3.5 Stars
This was such a fun, light read. It's steamy, low stakes, and perfect in between those heavy reads I've had recently. Sometimes you just need a little Ork love story, right?
Valpar is exactly as grumpy as one expects him to be, while Calliope is not only a clumsy little sunshine but the favorite niece of the king himself. Literally falling into Valpars lap, she is quickly drawn to him, while he tries to fight his attraction at least for half an hour before he caves and carries her away, fully accepting her as his mate.
The world-building isn't much at all, though it does remind me a lot of fairytales. We know there was a war and the Orcs fought hard to win it in the name of the kingdom, gaining the blessing of the goddess in return and being able to have fated mates. Ever since then, the female Orcs died, leaving behind big green brutes, waiting for their future mates. As it is, Valpar is only the second Orc finally being blessed with his girl.
While the stakes aren't high and it's all in all an easy, fast-paced read, I loved every second of this, simply because I was searching exactly for a book like that. something cute and steamy I could just switch my brain off to.
While I enjoyed it a lot, I didn't quite connect with Calliope as I would've liked. She is pretty childish, almost downright silly and while it's explained in detail as to why (and it does make sense), it did grow a tiny bit old over time.
All in all I liked it a lot though, and will definitely check out the rest of this series as soon as I have time!