All Things Halloween Review of The Death King

The Death King (Death, # 1)

By: Penelope Barsetti

Publication: August 29, 2024 by Hartwick Publishing

341 pages

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Dragons, Abuse

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--I was fifteen when the Death King came for us.

With a mighty black dragon and the ability to command the dead, he raised an army of our fallen soldiers to fight for him—and conquered us in the night. My father, King Laurier of Scorpion Valley, couldn’t stop him. I tried to flee but came face to face with the man in black armor, the man who looked more like a god than a human. Instead of killing me, he chose to show me mercy…but it didn’t feel like mercy.

Not when the next ten years of my life are spent as a slave in the Arid Sands, digging for Black Diamonds from sunrise to sunset. I'm also the personal slave of General Titan—a man who has grown obsessed with me. The work under the hot sun is unbearable—but I prefer it to his company any day. I’ve never tried to escape because there’s nowhere to run in the desert, but all of that changes when I hear the news—that the Death King is coming.

I sneak out in the middle of the night to steal his dragon, but that backfires in my face—because you can’t steal a dragon. Khazmuda is no mindless beast. He can speak directly into my mind and hear my thoughts in return. The Death King is about to kill me, but Khazmuda changes his mind—because I have the gift.

The ability to speak with dragons.

The Death King spares my life once again and takes me back to his castle. He has no idea who I am, has no idea what he did to my family ten years ago. He asks me to fight for his cause—but he won’t tell me exactly what that cause is. And then he tells me he wants more from me…desires me more than any other because, like him, I have the gift.

I can’t deny he’s the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, with eyes black like midnight, a jawline as sharp as his dragon’s talons, the height of a mountain, and shoulders as broad as a stream. But no amount of attraction will ever change the fact that he destroyed my life. The answer is no—and it’ll always be no.

But the Death King doesn’t accept that answer.

Trigger Contains dark themes including rape and suicide.

I got this one on audio after seeing an overall 4.4 rating on Goodreads. Before I talk story let me briefly discuss the audio aspects. This book has dual narration. Ramona Master reads for Calista, and Michael Ferraiuolo reads for Talon. (*Note, I'm not entirely sure about spellings since I don't have a physical copy of this book to double check.) I liked Ramona Master better than Michael Ferraiuolo. Although the panic and fear were audible in Ramona Master's narration of Calista's emotions (as well as her other emotions), sometimes I felt her performance was a bit too exaggerated in places for me. Michael Ferraiuolo was a little bit of a struggle. I liked his voice for Khazmuda better than her regular voice for Talon. Sorry, the voice didn't seem to fit the character to me. 

Now let me say that I have no idea how The Death King has such a high overall rating on Goodreads. Who are you people rating this mess as 5 Stars? First, the most obvious pet peeve of mine is language. There's no need for every 3rd word to be the f-word. But I guess when the characters are on each other like rabbits throughout the book one page of sexual content turns right to the next page, language like that is somewhat expected. I mean it was constant. I began to wonder what happened to the actual story there for a bit. And the descriptive terms used made me cringe. Perhaps that isn't too surprising. I have a lower tolerance for this than probably most people but yeesh. And this is made worse by the fact that Calista spent 7 years being raped daily before being freed from General Titan's captivity. Yet the man who destroyed her life and basically turned her into his own whore is supposed to erase all the trauma she's endured? When she finally has the power to say yes or no she's going to give it up so freely and be treated no better because he claims he's not going to hurt her during sex even though his restraint is not because he wants to restrain himself. I mean how are we supporting this, people? How is this 5 Stars?

And then Khazmuda basically vouches for Talon with Calista. "There's more to him than you understand. He is so hurt he isn't the same person he used to be. His story is so painful it can't be recounted without being relived." Yet come to find out, his story is exactly the same as Calista's except there's a different villain featured in his. I was thankful that this was at least brought up and not completely ignored. Yet it doesn't change anything. 

I was so intrigued by the description. The Death King kills Calista's family,  and she's sent to servitude until it's discovered that she can talk to dragons which is an ability much needed. The Death King would then need to get Calista to come to his side. Surely there would be some reason for his actions that can't be seen. It is possible. Rhys turned out to be the good guy after all. And bonding with dragons turned out awesome in Fourth Wing . But no. Not much happened in the entire plot that can't be summed up by this short paragraph. Well except that Titan is missing and it should be assumed he's going to hook up with the shamans to get a dragon for himself to steal Calista back from Talon. 

Despite being intrigued by the minuscule plot, I will not be returning to this series. Any possible redemption for any of the characters isn't worth trudging through this much language, sexual content, and terrible decisions. The Death King gets 2 Stars... *the miniscule plot saving it from an entire DNF. Have you read (or listened to) The Death King ? What did you think? Let me know!

P.S. Where in the world did the necromancy pieces fit in? So weird. 

*Let it be known that I skipped ahead during certain scenes...multiple times. It was just way too much.

This review is part of my All Things Halloween event--a month of fantasy, paranormal, supernatural, mystery/thriller, etc reviews and books.

Someone You Loved - Review

Someone You Loved

By: Robin Constantine

Publication: June 27, 2023

352 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--A deeply emotional and highly romantic tale of two teens who fall in love while grieving the one person who makes their love impossible; in the vein of You've Reached Sam and The Sky Is Everywhere.

Sarah feels unmoored following her boyfriend’s sudden and tragic death. Their love story was cut short after just two sweet months together, and now all Sarah can think about are the moments she and Alex should be sharing. Sarah distracts herself by consoling Ash—her best friend and Alex’s sister—and by rehearsing for the school play and working at her aunt’s cafe. But none of that is as comforting as her nightly talks with Jake.

