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Series: The Orc Prince Trilogy by Lionel Hart

Greetings and welcome to Reviews That Burn: Series Reviews, part of Books That Burn. Series Reviews discuss at least three books in a series and cover the overarching themes and development of the story across several books. I'd like to thank longtime Patron Case Aiken, who receives a monthly shoutout. Full Audio Here   An elven prince. The son of an orc warlord. In two warring nations, their arranged marriage brings peace. They never expected to fall in love. Prince Taegan Glynzeiros has prepared since childhood to fight and lead armies against invading orc forces, the enemies of elves for hundreds of years. But after a successful peace treaty, the elven prince will not be fighting orcs, but marrying one. The first words he speaks to Zorvut are their wedding vows. Despite being considered the runt amongst the orc warlord’s children, Taegan finds him to be intelligent and thoughtful—everything the stereotypes about orcs say he shouldn’t be. He doesn’t want to fall in love, but Zorv...

Holding Back the Dark by John David Bethel

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.  

DNF 10% in. This is a political thriller/murder mystery which is detail-laden in an attempt to give context, but I don’t care enough about the political machinations being described in order to devote the mental energy to piecing together their importance. Also there’s a weird thread of subtle misogyny which isn’t confined to any one character but feels like a problem with the book as a whole (at least the part of it I got through). The police procedural bits were the most interesting so far but the prose even in those sections was so flat that it felt like it was trying to be boring on purpose and the conversations were closer to dialogue transcripts than full scenes. This might be for someone, but it’s not for me.

CW for sexism, sexual violence (not depicted), gore, mutilation, blood, death.

End of year-a-thon: Recently acquired

A person in a hoodie walks down a street lit by a single streetlight.


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