As always a pleasure to read about this world!
This book confirmed that series is definitely more a fantasy series with a romance subplot than a fantasy romance series.
Ainsley's struggle as a middle child was just as entertaining as the main plot and Gruff's to the point personality was reffreshing!
It would be fair to say that the characters from the Dragon Kin series take over this one a little but really they are just as involved in the plot so it can't be helped. I do enjoy these characters very much so I do not mind!

Very interested in reading more!

Netgalley ARC

Didn't realise this was a 3rd book in the series so haven't read it yet as need to read the others.
From what I've read it's entirely my kind of book and I'm bound to like it. I have read a few pages and loved the writing style.
Will re review once I have read the others!

This book was highly entertaining. The humor that G.A. Aikens brings to her stories is unsurpassed by anyone. It was great to see Ainsley more out of her sisters shadows. And having her find love with a centaur was awesome. But the dragons were the icing on the cake.

I don’t know what it is about G.A. Aiken, but I always get excited when a new book of hers is released. I don’t read too much Fantasy these days, but I always make room for Aiken.

What I love about her Fantasy Romances is that there’s an uneven focus on the romance and the Fantasy element. Most authors would focus on the romance and while it is still very prominent and passion, I feel like Aiken has the most fun creating this unique world and building on it with each book. The details are amazing and there’s lots of worldbuilding and interconnecting storylines. I find it very enjoyable to read.

So when you have a great base like that, anything else that you do on top of it is bound to make it better. I believe that’s the case with the romance. I enjoyed Ainsley and Gruffyn a lot. If you’re a fan of dragons, then you definitely don’t want to miss out on this series. There’s a big focus on the women in this series, so the character development is well done.

While sometimes a little violent and over-the-top, Aiken has definitely mastered her own style. It’s a style that I’ve come to love because there’s no other author that writes like her. For some hilarious dragon fun, you don’t want to miss this!

The 3rd installment of G. A. Aiken's The Scarred Earth saga focuses on the Archer...better known as Ainsley Farmerson, one of the Queen's man siblings. We open up to dragons invading the settlement and their mad queen demanding to know who was enslaving the children. As the Blacsmith Queen and the Mad Queen attempt to find away to form an alliance to defeat Queen Beatrice, Ainley's finds her own way in this war along with a little romance and an interesting pet.

Hilarious is the one word I always use for anything written by G.A. Aiken aka Shelly Laurenston. Very female centered, Aiken's fantasy based stories are an homage to strong women, family, and the never ending battle between good and evil. The Heretic Royal bridges this world with her dragon world and opens up a multitude of doorways brimming with potential. Though this was promoted as a trilogy, I'm estatic we may get a decent length series out of it. Fast pacing, laugh out loud dialogue, and an action packed multi level story will keep you hooked till the very intriguing ending.

Funny. Action packed. Violently Bloody. Entertaining. The Heretic Royal follows the 3rd or is it the 4th oldest Farmerson sister? I can't remember where the evil sister falls in line in age but I think she might be older so that would make Ainsley the 4th oldest. Either way, I had just us much fun with her book as I did Keeley and Gemma's.

These crazy characters are so entertaining. I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud over something one of them said or did. It's not even just the sisters, but all the characters. Most of them are wildly inappropriate. Almost all of them are very violent. And best of all there is a humor that makes me feel guilty for enjoying.

I would highly suggest reading this series in order. It does follow an overall plot and it would probably feel jumbled if you don't start with the first book. I'm so looking forward to the next book!

In this third book of the Scarred Earth Saga, younger sister to Queen Keely and battle Monk Gemma, Ainsley has long been underestimated as a valuable asset to her very large family. The Farmerson-Smythe family are usually all about their farms or blacksmith shops; however, Ainsley has little care for either profession spending most of her time developing her archer skills and hiding out in trees, mainly from her family. More than anyone else especially Queen Keeley, Ainsley knows that their evil sister, Beatrix, who betrayed the family and took over another monarch’s throne, intends to wipe out her family. Ainsley will have to deal with assorted battle nuns, irritated monks, and feisty, grumpy centaurs.

