Audiobook Review - King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair

King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair

I found this book on Libby when, once again, I was looking for something to listen to at work and had to go through the list of audiobooks "available now." I was initially intrigued by the description and the fact that it's about vampires, which, if you know me, you know I'm a sucker for vampires. 

So the main character of King of Battle and Blood is Princess Isolde de Lara of Cordova who has never dreamed of a wedding day like all the other girls in the kingdom. She values her independence and doesn't ever want to tie herself down to a man. That is until she needs to secure an alliance with the Blood Kingdom to save her people. If you haven't guessed yet, the Blood Kingdom mostly comprises vampires. Their leader, the Blood King Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, is known for being brutal and ruthless. After they marry, Isolde attempts to kill Adrian, but fails and he threatens to raise her as an undead if she tries again. But as she travels with him to the Red Palace, in the capital of the Blood Kingdom, she realizes that maybe her loyalties lie with the wrong side and that everything she thought she knew was wrong.

To start, I will say that the characters were pretty good and I only have a few small gripes about them. Off the bat, I found Isolde a little annoying with the whole "I'm not like other girls" thing about not wanting to marry. But if you get past that and can embrace her desire for independence, she's fairly likable. At least until she gets jealous of the woman that Adrian feeds on. Vampires use vessels, which are people who dedicate their lives to allow vampires to feed on them in exchange for privileges, to sustain themselves but Isolde gets jealous of Adrian's vessel and doesn't want him to feed on her when she sees how intimate the relationship between vampire and vessel is. So is he just supposed to entertain her wishes and starve? Along those lines, I thought that Adrian was a little too accommodating to her. I get that he probably feels guilty for taking her away from her kingdom and everything that she's ever known, but he lets her get away with so much. But I guess the fact that he's a gentleman is a little endearing. I wish the relationship between Adrian and Isolde was a bit more of a slower burn. Although I can understand the idea of immediate attraction, this book was just too much and it was as if they were dying to rip each other's clothes off immediately. 

I thought the plot of this book was a little lacking. Now there definitely was a storyline and things definitely did occur, but this book was more focused on smut than I would've liked. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind smutty books but I do mind if I feel as though the story is lacking. I will say though, I did not expect the major reveal at the ending. 

Overall, I did enjoy listening to this book but I did not get as into it as I expected. I'm not going to be reading on in the series.