My first vampire book since twilight when I was in high school!!! I loved this! I love how steamy Katee’s books are! This was a fun story, and I haven’t read much of this trope before! The only thing missing was having some POVs from the men!!

Thank you for my gifted copy!

Leave it to Katee Robert to give us a reverse harem book with vampires that freaking slaps. Court of the Vampire Queen follows Mina, who only ever wanted to escape her father’s control. As half human, half vampire, Mina has lived her life eternally torn between two worlds. When her father chooses to use her as a pawn in his latest political move, Mina is gifted to the darkly and powerful Malachi Zion.

Ruling with an iron fist and with a well-known reputation of dark sins in his past, Mina is sure she won’t survive him. But the longer she spends in his presence, the more she realises that what society sees isn’t the real deal—and that Malachi is far from being a monster. As lust turns to trust and eventually love, Mina finally finds a home: not only with Malachi, but with his two closest friends and companions. Surrounded by her three men, Mina finally finds the power to rid the world of the real monster: taking down her father and taking what’s rightfully hers.

Heavy on the smut, light on the plot, this is the perfect way to get started with Robert if you haven’t had the pleasure of reading her books before. Since this is a bind-up of the previously released three novellas, the story moves super quickly and we get right into the thick of it instead of getting boggled down with info dumping. Instead, Robert seamlessly combines the intrigues and political schemes of Mina’s father with the consequences it has for not only her and her siblings but for vampires like Malachi and his closest friends. But of course, the romance takes front stage in this novel and I’m not mad about it. From Mina building a trusting bond with Malachi and being taken over by lust to…getting to know his two friends (who are amazing), this book delivers on the spice. If you’re squeamish when it comes to blood play and biting then this might not be the book for you, but if you ever wanted to see three vampires and a half human, half vampire get it on, then you need this book in your life.

Aside from the smutty side of things, we also have wholesome “if you touch her, I’ll kill you” vibes (we love to see it) and sweet moments between the four who plot to take on Mina’s father and make Mina the queen she was supposed to be all along. As always, Robert’s female protagonists have agency and the themes of empowerment and personal growth are strong and make for a great reading experience. If you’re a long-time reader of Robert, you’ll also see tiny hints about other stories in her universe (The Dragon’s Bride, for example) which I loved because it’s such a cool thing to make the connections while reading and wondering how other series will develop in this world.

If you’re in the market for a compelling reverse vampire harem story, some smutty goodness, the iconic “if you touch her I’ll kill you” trope and “overthrowing the patriarchy” vibes, then Court of the Vampire Queen is the book for you!

Three things before I get into the review.

The term “reverse harem” is racist and I won’t be using it. It’s based on a racist understanding of what a harem actually is. If you have questions, google “harem is racist” and you’ll get better deep dives into Orientalism and hypersexualization than I could possibly give.
Court of the Vampire Queen was previously released as three novellas in the Bloodline Vampires series – Sacrifice, Heir, and Queen.
There is a lot of blood, drinking blood, and bloody sex in the book. If you are squeamish about blood, this might not be the book for you.
I like Katee Robert and I generally like her books. She is an incredibly prolific writer and not everything she writes is exactly my cup of tea. When she began releasing the Bloodline Vampire series in late 2020, I had too many other things on my plate, so I admired the pretty covers and moved on. I was delighted though to grab an arc of the three novellas together.

Katee Robert is rather spare with her world building. And that’s fine. I really only notice it because I’ve read some intense world building books back to back. Anyway, there are vampires. Vampires can mate with humans and produce dhampir – human and vampire. Some vampires are turned, some are born. Of those born vampires, I think some, but not all, are members of “bloodline” vampire families with powerful magical abilities. Mina is a dhampir, and a disappointing one at that because she doesn’t have the magical powers other dhampir have. Her father, a tyrannical vampire king has one bloodline vampire held captive by a blood ward. He sends Mina to be a sacrificial meal for his captive, Malachi.