Jake is not ready to move on. Unable to sleep at night and “mopey”—according to his girlfriend, who doesn’t understand why he isn’t ready to jump back into partying—Jake is wracked with guilt as a witness to Alex’s death. His one source of joy is talking to Sarah. But between their growing closeness and his taking over as captain of the basketball team, Jake worries he is co-opting Alex’s life.

Both can’t help but wonder if they’re betraying Alex—and Ash—by acting on the feelings they can no longer deny. Given all that stands in the way, is their relationship worth fighting for?

As the description says, Sarah was dating Alex when he died. They hadn't been dating long, but she's grieving. Only she doesn't feel like she has the same right to grieve as others. His sister and her best friend, Ash, has been struggling. She has good days and bad, and Sarah wants to do everything she can to help Ash while also grieving herself. She doesn't go to their house much anymore, and she tiptoes around some things with Ash not to make her cry or break down. One of those things is Alex's best friend Jake. Ash doesn't blame Jake for the accident, but he is a constant reminder of her brother's death.

Jake is struggling also, but he's in therapy for witnessing his best friend's tragic death. He wants to reach out to Alex's girlfriend to ensure she's okay, but he doesn't know how it will be received. See Jake actually had a crush on Sarah first, but Alex is the one who ended up dating her. Sarah appreciates how she can talk about Alex with him in a way that she can't with his other friends or even Ash. They begin talking on the phone at night because they both have trouble sleeping.

Jake and Sarah have a slow-developing relationship. They start out as acquaintances and almost allies in their grief. They officially build to secret friends and even more. But the hiding and sneaking around threaten what they've built together. They have a story where they both have to work on themselves apart from their relationship. Yes, each character helps the other through their grief and struggles, but neither solves all the problems that the other faces.

Some of my favorite parts of this book are spoilers, so I'll have to leave them out. I did get frustrated with the characters at a time of two. I mean, they are teenagers, so poor decisions are bound to happen. But what I liked most of all was how realistic everything felt. Things that might have been dramatized weren't. Sarah is grieving, but thankfully, she wasn't in love with Alex or her grief would have been even worse. Jake was present, and the two had been drinking, but he's never villanized by their friends or especially Alex's family. Sarah occasionally lies to her mom. I like how her mom doesn't exactly let her off the hook for them even while feeling compassion for her. Yet, Sarah also doesn't like lying even when she does it, she feels really guilty. Not guilty enough not to but...believable. I can't say that I loved Mike and his marijuana usage, but I did like how he seemed to utterly adore Ash. I also liked how the relationship with Buzz played out.

A lot of jumbled ramblings all to say that Someone You Loved gets 4 Stars. Have you read Someone You Loved? What did you think? Let me know!

Existence - Review

Existence

By: Abbi Glines

Published: December 13th 2011 by WIld Child Publishing

161 pages

Genre:

Source: Personal Kindle Library

( Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository | Booksamillion.com )

*Note: The above links to Amazon, The Book Depository, and Booksamillion.com are affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--What happens when you're stalked by Death? You fall in love with him, of course.

Pagan Moore doesn't cheat Death, but instead, falls in love with him.

Seventeen year old Pagan Moore has seen souls her entire life. Once she realized the strangers she often saw walking through walls were not visible to anyone else, she started ignoring them. If she didn't let them know she could see them, then they left her alone. Until she stepped out of her car the first day of school and saw an incredibly sexy guy lounging on a picnic table, watching her with an amused smirk on his face. Problem is, she knows he's dead.

Not only does he not go away when she ignores him, but he does something none of the others have ever done. He speaks. Pagan is fascinated by the soul. What she doesn't realize is that her appointed time to die is drawing near and the wickedly beautiful soul she is falling in love with is not a soul at all.

He is Death and he's about to break all the rules.

It never ceases to amaze me how much some authors can pack into under 200 pages. GJ on that! Fast read.

So what I normally do when browsing for new books is read the description, add them to my TBR list if the description pulls me in (or add them to my TBR list straight from a recommendation of someone I trust without even reading the description), and because I have such a backlog of books that need to be read, I usually forget what the description says or what the book is even about before diving in to it. I just say, "Hey self, this one has been on my shelf for a long time, and so-and-so has read it and recommended it. I think it's time to jump on that one."

And so that's what happened with Existence. I say that because the description above totally gives away a lot of the mystery. I spent the whole book (well about 75% of it) wondering what kind of supernatural creature Dank is! *TIME OUT*

Sorry...this was supposed to be the first thing I said in my review of Existence: WHAT THE CRAP KIND OF NAME IS DANK??????????????? Someone please explain that to me! That's awful! It's just way too close to "stank" and it feels like it carries the same connotation. All I think when I hear that name is smelly and moldy. Ok....enough about that...back to my previous paragraph.

As I was saying, I had a theory about what kind of creature Dank was, but I was slightly off.

I liked the lesson that Pagan learned about not judging a book by it's cover. I think we're all guilty of that, especially in high school. But overall Pagan kind of got on my nerves. She was extremely emotional. I mean I get the fact that she's in love with someone that she's not allowed to be with. She has to see that someone pretend with someone else. She has to pretend herself. But she cries ALL the time--there's nothing wrong with crying, but come on! Plus I found it really hard to believe that Leif is as oblivious to her weirdness, spacing, constantly being on the verge of an emotional, tear-filled breakdown all the time. He asks her what's wrong like all the time and she just gives some lame answer, and he's all like "okay, whatever you say." Granted, I'm sure that has to do with a little tidbit of information Dank provides us with at the end of the book.

I enjoyed the relationship build and angst between Pagan and Dank, but that didn't completely counter balance how much Pagan got on my nerves. I'd give Existence 3 Stars. Have you read Existence? What did you think? Let me know!

This review is part of my "All Things Halloween" October review event.