4 ⭐️/5
1 🌶️/5

Woahhh 😳 What in the fever dream did I just read? King of Flames from Kathryn Ann Kingsley grabbed my attention from start to finish in the best way. 🤗

The Masks of Under series books 1 - 3 is re-released, updated with new content. Books 4 - 6 will be released November 26. I’m glad I don’t have to wait for book 2 or 3 because book 1 ends in a cliffhanger and I’m guessing each book of the series ends on its own cliffhanger. 😅

King of Flames we get:
▪️References to sexy times, nothing descriptive
▪️Separate world planet
▪️Replenishing the Under
▪️Dream visits
▪️Ancients and primordial beings
▪️Marked humans
▪️Masked beings
▪️Cliffhanger

The FMC is human Lydia who gets abducted to the Under. Of course she’s the most fascinating human there ever was, but I really appreciated her seize the day attitude. Being abducted and thrown into portals can’t be easy, but Lydia has taken it all in stride. Act first. Panic later.

The dark Aon is delightfully the darkest shade of gray. It seems like a war is starting on this other world, and Lydia and Aon are somehow connected.

You will enjoy this series if you like dark fantasy worlds that parallel modern day Earth. This series seems dark, there’s gore, there’s monsters, there’s shifters, there’s immortality. This whole book was a puzzle I could not wait to piece together.

Thank you to Second Sky Books for the ARC. All thoughts/opinions are my own. My review is voluntary.

"Perhaps she would always be destined for darkness no matter where she went or what she did."

♡ FMC in STEM
♡ Alternate Dimension
♡ Dream Connections
♡ Enemies to... Something?

Haunting and eerie, this portal fantasy is unlike anything else I've read recently. When Lydia is mysteriously marked and then kidnapped from her world, she's thrown into a land of nightmares and monsters.

I received an ARC of the re-released version of this book from NetGalley. I can't speak for the original, but this updated version was well-written and polished. Though a short read, the story captivated my attention with the grotesque creatures of Under and the mysterious masked man in black haunting Lydia's dreams.

I hope the rest of the series re-releases soon because that cliffhanger has me desperate to know what happens next.

This one wasn't really for me, I don't think. There were some intriguing things in it, like the portal world, Under, and characters, but overall there just didn't seem to be much in the way of detail or plot.

There was a lot of mention of a war that had happened, but we got no details of this, and I felt that this should have been fleshed out more. This was a very short book, so there was definitely scope to do this.

I felt that the whole thing was really anticlimactic with nothing much happening. Cliffhanger ending to entice you to want to read more.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Steam level: No steam, mostly plot and introductions; lots of chemistry

Thoughts:
King of Flames is a well-written dark fantasy book. The world-building is unsparing, and the story is unique, inviting, and gripping. Both of these elements, along with interesting main and side characters, provide an excellent introduction to The Masks of Under series.

Aon and Lydia’s story begins at a fast pace. The book introduces Lydia in her journey to the Under, a terrifying, corrupt world where Aon resides. Aon is a sadistic, cruel, and intelligent king, while Lydia is a mortal who is naive and somewhat hopeful in nature. Due to the unexpected circumstances of their connection, they feel a sort of kinship and attraction with each other despite their differences in demeanor. Given that they only had fleeting moments at a time to communicate and get to know each other, Lydia and Aon’s sensual connection was often unspoken, but present. They’re physically and emotionally drawn to each other, which causes Aon to conclude that Lydia belongs to him, and his involvement in the story increases from there.

In this introductory novel, the romance takes a bit of a back seat, however, the attraction and chemistry between both main leads is obvious, suggesting that their future will involve heavy romance themes.

The book ends on a comfortable cliffhanger with many questions left to be answered in the following installment, which makes me feel excited to read further!

I received a complimentary ARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

It is important to note that there are dark elements in this book that some readers may find triggering. Content warnings (CW) include descriptions of violence, gore, torture, abduction, use of guns, a main character works in forensic autopsy, and rituals. This is not a complete list.

4 stars

Honestly this book could have been 5 stars if it had been just a bit longer to flush out some of the ending. I have been a fan of Kathryn Ann Kingsley's work so I expected morally grey fae and world- building that was unique, both I got from this but I just wanted a bit more!
I loved our FMC Lydia, she's feisty but not completely fearless. She's willingly to try to save herself over and over, but admits the entire time that she's scared. It's refreshing to have a FMC who is thrown into a new world, and admit they are scared. The plot is unique, the entire time I could tell if the plot twist would be during the ceremony or at the end. I could feel the tension weaved into the story, and I loved that. I couldn't tell which King was the villain because both seemed to be morally grey, which Kathryn always excels at.
Again, my downfalls with this book simply just go with the length. There wasn't enough time to fully flush out the new world, because the focus was on the plot with how little pages were left.