The consent in their first encounter is dubious, and stays dubious for a while. Mina and Malachi are trapped in situations not of their choosing, and then Wolf and Rylan (also vampires) become trapped in a somewhat different situation with them. Consent and choice are themes throughout the book. No one has complete freedom to choose and they have to balance goals with the price of those goals.

Everything is told from Mina’s perspective so things that could be plot-holes are glossed over because they aren’t things Mina cares about. And really, if you are looking for a plot where everything is explained, you are reading the wrong author. That said, I disagree with the readers who call it smut without plot. Robert isn’t skimping on plot. There is quite a bit of plot in those sex scenes.

I did struggle a bit with the amount of blood. The number of mattresses, sheets, carpets, and other furniture ruined by blood play was profligate. But Katee Robert still managed to make those blood soaked sex scenes emotional and somehow, charming. If you are interested in her new A Deal with a Demon series, Court of the Vampire Queen is a nice lead in.

CW: dubious consent, past parental abuse, serious bodily injury, blood, strategic pregnancy, murder.

I received this as an advance reader copy from Sourcebooks Casablanca via Netgalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

2.5

This had no business being nearly 500 pages long, honestly.

More than half of this book was smut, cool, I expected nothing less from the author. The rest of the book had the barest of hints of a plot and the worldbuilding was too boring as most of it was just characters sitting around, talking, with very little action sprinkled in every 200 pages.

All that would’ve been fine, I’ve liked this kind of set-up in other books of this author, my problem was however the smut and romance part of this book.

The book has content warnings in the beginning, including one about dubious consent. So I’m not mad that this showed up (on page one, mind you) but the type of dubcon was what had me considering dnfing this book A Lot. Mina, the female protagonist, states her boundaries/willingness to participate in whatever with a clear mind - then she either enjoys whatever she was previously against or it takes two paragraphs for her to change her mind (without any indication as of why she is now okay with it). It gave “no means yes/convince me” vibes, I really didn’t like. If you wanna do dubcon, okay let’s do it, but this retroactive consent through pleasure and pressure was just not sitting right with me personally. It felt like the author really wanted these dubcon scenes but didn’t want to commit to having to deal with the ramifications going forward.

If your book is nearly 500 pages long, I expect the main relationship (or in this case: relationships) to be shown to have a connection beyond physical attraction. Hell, I’d expect to know the characters beyond the most basic of traits (the three dudes felt like a casted boyband - we barely knew more of them then their ‘main’ characteristic).

Lastly, I’m iffy on one of the main characters being called Malachi Zion. If you really need to name your character this, of all things, must it be a character who is a BLOOD drinking vampire?

Ok this was not what I was expecting and I don't know why I'm surprised when it comes to any of Katee Roberts novels. I knew about these books but once I found out here was going to be a bind up of them I realized it was the perfect time to dive into them! Now I knew there was going be vampires but I didn't know there was going to an arranged marriage or a hot vampire king. I definitely didn't know he came with TWO OTHER HOT FRIENDS FOR HIS NEW WIFE!!! Omg I really appalled Robert! Like she is really out here writing whatever she wants and she knows we're going to read it! I loved this bind up Omg like I. want more! Plain and simple--I WANT MORE OF THIS!!!

Court of the Vampire Queen by author Katee Robert was not a story for me, and not at all what I was expecting in a story from one of my go to authors.. Unfortunately, not a story I would revisit.
Review copy received from the Publisher via Netgalley

As per usual, first of all thanks to both NetGalley and Katee Robert, for sharing this ARC with me.

When you come across a Katee Robert book the smut is always great but the plot seems to fade away and that in this case is fine, we knew what we were coming to and she delivered accordingly to the expectations.

That said the book starts with an orgasm and it continued for 400 pages with the same line of smut.
In my opinion this was 80% smut and 20% plot that took place in between pre sex scenes and after
Care scenes.

But like we know, this author is simply amazing at writing smut, so even if it is a bit “too much smut” it is readable without being to boring.

