Rule of the Aurora King did not work for me. I’m not sure what it is, but looking at reviews I don’t think I’m alone? For some reason, the pacing here was just not it. Keep reading this book review of Rule of the Aurora King for my full thoughts.
Summary
“I am not his conquest. I am not his to claim. I am my own castle.” Freed from the golden clutches of the Sun King, Lor now finds herself in the hands of Nadir, the Aurora Prince. Convinced she’s hiding something, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make her talk. But Lor knows the value of secrets—she’s been keeping them her entire life—and she’s not letting hers go without a fight.
When Lor and Nadir team up to search for a lost item that holds the key to her past and her future, she isn’t sure she can trust him. All she knows is she won’t fall for another royal fae’s promises again.
With the Sun King determined to reclaim her, Lor must keep on the move, but nowhere is safe. Not until she destroys him and the Aurora King. But she soon learns that the future of Ouranos depends on much more than avenging her shattered legacy.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Trial of the Sun Queen left off on a huge bombshell. Rule of the Aurora King takes place in the ashes. With multiple POVs, we are also introduced to a past timeline. And there starts one of the problems, for me. I really liked the past timeline and felt like it stole a bit of the show from the now. I know we need the past to inform the present subtly, but I found myself being like when do we go back to the past. Secondly, the pacing. I don’t know if it’s a combination of my clear favoritism in POV, but the pacing felt plodding. I felt like it was always one step forward three steps back and there wasn’t a lot to hold on to.
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With that ending of book one, I was expecting there to be this rush of an avalanche. But the pacing of the past timeline meets the present just made the present felt like it was dragging. I was struggling to get through it especially as they spend a lot of time talking about the mystery and little time discovering. Thirdly, I couldn’t get over their relationship in this book. I hated his term of endearment as ‘inmate’ this gave me the biggest ick. I also felt like the pacing of the story made the romance feel a bit like, ‘get on with this already’. The slow burn felt SO slow and because – after finishing I looked at the synopsis for book three – they don’t seem closer to figuring it out I don’t know if I’ll continue the series.
Overall,
I did like that we get the slow dynamic of them getting to know each other, but the tension felt hot and cold. The depth of their relationship is definitely meant to sustain Rule of the Aurora King but for me it just wasn’t strong enough. In this book, their character development felt so firmly connected to their romance arcs that I just wasn’t sure where anyone was going. I wish we had seen more of their independent arcs, but this was ‘too little too late’ especially considering the length of this one. I did see that some people said that book one and two are the weakest, so maybe it’s all uphill from here!
Find Rule of the Aurora King on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.