Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Broken by the Horde King

Found abandoned in the forest as a child Maeva, a human, was taken in and raised in a Dakkari family. Though her adopted family surrounded her with love she was bullied by Dakkari children and made to feel other, and less than, for being human. Aside from her family the relationship that always brought her love and joy was her friendship with Kiran the Rukkar of her clan.

When Maeva, at the age of 20, finally worked up the nerve to confess her feelings to Kiran his rejection left her heartbroken. Even more devastating was realizing he’d left the next day without saying a word, after all their years of friendship…he left without saying goodbye.

After nine years, without seeing or hearing from Kiran, Maeva is shocked to see Kiran not only come home but ask her to join his Horde, during the frost, to help train their next healer. What do you do when the man that broke your heart needs your help? Can you tolerate being in his presence for a few months? You no longer love him so you should be safe…right?

This book was so good! We get to see all the stages Maeve went through in her affection for Kiran, from 8 years old to adulthood. Seeing her blossom into a beautiful woman who’s independent and focused on becoming a healer had me cheering her on. I’m proud of her for being firm and not easily letting Kiran wiggle back into her life as if he never left.

We get to see Kiran realize just how royally he messed up, 9 years ago, when he rejected Maeva and do whatever he can to try to re-earn her trust and love. It’s one of those cases of they both have cared about each other forever but it took him longer to realize just what he had until he no longer had it. As a young man, when he realized he did care for Maeva as more than just a friend he didn’t feel worthy of her love and, stupidly, rejected her to try to protect her. Now that he finally realizes he wants her forever he has to work hard to prove to her that he is worth taking a second chance on.

It’s been a bit since I read the first three books in this series but this book has me desperate to dive back in, and lucky for me books 5 and 6 are already out. 😏

Content Warnings

tostita's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Unrequited love and second chance romance are among my least favorite tropes so this book was working from a disadvantage from page 1. That’s why it’s impressive to me that it worked as well for me as it did. The angst was high in this one. In fact, it’s pretty much all angst all the time from beginning to end, but if angst is what you want then this is very well done. If I have any complaint it’s that I might want the hero to suffer even more, but I guess I’m just mean like that.

Content Warnings

now_booking's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Overall, I liked this childhood sweethearts story of Kiran, a hoard king, and Maeva, a healer. This is a great addition to the legend and overarching plot of this story, I’m only sad because the next book isn’t out yet. The premise is that as child, Maeva and Kiran were best friends but then when Maeva developed a massive crush on Kiran and made it publicly known, he didn’t seem to reciprocate, and what’s more she doesn’t take it very well, especially when his actions after make it seem he doesn’t care. But now allegedly over the past and living her life, Kiran is back for her.

The one thing I sort of had an issue with, is the central conflict kind of being around the main characters who at various moments wanted the other protagonist to love them a certain way and felt “a way” (and threw a bit of a tantrum) when they didn’t receive that love in that way at that time. The author tried to mitigate this issue by presenting it like the protagonists were actually upset about other issues but the main issue at hand was still that of not having their feelings reciprocated. I love this series and I’m excited about upcoming books and checking out this author’s other work because this has been a great reading experience so far.

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