Mina is a damphir who is gifted as a sacrifice by her father to Malachi a vampire, who she is to serve in any way he wants. He predictably falls for her and is joined in feelings and in bed by two male close friends of him.

There was also a lot of plot continuity issues in
this book as well as some pacing issues, but once again you come for the smut and smut is what you get.

The book is a 3⭐️/5⭐️ and 3🌶/3🌶 for me considering that I am rating it as a smut book with some plot.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Robert, and Sourcebooks
Casablanca for this ARC.

I am a sucker for anything vampires so I was so excited to read this book! First and foremost, SMUT.
Smut, smut, and more smut. And a little plot.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Katee Robert is amazing at writing said smut, this would be a 3 star read.
The plot was rather lackluster and didn’t make a lot of sense. If you look past that, I still think it’s a fun read especially if you love vampires!

Court of the Vampire Queen will be
out September 6th, 2022.

Katee Robert has done it again. This fast paced, vampiric, erotic romance is so good, I couldn't put it down. While I definitely argued with the main character, I understand her stubbornness.

She's powerless and useless to her father. So he gives her up to another vampire as a vessel for breeding. He's been trapped for years, then gifted a half vampire half human to do as he pleases.

Katee Robert is an automatic buy for me always! So when Court of the Vampire Queen arc became available I jumped on it! The main focus of this book was the smut and as usual Katee knows how to deliver the deliciousness!

If you are looking for a deep and complex plot, this book is not for you. It is a very small part and definitely takes a backseat. If you are looking for a fast paced, hot vampire book then you'll definitely enjoy this one.

The vampires are hot and seductive, making Mina a very lucky girl. I thought the demon aspect of this book was a little weird but then I remembered the Dragon's Bride by Katee! If you've read it then you'll definitely understand that role. This book gives you enemies to lovers, polygamous relationship, slow burn, lots of biting, hidden powers, breeding kink, touch her and I'll unalive you and some action!

TW
Blood, gore, abuse murder, talks of abortion

eARC obtained by from NetGalley for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley, SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca and Katee Robert for letting me read “Court of the Vampire Queen” in exchange for an honest review.

This title was mainly smut/erotica and very little plot. If you're looking for a fast paced erotic vampire read this will scratch that itch but sadly lacks some much needed substance. The story launches immediately into steamy scenes that rush along without delving into the world building of the vampires and the main character Mina's personality. It feels as if this book picks up after another title with an established world that I never got to read or comprehend.

I desperately wanted to like this title (poly-vampire-human romance, need I say more?) but unfortunately the lack of plot and non-existent depth of characters left me wanting more from this book.

I'm not entirely sure what happened with this book but it's a mess. I've read Neon Gods, Electric Idol, and Wicked Beauty by this author and gave 5 stars to each. I loved the characters, their vulnerabilities, the banter. Those characters leapt off the page. The stakes were real, and even though I was reasonably sure everyone would make it out okay, I couldn't be 100% until it happened. Those books have an edge, a realness, and heart that leaves you wanting more.

This book had spice.

That's it.

It had an overabundance of spice to the extreme that at first was jarring, then exciting because my past experience with this author has been a whirlwind. But the fall back to reality with this one hurt. I kept expecting the characters to surprise me. Expecting the stakes to fall into place and their lives to feel threatened. To see an enemy. None of those things happened. We got sex in place of characters, Sex in place of plot. Sex in place of feeling.

The only thing I'm feeling at this point is disappointment.


SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT

Her father is supposed to be the big bad for this entire book and he has a cumulative 5 pages of screentime. That might actually be an overestimate. Mina, who has clearly had a traumatic childhood, doesn't recount a single substantial case of abuse/memory beyond the broken knee at the very beginning of the novel.

