This gets 2.5 stars from me. I was going to give it 2 stars but it gets a half point for having some plot at the end of the book because for a little while there it was giving nothing but smut. I absolutely despised the MMC in this. His cocky attitude and the way he treated the FMC was just so gross to me. He's far too pushy right from the jump even though he's aware that she was being abused horribly for the past year. The smut in this is cringey at best. Some of the verbage being used just was not it for me. There was so much spice and so little plot for a good chunk of this and I didn't like that. The storyline had the potential to be really great. The dragon was really the only character I actually enjoyed in this book. I won't be continuing the series.

This is a complete story of the "I ruined her life, and now I want her" story. It's pucked up to some level. Calista was a former princess meant to be a queen in scorpion valley, but the kingdom goes conquered by a person known as the Death King because he could raise the dead, and in the middle of her scape she got imprisoned, sent to Arid sand to dig sand so she could find the black crystal for the said Death King, got molested to the end (all the steps were done), and got manipulated. The said king suddenly saw her talking to his dragon, got intrigued, imprisoned her, but pretended to give her a choice. Seduced her in the most unfair situation because the guy is a catch, and then the story continues as secrets unfold like their story, and... Calista admits Talon is smoking hot but can't consider him because he ruined her kingdom and future and innocence, and... Talon, after training her to be bound with a dragon and create a good army for his purpose and also serving him, found out the secret Calista refused to tell, and that was why she hated her.

The story is pucked up. There is no way you couldn't feel that, especially when everything seems justified when it shouldn't be. Talon wasn't the dictator, ruthless authoritarian, and a guy without any morals, as Khazmuda said he is (he is all those things now, he's black), but everything that happened to him makes everything sound legit, and you can't really criticize him, though he did the actual thing to Calista that they've done to him. and Calista raises a glass to her for being badass enough to deny him, for how brave she is to think riding a dragon is like riding a horse (sit on the saddle and kick it). disobey Talon despite his threats of killing her (he would totally have done that; the author didn't bluff), but somehow he has a little softer edge towards her because he thinks there are similarities between them.

The story was narrated in dual pov. I honestly didn't enjoy the FMC voice because it was quivering and seemed like a deep hurt lingering all the time, but the statement didn't match. Calista was fierce, unyielding, and brave, with the thought of a queen because she was raised to be one; she mostly fought and wasn't at all a coward or a rose petal, as the narrator described, and it was contrasting because, like this, she swears at someone, and it was with a delicate and shuddering voice. Calista was literally fighting and showing how cool she is, and you hear the sound like don't heart me tone. It was heroic with the wrong voice display. but pat the shoulder of Mc voice Talon matched like super cool, and with the additional of khazmuda banter with Talon, the voice actor actually did the best. Yep, the Khazmuda is a Mighty Dragon, and he is an MVP if you ask me. Please read even for this mighty black dragon, because I think it's worth it. He's likeable with the hint of a thing you can't resist. I say the tease is everything.

I say I rate the book 4. I liked Talon and Khazmuda voice actors, and 3 isn't justified because I know it's an effort not everyone would put in. I appreciate the rise and fall of this and really like the hype I get. It's true it has some triggers that could make things complicated, but if you ask me, it could be ignored because the story is in another vibe and the triggers seem insignificant or completely unnecessary. I think the author just wanted to add them to make things more heated, but still, they are triggers, so please consider them, though there aren't actual graphics of them. And there we have Khazmuda, who is really worth the time to read it. He's thoughts are dragons described even about partnering.

I really enjoyed this fast paced romantasy! The narrators were easy to listen to and did a good job! The storyline was fast paced and enthralling! There was action, enemies to lovers romance, dragons and more! It was definitely spicy but not too much that it took over the plot. After that ending, I can't wait to read the next book!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Trigger/Content Warnings: Contains dark themes, including rape (for an extended amount of time), suicide ideation, enslavement, death of a parent, threats of harm, physical assault, and somnophilia (non-consensual).

