Review by redhairedashreads - The Lady and the Orc

You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

redhairedashreads 's review for:

The Lady and the Orc by Finley Fenn

3.0

I will admit, I was apprehensive about starting this book because it's a dark romance and it involves pregnancy, two things I don’t really enjoy. But, I keep seeing people talk about how good this series is and it just keeps coming up in my feed, so I decided to give it a try. While I have some issues with this book, I will admit, I was hooked from the very beginning. This is a high angst story with a lot of drama, which isn’t usually my preference, but I did this time.

Jule, Lady Norr, has a childless marriage and a cruel lord husband who keeps his people in poverty. When he leaves her behind without a guard, it only takes a few days before the orcs are ransacking her home. While she fights to get her people to safety, she fails to save herself and ends up a captive of the orc captain Grimarr who claims her as his mate.

This story is an enemies to lovers story with heavy miscommunication due to cultural differences and a lot of lies being uncovered and feelings hurt. First, I enjoy enemies to lovers where there is actual tension between them as they fall for each other, and this book delivered on that. Jules really struggles with her attraction to Grimarr while also dealing with the emotional abuse he causes with his lies and plots.

Second, I enjoy romances where there is a struggle to understand each other's culture and ways, which this also delivers well. The orcs are a very open race around sex and their personal lives, so everyone knows and sees everything about everyone, which as you can imagine, Jules struggles with. Finley has really done a great job at portraying two cultures clashing and the damage generational trauma can cause with these orc men who don’t know how to deal with feelings and softness.

Jule is a woman who has been dealt a bad hand. She has an emotionally and physically abusive husband who frequently berates her for her infertility. Being kidnapped was terrifying for her, but as she says at the end of the book, her mind was kind of prepared for it and knew how to deal with the fear. She struggles with her body wanting Grimarr but her mind wanting a true partner. While I understood Jule struggles and agreed with her anger at Grimarr most of the time, I did get a bit tired of the constant push and pull of their relationship progressing and regressing.

Grimarr is the new orc captain of the tribes. He defeated his father for the position and has spent the past few months preparing his men to fight for peace. Grimarr was an interesting character because he truly wanted peace for his brothers and was willing to fight for it, but also struggled with the idea of peace and softness. His father was abusive and a tyrant so he never knew kindness or how to properly handle his emotions. He really struggles with showing Jule’s how much he feels for her and always expects the worst from her. Some of Grimarr’s actions I didn’t love, but I don’t think I am supposed to and it fit with the whole Orc Captain who would do whatever he could to achieve peace.

Their relationship was sexually intense and a rollercoaster of emotion. Jule is constantly having to deal with finding out Grimarr lied to her or didn’t give her the whole truth about a situation, which pushes her to doubt his trust. Even in the end, she still admits she doesn’t trust him but is willing to give him a chance. Like I said before, I understood the constant push and pull of their relationship but I did get a little tired of it after like the third time. I hope we see a more healthy version of their relationship in future books at least.

One of the things that really captivated me about this story was the orc culture and men. This was a very open culture and everyone knew and had seen everything, which just made this world seem more unique. I really enjoyed all the side characters introduced in this, so much that I now want to read more to see if they get a mate.

Overall, while this features genre/tropes that I don’t usually love and a very messy relationship, I actually enjoyed this book. I will read the next one and we will see if I end up reading this whole series.

TW: emotional and physical abuse; infertility; abusive parent; patricide; matricide; threat and discussions of forced abortion; discussion of murder of children; rape mentioned;

Content Warnings