I've read a great many reverse harems in my lifetime, and there is one thing that happens in all of them, the good and the bad. At least one of the men is a just for show. Just another man in the bed with a weak personality whose character the lead claims to love, but the reader never sees. At first I thought that was going to be Rylan. No, if anything his conflicted nature was the only character we got. Pity we didn't see more of it. Malachi is basically an insta-love man with a shiny new toy. He spends the beginning of the book basically claiming, "Wow you sure are interesting" with little else. By the time they figure out it's because of her seraph blood he's in love with her because they have great sex? Wolf? Well his enter personality is based on chaos and nothing else. The only truly interesting scene he has is with the demon, and lets be real, Azazel was the most interesting character in the whole damn book.

Mina doesn't have a relationship with her "court" because she doesn't seem to have a personality beyond crippling self doubt, pessimism, and a need to over explain her choices to herself and us. She has no character development at all. And conveniently it doesn't matter.

Let's talk about convenience for a minute.
It's convenient that her father comes out into the court yard with no guards.
It's convenient that Mina is able to walk into the compound with nothing and no one blocking her way.
It's convenient that her powers choose the exact moment she needs them to kill her father.
It's convenient ...
- That Grace, a mysterious human/hunter, appears under the bunker exactly when Mina needs an ally.
- That Grace is willing to sell 7 years of her life to a demon for a girl/monster she just met.
- That Wolf and Rylan have family members with some knowledge that will help them, but so little screentime we don't have to experience their characters at all.

Honestly, the whole book was a convenient mess designed to set up a foursome between 3 hot vampires and a humanish stand in for the reader. A blank canvas if you will.
The spice gets progressively worse as everything goes along, not because it's written differently, but because the characters have changed so little that it's like reading the exact same scene over and over again for 300+ pages.

I can't wait to reread the Neon Gods series after this because those were so well done and this feels like an entirely different author wrote it.

Do I recommend it? If you like PWP, surface level character development, or have a history with the PWP tag in the fanfiction community, yeah, you'll be fine. Take it at face value. It's a sex book about vampires. If you want a story. characters, and feels, read one of this author's other amazing books. I know she's a fantastic writer, and has gut punched me before, but damn, what the hell happened to this book .

I received an Arc of this from NetGalley for an honest review.

I enjoy smutty books but this was all erotica and no plot. I kind of want to go through the entire thing and circle every time they wrote fuck and fucking. I was expecting something different having just read the Dark Olympus series. That was beautifully woven series with enaging plot and characters with some spicy scenes. I can't even tell you what this book was. If you like reading sex every single chapter then it's for you. Loved the Poly relationships though however, I can't even tell you what anyone looks like. I like one of them is blonde? Its mostly exposition with sexing, some dialogue with very little details, descriptions and explinations. It was just instant sexual chemistry and three vampires feeling they have to take care of this Dhampir. That was pretty much the plot? Thwarting the father and also just screwing until pregnancy.

As much as I am a die hard fan of the Vampire genre and smut this was just too much. I needed the story to evolve and drive the plot forward to make me more engaged.

Thanks again for the arc NetGalley!

This book was a solid dislike for me. Though I did finish the book, it was terribly hard too. The writing was repetitive and subpar. The breaking of the blood ward by sex was even more ridiculous. I have heard so many great things about Katee Robert’s novels and I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn’t. Still, thank you to Katee Robert, the publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to have an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

This book is the adult version of twilight. Brooding vampires and old school politics, Katee Robert brings to life the world of Mina Lancaster. Mina is destined to breed with an old vampire, but ends up with more than she bargained for. A trio of vampires who want to see her succeed, father their children, and become her own savior. This book is for all those early 2000 humans who wanted a spicier version of their favorite vampires. Well, here you go. While the book wasn’t always the most well written or plot driven - the spice was always on point. Thanks, Katee!

Thank you to NetGalley, Katee Robert & the publisher for giving me this arc!

There may be some spoilers throughout. Read at your own risk. Please check the triggers for this book as well.