What to Expect:
••» Enemies-to-Lovers
••» Captor/Captive
••» Necromancer King
••» Forgotten Princess
••» Dragon Companion
••» Forced Proximity
••» Revenge

This book starts with an exciting mix of dark fantasy, romance, and erotica, creating a promising adventure. The beginning is smooth and engaging, with just the right pace to pull me in.

However, about halfway through, the focus shifts more toward the steamy scenes, and the plot takes a back seat. That middle part left me a bit disappointed, but the world-building and character dynamics at the start and end kept me interested. Thankfully, the final act brings back the action and intrigue, making it easier to stay engaged.

I’m curious about the next books in the series, but I’m hoping they find a better balance between story and romance.

As for the audiobook, the female narrator’s tone didn’t quite hit the mark—she often sounded like she was on the verge of tears, which took away from the experience. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penelope Barsetti, the author, and Dreamscape Media for the Audiobook ARC opportunity.

First off I would like to start this by giving a big thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing me with this audiobook for review.

Honestly I am not entirely sure where to begin with this review because I really dislike having to post any review that is less than three stars but unfortunately this book just did NOT do it for me. I found myself having to push through it in order to simply finish it. Overall I give this book 2.5 stars.

I feel as if this story had so much potential but fell incredibly flat. My heart goes out to our FMC and everything she had to put up with. I will say, as far as the audio production went, it sounded like our FMC was always upset throughout pretty much the entire story. Our MMC, however, I could not connect with in the slightest. In fact, I found him extremely irritating and a bit repulsive if I am being honest. Our FMC has already been abused in just about every way possible and then here comes this King whom she is hoping will come to her aide but is ultimately no better for her than her original abuser was.

I am a pretty avid dark romance reader and can handle just about anything thrown my way, HOWEVER, this just felt as if he was manipulating her mind for his own selfish pleasure. That paired along with the things that would come out of his mouth just did not do it for me. I felt as though the dialogue was cringey and the "banter" was forced. I did enjoy the dragon aspect and at first it brought up feelings that I got while reading Fourth Wing with the dragon being so sassy but this just did not hit the mark for me. I wanted to enjoy this so bad. I just did not feel connected with really any of our characters.

I will always, ALWAYS say to please remember that reading is subjective and this is just my OPINION. If you read this and loved it, then I love that for you! I will still give book 2 a chance in hopes of a redemption maybe for the storyline and other characters.

This review is going to make no sense because the book made no sense.

The death king

- why would you wake up a dragon and then give up sooooooo easily???
- why is dragon is the only likeable character
* EDIT Till 41% trying to justify sexual assault with the “you liked it” mentality coming from a dragon and then staying at the dragon doesn’t understand human sexuality but you’re supposed to tell me as the reader I should be OK again with the SA because she liked it? All while using the Dragon to try to convince the reader that it was non-consensual consensual, when it was clearly very non consensual
“you liked it when he touched you… but you wish you didn’t” she was fucking asleep fucking asleep. Are you actually kidding me right now?
- She can't be dumb and a Mary Sue..
- Why is sexual assault like a actual part of the plot “I’m not sorry you liked it” SIR
*SIDE BAR so tired of fantasy books using sexual assault as a plot point
- King every other convo “when we going to fuck”
- So the whole “you have a choice is really” bs
- Baby is a victim and doesn’t know it
“because I was petite and he was large.”
“Don’t fight it.” “Don’t fight me.”
Is this supposed to be romantic?
- Skull-fucking wow
- His chapter he’s talking about how he planted the seed by going down on her
The next chapter she’s talking about how great of a guy he is for not expecting anything in return when he went down on her however, she did reciprocate with a blow job and got “skull fucked”

I expected to be eventually engaged in this story based on the book description, however, I was unexpectedly enchanted from page one of this book. The depth of the characters and this magical world the author built, has left me speechless and I cannot wait to dive into the next book.

I honestly cannot believe I finished this. This is so out of touch. The FMC is raped repeatedly, then the MMC begs, coerced, and literally assaults her while sleeping under the guise of making her trust him?!? WTF. There’s hardly any explained plot and what does happen is predictable. Some loose ends that I’m sure will tie up in later books which I will not be reading.

