I enjoyed this a lot more listening to the audiobook and that’s mostly bc i didn’t have to torture myself w the bad/cringey writing. however, the downside of it was that i couldn’t use Khal drogo’s voice in my head bc of the narrator but wtv you get some, you lose some 🤷🏻‍♀️ shutupshutupshutupshutup i know it’s only february but idc i’m placing this in my top faves of 2021 list!!

On the other hand, if you are sensitive to darker subject matter, like rape and physical violence, then you'll want to steer clear of this one. It is full to the brim with controversial topics. All the more reason for me to love it, but I know that isn't the case for many readers. Be forewarned. Lahn and Circe’s love was beautiful and romantic and I utterly adored this book despite parts of it being hard to stomach. Thankfully one of the women speaks her language and explains to her what is going on. Apparently all the women are part of a ritual called "The Wife Hunt". Korwahk tribe has this ritual every 2 years. All the women are paraded in front of the warrior men...set free to run...and are then hunted. Did I say hunted....why yes I did. This is how they capture their new wife. Once captured, they are claimed.....and with claimed I mean raped. Did I say raped....yes I most certainly did... he [Zahnin] kept using her [Sabine] body for the last three weeks as any warrior would feel his due from his wife. […] And he didn’t understand it but he’d been forcing her to live a nightmare for three weeks.

I am your husband. I will keep you safe and I will do it by keeping my feet on this earth, breathing the air and being there to make you safe. Do you understand this?” Closure: This had pretty good closure with what I would call a HEA ending they're married with babies.

So all in all, I fell for my warrior Dax Lahn and his Golden Queen. Thank you to all of my ho's that recommended it to me. I am forever in your debt.

One of my favorite things about this book was watching both of them learn each other’s language. KA did an incredible job of creating a believable, beautiful sounding and fairly detailed Korwakh language and I loved that I actually started being able to understand what they were saying without translation. But seriously, when Lahn spoke English, even when he only knew a few words, my heart just melted into a puddle of goo. “Rest, baby.” *swoooooon*

First, the use of rape in times of war is not a result of conflicts and not only about sex, but it is a pre-planned and deliberate military strategy and a weapon of war. That he, as their leader, would agree not to rape anyone and thus not use one of their most devastating weapons of war is just not believable. Sexual violence is a weapon of war used to humiliate and terrify, to destroy societies and to eliminate cultural and religious traditions. Especially as it was pointed out in the book, that he as Korwahk King has to lead a strong example and not show weakness to avoid uprisings. But all this doesn't matter to the female mc, for love is more important than such things as equality, freedom, justice and the right to choose. Somehow, the unbelievable happens. Circe has caught the eye of the mighty warrior King Lahn. He is known to watch the hunts and not participate. Yet Circe has caught his eye and he jumps into the hunt to claim her as his! He's a husband, he's a king, he's a man but remember above all, my queen, always remember, above all, he...is...a warrior.” While Boston's defense was talked up coming into the series it was Golden State's resistance that proved the difference.And so Circe changes a lot - not to the better - during the book and with her, her views on the way things are. After three weeks, she not only accepts this society, but also sees nothing wrong anymore with "their way": In the beginning of the book she was naturally horrified by the way a warrior raped and abused his wife, Mahyah, and she even tried to help her. She also automatically hated that warrior because of the way he treated his wife. But then, later on in the book, Circe goes from sympathizing with a woman who was being badly abused by her husband to this: You’re my gold, nahna xaxsah is my hahnee rah. Kay jahnan nahna lisa, na uvan tee luh kay. Ana kay jahnan nahna pahnsahna, Circe. Kay nayeesan tee. Fahzah.” Chris Paul of the Golden State Warriors dribbles the ball while defended by Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns during the fourth quarter of an October game at Chase Center. Photograph: Thearon W Henderson/Getty Images I went to bed in my bed in a world I understood and I woke up here in a world that was entirely foreign to me, everything about it, and not one thing about it was good. And now I was running for my life.
Circe is just a girl from Seattle who woke up one morning surrounded by Korwahk warriors and many other women who are getting ready to be ‘hunted’. It is the way of the Korwahk, how they choose their brides. And Circe gets chosen by none other than the King of Suh Tunak, Dax Lahn. Dax Lahn is not just a alpha male, he is the alpha male. He’s a warrior, a savage, a king. Circe is freaked. She can’t understand Lahn (they speak a different language) and she doesn't’ know how she got there or how she is going to get home. With the help of a translator who later becomes a friend, Dax Lahn and Circe start to communicate. Lahn is crazy about Circe. He loves how fierce she is. She is his true Golden Queen. I didn't like this book at all and I especially loathe the heroine’s acceptance of this world. While there are numerous other things that irritated me in this book (such as the ridiculous made up language and the bad writing; punctuation errors, paragraphs overflowing with unnecessary adjectives, and all those inconsequential details that really don't make the world building any better) they really all pale in comparison.