Centaur Gruffyn of the Torn Moon Clan is perhaps the grumpiest of all the centaurs tasked with helping Ainsley on her mission to overtake some of Beatrix’s myriad of spies and armies in her homeland. Gruffyn realizes Ainsley has more to her than her families gives her credit for. Along with some supernatural aid here and there, he and his siblings help Ainsley in her goals to protect all she loves. Gruffyn has little use for humans or really, anyone person or creature besides centaurs; however, something about Ainsley calls to him especially her bravery against the Mad Queen, Annwyl the Bloody who shows up with her dragons intending to fight against Beatrix’s nefarious schemes.

Fans of the series will be well pleased to see the two worlds collide because Annwyl is always great fun as well as an interesting foil for Keeley who is too nice for her own good. The dragons always add a good time to these stories especially since they cause as many problems as they solve. Ms. Aiken’s ability to combine humor with blood thirsty battles and crazy characters is always entertaining and frequently provides some good laughs. I did think in this story Ainsley and Gruffyn’s relationship takes more of a backseat to all the other goings on. Though many battles are fought in this book, the ultimate one between the queens is yet to come.

The Heretic Royal, third in G A Aiken’s the Scarred Earth saga, focuses on Ainsley, a younger sister of Queen Keeley. The third book basically begins where the second book left off, with Annwyl and Dragons. From that point on much discussion ensued, but very little action.
The writing, as usual, was excellent. Aiken’s signature snark and humor sparked things up a bit. But on the whole the book was a bit slow. Action finally picked up at the end, but this book needed more, especially compared to the first two books in the saga.

Whatever G.A. Aiken is writing, I want to be along for the ride. This is Ainsley (the archer's) story, and more information unfolds about the family dynamics. Gruff is a fantastic hero. He grunts at everyone, his sister speaks for him, except for Ainsley. Signs of a love interest: speaking in complete sentences. They work really well together as they try to figure out Beatrix's latest horrors and protect the throne.
Aiken's books are fun, they're violent (they are at war), and I just never know what will happen next. It's better for readers to read the first two in the series to have more background context, but this book could work as a standalone for Ainsley and Gruff's adventures.

I am a big fan of G.A. Aiken's Dragon Kin and Scarred Earth Series so a mash up of the two families is my jam! This novel is packed with lots of hilarious and epic adventures but if you are new to this world you may need to read the first book in each series to follow the storyline. There are a lot of fantastic characters to keep straight but it is worth the effort. Ainsley and Gruffyn are an awesome couple but as a cherry on top I love the mentoring going on between Keeley and Annwyl and a deeper understanding of Gemma. I'm already counting down the days until the next book!

Book 3 is Ainsley's book. She finds her place, and her love in the middle of clashing queens, one good, one bad. Dragons, centaurs, evil gods, evil sister queen, epic battle's by one seriously badass queen. I love this family, so fun and dysfunctionally loving. Everyone just doesn't have parents that want to repopulate the world by themselves. Good thing they are farmers. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC from Netgalley.

This is the third book in series and picks up right where the last book left off (which if you read it and are a fan of G.A.'s Dragon Kin series, you happy squealed like I did at the end). You 100% need to read the first two books prior to jumping in with this one. The battle between the Smythe sisters continues on and in this story we get to learn more about the 4th sister, Ainsley, as well as her love interest, the centaur Gruff(yn). We also get introduced to the "sassy nun" Hilda, and another "monk" from Gemma's order, Batsheva, who become faithful friends to Ainsley. The best part of the story though is that Queen Annwyl and a horde of dragons (Gwenvael!) arrive, and by the end, work out a truce with Queen Keeley.

My only issue with this story is that I was kind of hoping Var would swoop in and become the love interest instead. That being said, I didn't even need the love story to enjoy this book. The world building is incredible, the family dynamics were relatable, and I was laughing as often as I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next.

As always with any Shelly Laurenston/G.A. Aiken book, the characters are the star and I'm left wanting more and eagerly anticipating what comes next. I'm so excited for more Dragon Kin involvement and am hoping that one of the Smythe's/Farmerson's will hook up with one to permanently tie these families together. (Come on Isadora, don't fall for the centaur twin's brother with Heterochromia, find you a nice dragon instead).

Thank you to Kensington and NetGalley for this ARC I requested!

I adored the blacksmith queen and I've adored all the books since. I did think this was a trilogy so that was surprising when the series didn't wrap up, but I'm still very in to it so I'm not sad about it. The humor is great!

Exactly the kind of bat-sh*t craziness I was hoping for. None of the characters are nice or pleasant, and none of them like each other very much, yet they form a warm—if homicidal—whole. Everything is chaotic, no one’s doing anything proactive to oust the bad queen, and dragons do their best to make things worse.