I can't wait to read the next, and I highly recommend.

I went into this book not really knowing what to expect but I enjoyed the unusualness of the world. It intrigued me enough to keep reading. Overall, I enjoyed my experience.

By far the world building was this books greatest strength. It was well thought out and imaginative. It was not like the regular fantasy worlds readers are used to.

The plot was intriguing though the ending was slightly anticlimactic. I felt like I was waiting for something to happen the entire book then I finished the book with no real resolution. The book could have done a better job of cutting exposition and extending the ending to accommodate plot progression.

3.5* ARC

This was my first book by this author and it was a good, fun ride.

I really loved the FMC Lydia, she was an incredibly strong willed character. She was very feisty and didn't take crap from anyone, no matter what situation she was in.

Edu's character didn't appear to have any redeemable qualities. The author did describe him very well and I could picture him clearly when he was in scenes but I thought he was going to be in the book more than he was, alot of other side characters talking for him and doing his bidding. I just found him boring.

Aon's character was interesting from the start and was one main driving force for getting to the end of the book. His character was a very dark character, one minute he was talking about being a complete nightmare to Lydia, almost cruel in some scenes and the next he was consumed by the thought of her, The last 10% of the book had me on the edge as I just didn't know what he was going to to next as he was so unpredictable.

The author's worldbuilding was very good and I enjoyed learning about Under and all the creatures that reside there. However I felt that there was info dumping in parts of the book but as this appears to be the first book in a large series, the other worlds within Under will be better explained as the series progresses.

I am looking forward to reading what happens next to Lydia, especially after the ending of this one.

Thank you to Netgallery and Second Sky for the opportunity to read this. #KingofFlames #NetGalley

Another new fantasy romance to grab my attention. Dark, mysterious, well crafted and completely potty is the best way to describe The Under!

The story was well paced but did feel as though it dragged slightly at the start, most likely as I was trying to keep all the new people, places, etc in my head straight! The vibe of Under was kind of Steampunk, a mish mash of old and new, ancient and modern.

Lydia may thinks she unravels and is completely useless but I think she and Nick keep it together remarkably well! She is shaping up to be one determined FMC - she leaves the panicking until she has time and just soldiers through. I loved the fact that she and Nick are firm friends - there is no friends-to-lovers or love triangle in the offing that I've managed to determine anyway.

There is no romance as such in this 1st book but the vivid dream connection between Aon and Lydia is the set up for the future romance.

Beware this does end in a cliffhanger...

This was a very interesting book. It is fast paced and has very interesting characters. I am still a little confused about the world Under but it was a good read. I leaves you hanging at the end of the book.

This book was horrible and a complete waste of my time. I wish that I had never requested it.

I read the synopsis and I thought I might like it. Boy, was I wrong.

The only good thing about the book is the badass FMC, Lydia. Apart from that, nothing else!

Especially Aon, the serial killer wannabe that will probably be the fmc's love interest🤮🤮. It's annoying that this kind of character in a book.

Don't even get me started about The Under, a fucked up place.

I will definitely not be reading any other book in this series

I normally really enjoy KAK's writing but this one felt scattered and I just couldn't enjoy the characters.

3.75 Star
Though I was in a bit of a reading slump this past week and read few pages here and there - I did enjoy this book. The concept of the world and magic system was super intriguing - when their planets align - creatures from the world of Under are able to go to earth and find the ones the Ancients have marked to bring them back and replenish their population.
Only when Lydia is brought back she changes everything for everyone. Haunted by a sleeping king in her dreams she has to figure out how to save her self while also escaping the current King hunting her and the one attempting to wake to find her. Lydia was strong willed, didn't give up on her friends, fought to save herself and others! The two kings were definitely interesting and I'm curious to read more about why they have such animosity toward each other! Definitely intrigued and will for sure pick up the next book to see what happens next!

I’ve read better written books, this style was basic and not the best to read. The story was a bit all over the place and not gripping. I won’t be recommending this to anyone nor will I be reading the next in the series. Far better fantasy books out there.