Narrator notes- when a dragon roars, the female narrator literally says “roar”.. like what in the early 2000’s emo phase is this??

✨✨✨ NetGalley ALC Review ✨✨✨

Tropes:
Dark romantasy
Dragons
Enemies to 🖤
Obsessed hero
Revenge
DubCon
Forced proximity
Touch her and 💀
Captor/captive

Ends on a cliffhanger
Check TW

5⭐️
3🌶️

Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, for the ALC of The Death King.

While this book had a promising premise and a solid ending, my main issue was with everything that happened in the middle. Unfortunately, the plot felt weak and was largely driven by the MMC’s desire to be with the FMC. What frustrated me the most was that there were so many elements that could have made for a strong storyline—villain origin potential, a traumatic past, secrets, dragons—yet it all fell flat. Such a shame. 😕

The only thing that kept me going was the amazing voice actors in the audiobook. Had I been reading the physical book, I probably would have DNFed it. 🎧👏

Despite not finding it particularly engaging, I’ll still check out book 2. The ending left off on such a cliffhanger that it earned the two stars I gave it. 🌟🌟

Although I enjoyed aspects of this read well enough
— I’m a huge fan of dragons, so I usually gravitate towards stories like this, the negative content kind of killed it for me. The plot was intriguing, and in a lot of ways, it’s a novel I would’ve loved.
However, so much of the dialogue felt VERY out of place (extremely modern terms, for an otherwise wholly fantasy setting)
and — the biggest issue of all;
I felt deeply uncomfortable with the sexual content in this novel.

I love a spicy read as much as the next person, but this was borderline r**pe-romanticizing/very much anti-female (also, please, please, please check out the trigger warnings before diving in. I could see this being a very tough read for some.)

The main male character was extremely hard (more like impossible) to stand, because there wasn’t much, if anything at all, to like about him. Simply put, he was a bad person, and we weren’t given much reason as to why that was; don’t go into this thinking you’ll be getting a traditional morally gray MMC, who’s good deep down.

I would assume he’ll have some sort of redemption arc in the sequel/an attempt to justify why he is how he is, but frankly, I’m not sure much could justify his behavior or get me to feel sympathetic towards him.

He had very little sympathy for what Calista has been put through — and wholly refused to acknowledge or care that he was entirely to blame for literally all of it. There is no “touch her an you die” because he didn’t care enough, and actually pardoned the man who’d abused her because he was a “loyal soldier”

Talon was consistently focused on himself &his own wants/needs (a red-flag kind of guy, by definition.) and I’m entirely convinced he never even like Calista in any kind of genuine way, outside of simply wanting what he couldn’t have. She was a novelty to him.

The novel wasn’t horrible, and with a full overhaul to the male lead, it actually would’ve been something I could’ve seen myself loving;

but the negative aspects are very troubling and just too difficult to look past.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC of this audiobook for my honest review

This is a well written book and will definitely be great for the right people but I do think there was a bit much smut for my liking especially some of the smut being a TW, whatever you’d call it for a dark Romantasy (heavy on the romance light on the fantasy) I felt a little too uncomfortable about some of the smut scenes. The fantasy plot was interesting though but it felt a bit slow until everything progressed at the end, and I wasn’t super happy with how it progressed but that’s just me not liking conflict in relationships haha, so that’s probably only me. Writing and descriptions were beautiful though and I really like casmuda or however it’s spelt , I only listened to it so I’m making a guess. Love casmuda. I probably won’t read the next book just because of how it ended, gives me too much stress on what is held in the next book ahhh.

I'll be publishing my review on Goodreads and StoryGraph 8th October and on Tik tok most likely will add to a monthly wrap up post with review the beginning of November.

If I have to hear them call her privates a honeypot one more time…

I loved the first 25% and the last 5%, but I’m not sure about the rest. The backstory was well executed, and I was enamored by the story’s plot. Then, Calista met Talon, and every chapter got worse until the very last chapter. Talon is everything terrible about this book, which made me root against their relationship. There’s no way either one of them cares about the other because their only conversations are about dragons, how him violating her in her sleep was somehow consensual, and dirty talk.