The book begins where the previous one ended, with the arrival of dragons from Aiken’s earlier series—a cliff-hanger that made it an agonisingly long wait for this book. They instantly amp up the insanity level, and most of the book is about Keeley and her family dealing with them, the war on the background.

There are several point of view charcaters, some of which don’t have much to do. The main ones are (on paper anyway) the fourth eldest sister Ainsley, and Gruff, a centaur warrior asked to guard her. They’re the romantic couple of the book, but the romance is extremely low key among the chaos. It basically takes place during a couple of chapters at the end of the book. Still, I liked them both. They made a good couple and spent most of the book interacting with each other, so the romance didn’t spring out of nowhere.

The rest of the book is spent in crazy antics with seemingly no plot, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. There was a small cliff-hanger (mountain dropper?) at the end, but what will draw me back are the characters that I love, one and all. Can’t wait to read the next one.

Five fabulous stars because here be dragons ! I've loved the previous two books in spite of the last book being light on romance because the antics of these incredible characters is just so entertaining. This story amps up the madness and mayhem by including characters from the Dragon Kin series and oh boy is it fast, astonishing and absolutely bat shxt crazy and I love it !
This time the romance whilst never rushed felt real and very much obvious. I enjoyed Ainsley finally finding her feet amongst her very loud and over protective sisters and her family are a total joy to read about. Speaking of families the Dragon's are hilarious, brutal and completely bonkers but that's why we love them. This ends in a way that has this reader smiling but already desperate for more and I cannot think of a higher recommendation than that, more please !
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

An epic fantasy world. The third story in The Scarred Earth Saga brings us back to The Land of the Black Hills and the Smythe sisters Queen Keeley, War Monk Gemma and younger sister Ainsley who got the worst of the Pretender to the throne Soulless Beatrix. This story has everything romantic Centaurs, religious war monks and the best surprise of all from the other side of the Amichai Mountains comes Dragons with Annwyl the Bloody. You will have many glorious laughs with the interaction between much beloved characters. When magic is thrown in you have a fantasy that is so well paced though-out the story and leaves you disappointed in leaving this world too soon. I would recommend reading the other stories in both this series and the Dragon Kin series to get your fill of the beautifully fleshed out characters.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this one. You don’t have to read all of the priors in the series but it is helpful an you will find yourself if new to GA Aiken/Shelly Laureston looking for all of her numerous books . The prior two books where awesome but with the addition of the dragons an anolywyn perfect. I loved how we got to see all of the characters react and truthfully the interaction between the sisters hilarious. Definitely worth the wait an as always can’t wait for the next one.

Alright, I stopped and started this a few times. I wanted to love this I really did but it fell flat. I didn't feel the magic of the words or the buzz of the danger and adventure. I didn't feel the connection between the main characters.
The Heretic Royal is very informative, and if you've not read some of the authors previous series some of the characters might be confusing on how they fit the universe. They were entertaining, don't get me wrong but I had to go through Aiken's backlog and see where they were from.

All in all I'd give 4 stars. I had higher hopes for myself but I know that die hard Aiken fans are going to love Ainsley's books.

Where even to start with this?

I love G.A. Aiken and her alter-ego Shelly Laurenston and I think I've read pretty much everything published under both names. I was really enjoying this new series, I gave four stars to the first book and four and a half stars to the second (which is HIGH in my world) but this book, I don't even know what the point was or frankly whether anything happened, the romance was so muted it was non-existent, and the focus of the story seemed to be either on Annwyl the Bloody (hurrah, love the Mad Queen) or the princess that I assume will be the focus of the next book.

In fact, I keep having to re-read the synopsis of the book to remember who are supposed to be the romantic couple, nope its gone again!

I would classify this as the middle book of the series. Our new family meet Annwyl and her dragons (which sadly goes to show how much more depth of character they have compared to the new characters), the evil sister is even more evil than before, dragons are being dragons, most heinous, I don't recall any super smexy love scenes when the Dragon Kin series was wall-to-wall hawt dragon shenanigans between the sheets.

Overall, without Annwyl and her bickering children this would have been a two star at best.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This book was surprisingly really good. I enjoy how the book went into detail about some of the back stories for the characters. The story line is really well done, and you can't help but enjoy the characters throughout the book. I really can't wait for the next book.