other, and honestly, they’re a bit toxic together. And yet I cannot help but love them. This book really shows how close hate and love can be. They know they bring out the worst in each other but cannot stand to be apart. Their feelings towards each other don’t shift towards love quickly – it’s a bit of a slow build as they get to see beyond their initial feelings. It’s like a slap in the face when they both realize, “Oh hell, I love this person.” Truly such a joy to read.

Outside of everything with Sabine and Rydstrom, I really enjoyed the plot and overarching story. The pacing was spot on and I never got bored while reading this. I couldn’t wait to see how this would end. I’m also genuinely curious as to what Lothaire’s plan is. He aligns himself with Omort but breaks the covenant with him to help Rydstrom escape in exchange for Rydstrom’s promise to give Lothaire anything he wants when Lothaire asks for something in the future. Lothaire, the Enemy of Old, has now popped up in a few books. It definitely seems like he’s up to something, but we don’t know what yet.

On a side note – I also continue to love Nïx. She had me full-on laughing in this one with her obsession with Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, and I love that she threw a raging Valkyrie and Witches party at Rydstrom’s house. She continues to be one of my favorite characters of the series, and I love her meddling.

This book won’t be for everyone, but it ticked all the right boxes for me. This is one of the best true enemies-to-lovers stories out there. It’s hot, it’s emotional, it’s a wild ride. I loved second reading it and had a massive book hangover afterward. Definitely one of my all-time favorites in the Immortals After Dark series, and I highly recommend everyone check out this series.

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meggiemine's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

3.5

“Release me!”
“Surrender to me…”

The brief glimpses we got of Rydstrom in Cade’s book made me really excited to dive into this. In Dark Desires After Dusk, there’s a brief scene from Rydstrom’s POV where he’s captured by the sorceress Sabine. It’s presumed that Sabine intends to use him to become pregnant with his heir. Then later, Cade arrives at Rydstrom’s doorstep to find his normally calm, collected brother is keeping Sabine captive in his house. This was a very intriguing set-up with a combination of the ‘put a baby in me’ and captor/captive tropes. Unfortunately, the execution was slightly disappointing. There’s a mantra Rydstrom uses throughout the book to keep himself in check:

Do nothing irrevocable…

This might as well have been Cole’s mantra while writing the book. Characters would come close to crossing a line, but then pull back. I found myself wanting them to make the “wrong” choice and frustrated when they made the “right” one. To be clear, Rydstrom and Sabine are cruel to each other a lot. I just think Cole could have taken things a little further than she did and still would have been able to redeem the characters for their actions. I’m guessing this is one of those books where my expectations were too different from what actually happened, and I would probably enjoy this a lot more after rereading.

Overall, I still really enjoyed it! The vast majority of the book takes place in another realm, so it has more of an epic fantasy vibe than the other books in the series. It felt different and refreshing.

This is obviously subject to change as I continue with the series, but so far, the Woede demon brothers are my least favorite immortals. My favorites are the Wroth vampire brothers. And the lykaes are somewhere in the middle.

____________

Endnotes

Series: Immortals After Dark #6 (12 more to go!)

Genre: Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Setting: Rothkalina, a demon kingdom on another plane; also briefly New Orleans, LA; present-day

Hero: Rydstrom Woede, rage demon, black hair, green eyes, slight English accent

Heroine: Sabine, sorceress, “Queen of Illusions”, half sister to Omort the Deathless, amber/dark brown eyes, red hair

Tropes: virgin heroine, put a baby in me, captor/captive, surprise virgin

Length: 455 pages, 123k words

Read Date: January 9, 2022

Heat Index: 3.6 🌡️🌡️🌡️

4 full, explicit sex scenes and 4 partial scenes. Incl. dubious/non-consent, orgasm denial, spanking, power play, bondage.

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folkofthebook's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

I feel like I see a lot of Sabine hate from fellow IAD readers but she's hands down my fav FMC of the series so far. What can I say, I love me a bad girl. A solid portion of this book is some insanely hot edging from the jump, I loved regal Rydstrom having his buttons pushed. Sabine is nearly as funny as Nucking Futs Nïx and I love that Sorceri are randomly vegan/vegetarian. KC also does a great job of piquing my interest with the secondary characters - in this case, Lanthe and Thronos, which aren't much further down the line of the series so I'm v tempted to skip ahead.

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