That is, until the last chapter. That was really good. I just wish I liked the middle as much as I loved the very beginning and the very end.

Let’s start with the great!

The beginning setup is intriguing and had me all in on Calista. The ending is high stakes and exciting. Loved the dragons!

The plot in the middle was the MMC forcing himself on the FMC (even in her sleep!) all while insisting that he respected her consent. There’s even an unexplained character who pops in and begs the king to please continue his plot and stop being so obsessive.

I know the CWs and expected Calista’s early SA. But for the love interest to know that about her and still touch her without her consent and then insist she liked it on repeat for most of the book made it a difficult read.

Death King by Penelope Barsetti pulled me in with its blend of dark romance and dragons, two things I love. Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I did have a few issues that took away from the experience. My main struggle was with the male main character (MMC), who didn't quite meet my expectations. Despite this, the world-building and intensity of the romance kept me engaged, making it a mostly enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and dreamscape media for allowing me to listen to an audiobook arc. I loved listening to this book. The female main character goes through trauma and loses her dad at a young age and she is taken and enslaved, and she wants her freedom back. Talon, the death king, I fell in love with him. He was trying to fight off his feelings for Calista for so long. I loved the dragons so much and the banter and I love that he called her pretty it was so cute. There were some spicy scenes, so make sure to check your trigger warnings before reading. And the ending the ending leaves you wanting more. I cannot wait to read the next book.

I enjoyed the storyline of this book. The FMC went through so much and then is forced to live with her #1 enemy who she ends up falling in loveee with! The MMC was a little much for me with him forcing the FMC to be with her but then not giving her anything in return. I don’t like the couch scene when she was asleep and he touched her and his justification was her “liking” it. I could have done without that scene; I also don’t feel much romance from the MMC which I understand that was the point but I feel like the FMC was supposed to change that about him; maybe we’ll get that in the next book? I wish we had more dragon scenes especially with Calista and Inferno, we only got that at the very end. I will be reading the 2nd book just to find out what becomes of the characters and if they’ll rule together or fight against each other. I really enjoyed the FMC voice in the audio I felt all the emotion and feelings so that was great!
Thank you NetGalley allow me to read this ARC!

Calista was witness to her father's death at the hands of the Death King as a teenager. After a decade of his reign, and 7 years as a slave mining in the Arid Sands for black diamonds, she is finally able to attempt to escape from her prison and the general who has claimed her body as his own for a year. Unfortunately, the only real escape route is on the back of the Death King's dragon. With the the Death King sees that his dragon can communicate with Calista, he proclaims that she has the gift and that she will be returning to his castle with him.

So begins a dark story of terror, captivity, bravery, and attraction. Calista hates the Death King for all he has taken from her...but he also rescued her from the Arid Sands and has given her the closest chance for freedom she has had since she lost her father. This is a story with trauma, abuse, and imprisonment. Read at your own discretion.

Thank you to Penelope Barsetti, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Not sure I should rate this book. I DNF'dit at 52%. I have never been bothered by trigger warnings before, but this one pushd me a little.past my comfort zone. The repetitive mention of the MC being raped for 7 years to.only be covered by the MMC anf chased around d like a dog in heat annoyed me. Thank you netgalley for the chance to listen to this ARC

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

This book started out SO strong for me (think kicking my feet giddy) and quickly turned at about the halfway point leading me to DNF it at 70%.

The fact that this book does not contain clear and specific content warnings is a serious failure of both the author and publisher in this case. As a dark romance fan without triggers, the situation many reviewers have mentioned at about 45% into the book was extremely poorly handled. The aftermath also made me unable to connect with either character again and ultimately led to me DNF.

I also hate to say it but I strongly disliked the narrators here. The male narrator felt like he changed his accent for the MMC several times and the female narrator made the FMC feel meek and sound like she was crying through most of it.

Ultimately, the strong first 30% here got this book to 1.5 stars, but I unfortunately cannot recommend it.