Kristina 's Reviews > Captive of the Horde King

I’m rating this somewhere between a 3 and a 4 star, bonus points for imaginative dick building. This was a good alien barbarian romance. It was gritty and harsh and the world building was well done. I did have a few issues with the first half of the book that really affected my overall enjoyment of it. The second half was decidedly better and had moments of sweetness and hope and a great villain arc that was bittersweet but satisfying.
My big issue with this book is the miscommunication angle that went on far too long. It didn’t make sense either and frustrated me a great deal. You see this planet had a universal language that all humanoid species spoke, the hero spoke it well as did the heroine, so there was no excuse as to why they didn’t speak to each other to overcome some major cultural differences between humans and the Dakkar. The MFC Luna struggled a lot the first half of the book trying to figure out how to navigate her new role in the horde. She made misstep after misstep, tripping over unknown rules and behaviours. Every time she made a misstep her horde King would be angry, he would banish her back to their tent and not speak to her... it would happen again and again. I mean one time, yes I get it, maybe a second time can’t be avoided, but at which point does this King step in and help her? He never does. He never gives her lessons on his people, she has to dig information out of her female helpers. She has to learn for herself over and over. It got very tiring and I almost gave up on the book.
The author keeps giving us glimpses of how kind and good the Horde King can be, she wants us to see him as a good husband, and yet he’s so cruel to her when he keeps information from her or doesn’t set her up for success as his queen.
I’ve read some reviews slamming the heroine for repeatedly making stupid mistakes in her time finding her footing and I have to argue this. How could she not make these mistakes? She had no guide here for her behaviour. She knew next to nothing of the Dakkar culture and Arakan knew that. He would say it to her ‘you really know nothing of the Dakkar, do you Kalles’ ya duh, big man, why don’t you enlighten her ffs!?
Once she finally finds her footing the story is good.
The dick building in this one is pretty solid too (pun intended), the imaginative elements this author added to her alien’s male member were good, he has a vibration feature that pulses with his heartbeat and a couple of strategically located knobs and of course he is King sized. The only problem is that she didn’t really utilize these features during the sexy times, I think he vibrates once and the knobs were never mentioned outside when Luna first sees them...what’s the point of these special adornments if we don’t get to read about them in practice?
I might read the next in the series but from the description it seems like a carbon copy of this one. 🤷🏼‍♀️ So maybe sometime down the road when I’ve forgotten this one enough.
So this was a decent barbarian alien read, similar to others though. Not all that original or special but overall ok.