Tropes: dark romance, smut, virgin, forced proximity, paranormal, RH, ⚔️, touch her & you die, & pregnancy

First things first.. I read a few other reviews before starting this book. The people who said “there’s too much smut & not plot” are the ones who really made me want to read it more. I was in a reading slump before picking this up & now I can say I’m not anymore. I love reading smutty books & Katee does an amazing job writing them.

This book follows Mina, an 18 year old powerless dhampir (half human half vampire) who’s father forced her to live & be with Malachi (a bloodline vampire) in hopes that she either ends up dead or pregnant to have an heir for her father. Her father will still kill her if she ends up pregnant.. just it won’t happen until after the baby is born because he will have no use for her because she doesn’t have his bloodline powers.

She soon meets Wolf & Rylan (both bloodline vampires) & they help to save Malachi & Mina from being trapped in the house with a blood ward. They find out Mina is not what they thought she was. Once freed they are on the run where they continuously get caught & have to find new safe houses.

We also meet a demon named Azazel who wants Mina because of what she is. He helps them out a little bit but we don’t see him again until the epilogue. We will be seeing more of him in another book I hope.

In the end, the 4 of them defeat her father & they take over & run the compound. They have 3 cute kids & they all are starting to show that they will inherit the powers of the bloodlines.

This book has spice almost every other chapter. If that’s not something you enjoy then you should probably not pick up this book. But if you love some good smut then this is the right book.

Court of the Vampire Queen is a bind up of a previously published trilogy, focusing on half-vampire Mina struggling to escape the control of her evil vampire father. At the start of the book Mina has been left at a gothic mansion haunted by a starving vampire, with hopes that either she’ll die or produce an heir that will grant her father the means to greater control. The opening sequence was compelling and made me want to understand the politics and rules of vampirism in this world, particularly as the main character becomes more and more intrigued by said vampire. Likewise, the writing was well done, and the quick pace kept me reading. However, I found that the plot too often came at the expense of the erotica, and would have been happy to see a little more world building. While the intimate scenes were well done, revelations were often left for the end of each section, leaving the reader midway through with more questions than answers. Additionally, aside from supernatural bonds, there was little in the way of emotional ties, or even friendship, linking these disparate characters together for a large chunk of the book. I give Court of the Vampire Queen three stars, because I do think this will appeal to readers of both vampire fiction and erotica, who’d like to see a fun new take on the mythos.

I’ve read some of this authors books before and liked them. This was a lot for me personally. I felt like the story also just picked up in the middle which I didn’t love.

This book is set to release September 6th, 2022. Thank you Katee Robert and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This book is all three of the Bloodline Vampire Series in one book.

I want to start by saying I really did love this story. Having read The Dragon’s Bride this book does tie into that series so I am glad that I read this. I do suggest reading this if you are wanting to read or have read The Dragon’s Bride, A Deal with a Demon series.

I love a smutty book and Katee Robert will always deliver on a spicy novel. This book is not for the faint of heart. Check the trigger warnings in the beginning of the book. I am still figuring out what tropes I like and don’t like and this book definitely helped me figure out what I’m not into. I will always try anything once. That being said I am not into MM. This book is MMMF so if you are into that I highly recommend this book. This also has pregnancy and I’m not into that very much either which is the only reason it almost became a dnf and took me longer to read. But I am glad I finished it.
This book was well written and super sexy and spicy. It’s really everything you want in a smutty read. Probably the smuttiest I’ve ever read.
I loved all the characters in their own way but Rylan was my favorite. Probably because he was the grumpiest and the hardest to fall in love with. Give me a grumpy man/vampire any day especially one that shape-shifts.
Overall it wasn’t the book for me but if you like these tropes and are good with the triggers it would definitely be a 5 star read for the right person.

The book has content warnings at the beginning, read them and make sure you are ok with them. This book will not be for everyone, it is dark and there is a LOT of sex. If you like that kind of thing you will like this book. It is classic Katee Robert and doesn't disappoint. MMMF, MM, MF, MMM