I must say that I was really anticipating reading this book as I actually really find intersex characters and mpreg fascinating and was overjoyed to find a lengthy series that appeared to build up a large, complicated, fantasy world to engage with.Sadly this story just proved utterly frustrating. Like others have said the story itself is just too simplistic and the characters too perfect, leading me to believe the author wrote this as a teenager and then recently submitted it for publication with little editing done beyond correcting spelling errors. The main characters are typical seme/uke cutouts from the YAOI genre--which is OK in general--but then things just continue to fall apart.The structure is a mess as well with POV shifting almost every paragraph and sometimes even every few sentences. Not to mention that character and place names are almost entirely forgettable due to gibberish fantasy names (the bad guy is name Tyrde--seriously? I think it's supposed to be Teer-duh but the first few times I just couldn't stop pronouncing it Teerd--which is far too close to "turd"). Characters also tend to be entirely forgettable because almost no description is given to them beyond a few minor instances when they first appear--but they are never given description again after that except a the main characters a few times.The language too is also very problematic. As noted by others it is often filled with sort-of-Elizabethan-English words like "wherefore" and "verily" but sometimes this is dropped entirely. And I'm pretty sure that some of them are not accurately used in several cases. Also, despite this being Sci-Fantasy novel, the author sometimes uses descriptive words that really only work in our world like "titian locks," which derives from a particular real-world artist and his color style.The story is just bare-bones and nonsensical beyond some YAOI conventions like dominant male claims the submissive, seduces and keeps him as his lover and ravishing him with alternately rough and sensual sex. Then bad guy steps in, forces a misunderstanding to occur and then the paragon of self-sacrifice submissive runs away to protect his lover even though he's supposed to be part of this warrior-race and educated at the top university in the nation and spent 10 years with his lover and family and should have known about their laws enough to have seen through the bad guy's deception or asked a family member for help. And when the dominant guy chases down his love only to mind-rape his father in fury and then think the absolute worst of his love for absolutely no reason, especially after the 10 years they'd been together (and of course after we learn this guy's supernatural secret), I just had to stop and do something else for awhile, I just couldn't handle this mess.The sex scenes are also very odd in structure. The first couple are the only real enticing ones. The rest are like only half-done, describing the lead-up to sex and then glossing over the rest or just very hastily getting through them--quick and dirty. I personally prefer sex scenes to be few but long, descriptive and meaningful and I'm not sure any of the multitude of sex scenes here really captured that.This story had a lot going for it. The author clearly had in mind a vast, complicated world full of interesting characters with a unique sexual distinction but this sadly failed to be realized effectively. I'm hoping that the author learned their lesson with the next books in the series but have a feeling this is not the case... When Rohyr Essendri, Ardan of Ylendre, claims Lassen Idana in exchange for offering protection to his provincial town, it's expected that he will serve the Ardan as a concubine and nothing more. But even in the moment of their first meeting, there was something that Lassen felt that he simply couldn't explain. But life at court isn't easy and when Lassen realizes his feelings for Rohyr, they're complicated by Rohyr's impending marriage to another, cementing Lassen's place as someone to merely keep the Ardan company in his bed while someone else holds his hand and bears his heirs.I'm not much for mpreg stories, so I was a bit skeptical of this one. And even though that was a definite element of the story, it didn't distract from the parts that I truly enjoyed - high fantasy, nobility, betrayal, star-crossed lovers, etc. There is an element of dubious consent here (how does one really say no to the king even if he wanted to), but I think it is dealt with well and seems to be less dubious than one might first expect on the surface.
Do You like book Sacred Fate (2009)?
I was a fun read. The m-preg that was a non-issue for me. Great world building.
—32352
I'm giving this book at 2.5. It is okay but a bit predictable.
—kzainer123
WOW... this book was really fantastic, a must read
—syh2222