So I genuinely love the Fae Duke series from Kathrynn Ann Kingsley. KAK does super well writing dark fantasy romance. There is genuinely no doubt in my mind about that. This book was super action packed and to be honest was a little overwhelming to get into. I felt a little lost which I think was the point considering the FMC was just as lost and confused as I was. Our FMC Lydia wakes up one morning with a strange tattoo. Later that day, a vampire (I think) assaults her at work, only to have a warrior clad in armor trying to kidnap her. Lydia then finds out that the tattoo means that she has been chosen to join the Under, only her commencement doesn't go according to plan.

The information about the world of Under was extremely slow to be released. Once Lydia started learning about what was going on, I felt more interested to keep reading. The plot is definitely different with an edge, so my interest level was high. Unfortunately, I still don't feel like I really know what is going on, but I know enough to feel the need to keep reading after the cliffhanger we were left on. Aon's character definitely intrigued more than anything and if my assumptions are correct, I will definitely scream for joy!

This book was the most confusing thing I have read. I still am scratching my head. I just could not figure out what the point of this was. I just was not a fan of this at all.

*ARC received from Netgalley - all opinions are my own*

TL;DR: King of Flames is a solid introduction to the series, though it feels more like a stepping stone than its own full story. While the story ends a bit too soon, the series looks like it will be great. Despite the 3-star review I still recommend King of Flames as I believe the rest of the series will make up for this one being a bit on the short and actionless side.

| 3.5-stars

Review:
After finishing King of Flames, I discovered that Katherine Ann Kingsley originally planned The Masks of Under as a trilogy, but the series was eventually split into six books. In my opinion, this might not have been the best decision, as King of Flames feels like it ends prematurely. At just 256 pages, it could have benefited from an additional 100 pages to further develop the plot and characters. The ending just feels so abrupt considering we took nearly the entire book to get some action going!

As for the characters, including our FMC Lydia, I’m intrigued by what I’ve seen so far, but there simply hasn’t been enough time to form a strong attachment to any of them. However, I do feel like Lydia leaving Nick (more than once) to fend for himself against potential murderers and then not even give him a second thought is a little shady of her.

I’ve seen a lot of praise for Kingsley’s writing, so I’m not giving up on the series just yet. I’ll be giving the next book a go as I do feel like this series could be great! King of Flames may not have hit all the right notes, but the potential for greatness is there, and I’m eager to see where it goes next.

First book of new series.
2 people from Earth are taken and go into another world. While there you are thrown into like a pool and it decides what kind of creature you are going to be. Then you are sent to a like kingdom, which there are several. You have marks on your body or you wear masks depending on your rank within that kingdom..
I had originally planned on a 3 star review but the more I got thinking about it I ended up giving it a 4 star.
Thank you to NetGalley and Second Sky for the ebook to review.
#KingofFlames #NetGalley

Strange creepy monsters. Tall, powerful, dangerous masked men. I’ll take it.

The first half was a fairly slow read but it picked up massively from the 50% mark. It made for an enjoyable quick read and the end left me wanting to read on.

I had a really fantastic time reading this book! I know this book was previously published and I'm really glad that it got updated and I got a chance to read it, because I loved it! This is the second series that I've read by her, but this one was originally published first, but has now been updated, which is the best of both worlds!

Things really suck for Lydia-she wakes up with a weird tattoo, a supposedly dead body walks up and somehow makes off with a coworker, she almost gets kidnapped and in the process kills a guy, then she really is kidnapped to this strange world. And when the process to make her part of this world doesn't work for her-the first time ever, and she's got a strange connection to a feared and hated prince dude? Not good! I was rooting for her!

We mainly were in Lydia's perspective as all of this was going on, but we also got some of Aon's perspective, so we could see this world from a newcomer and from someone who's been there a while and has a lot of power. So much was set up, from the different houses, to the power structure, and some of the politics. I'm so pumped to see how things develop from here!

This book started on a wild ride, and ended on a wild ride, and I'm so excited to see what's going to happen next! I've read the synopsis' for all the books in the series because once I started, I couldn't stop and I needed to know where the story is going to go, because the anticipation is high!

This was such a thrilling read and I can't wait to continue on!

King of Flames is about a mortal who gets chosen to go into the Under, but once there she is not selected to be part of any of the Houses, while also being visited by the King of Shadows in her dreams. This book was just alright to me, I felt like it seemed to be building up to something crazy happening, but once there it fell flat. It works as a first book in a series because there is a lot of buildup but not as a book that could stand alone. This book had multiple POVs, and even though the book does not list who's POV we were in, and it switched between POVs in the same chapter, I thought the way it was written makes it was clear to the reader who the POV is from.