The Warlord

The Warlord by Gena Showalter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't know what I was expecting of this Lords spinoff, but it wasn't this. This book took the things I hate about the Immortals after Dark series (mainly the icky non-consent parts) and sucked the witty fun out of the harpies from Lords and... here we are. Too bad I already grabbed the next book or I would have rethought continuing on in this series.

Taliyah is a harpy on her path to greatness. She's got some tricky genetics and mystical gifts, but she's also super determined. For some reason, when she finds out Roc, of the newly introduced Astra Planeta group, has attacked her home world, she ends up... letting him sexually assault her? It's a weird start to a romance, but OK. The goal of the plot is that Roc has to sacrifice a virgin bride to get some gifts or his men will lose battles for a really long time. Maybe it's the overall goal here I can't fully get behind, because things take the expected turn into mate-hood.

Is the smut good? Sure, once you get over the consent thing. Is the world rich? Yeah, there's oodles of characters and backstory to explore. I guess I had the biggest issue with the romance. When one party is locked up and has no right to fight, doesn't that make it a little... icky? It was to me, at least. I struggled to finish this book, so here's hoping the next is better.

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