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Blood King #1
Blood King
Mirielle is the last remaining descendant of a powerful and valuable sorcerous bloodline. She has hidden her gift for over a decade—and at a terrible cost. Now the Blood King has paid her bride price. He plans to return her to his country, hiding her deep in the North where other kings can’t reach her. Despite all the gruesome legends that follow him, Mirielle can’t help but be perplexed by the way he cares for her. His quiet gentleness chips away at the iron walls she’s spent a lifetime building around herself and hope begins to take root—a feeling far more dangerous than fear, and one that terrifies her. After spending her entire life trapped in a castle, Mirielle learns to navigate the wide world. With the right people, she will learn to trust again.
316 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 22, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
October 2, 2026
Just FYI, low-rating reviews raising legitimate concerns about lackluster writing and evidenced rampant, undisclosed AI use, are being reported and removed from the book's public feed. Mine (which used to be at the top) was removed, as well as several others to what I can see.
Let me reiterate:
1. “She was trailed by two guards wearing silver armor that gleamed gold in the morning light that bled through the towering windows that lined the wide halls.” — This particular excerpt is from one of the first pages, and regrettably, the writing doesn’t improve. At all.
2. The characters are named Mirielle and The Blood King. Folks, I invite everyone to read Souls in Ruin by Jacqueline White instead—its main characters are Mireille and The Blood King. They clearly “inspired” Riordan’s.
3. Also, the cover? Please be for real.
4. The book, upon publication on Amazon, has no trigger or content warnings. It includes explicit sexual assault between the two main characters. It is claimed the MMC is "morally white." I think someone's in denial?
5.Perhaps most importantly, the following Reddit quote from May 9, 2026 (when I assume the book would have been in production):
“Something I’ve been trying with chat GPT is using the AI model to help with the pacing of a chapter especially for a rough draft.
For example, I’ll have it write a similar scene to what I want to describe. The first paragraph will be a description of the place, the second will be a description of the location of the character, the third will be the action and so on. Usually I end up editing the pacing later on, but it’s pretty good at creating an okay paced rough draft and I never actually copy over any of the verbiage.
Bad idea or ethically okay?”
To be clear, I am not saying anything about the author.
This is an earnest review solely of the book and its contents.
October 2, 2026
📚 read on kindle unlimited
This story was so Mirielle is the last remaining descendant of a powerful bloodline, and she’s hidden her gift for over a decade under her cousins rule. The Blood King (Reis) pays her bride price, with the intention of returning her to his country and hiding her deep in the north where no one else can touch her. He slowly chips away at her walls. Sounds good right?
Well, it’s never really described what her “powerful gift” is. Like, we know that it’s some kind of light that can kill a bunch of people which would make her valuable in battle. But that’s all we get? Idk, we know she has some sort of power but it doesn’t come in handy until literally the last 6 pages.
Reis also has a power that’s never described until like the last third of the book - he is able to control people’s hearts. It’s not like revealed in a good way, it’s more so brought up throughout as if we were supposed to know about it the whole time. For whatever reason, he’s enamored by Mirielle. Sure, at the beginning I can see why. But they go on this months long journey to get back to the North and they BARELY TALK. Like yes, she’s all guarded and traumatized, but they almost never speak!!! They get married and he feels really protective over her, but I just can’t for the life of me understand how he is in love with her and how she feels the same way.
Also, Mirielle did nothing this entire book!!!! The synopsis said “Mirielle learns to navigate the wide world” ummmm no she doesn’t???? She got sick for multiple weeks so I’ll give her that, but after she travels with Reis, Dane, Kellan, and Lettie, she still doesn’t have much skill to show for it. Like she just exists to be cold and make Reis all worried. This book was like one long camping trip, but not in a good way. They set up camp here, ride through the day to the next place, set up camp, get warm by the fire bc she’s freezing cold, pack up the next morning, rinse and repeat.
There’s also some war???? We literally don’t learn anything!!!! I decided to read this book because I saw the author post on the romantasy subreddit and I thought it seemed interesting, but it just all fell flat. The characters were very surface level. It was also written in third person which is fine, but it felt like we were flipping between the characters’ inner monologues frequently, like the reader is just omnipresent. Not a big fan of that in this book.
This story was so Mirielle is the last remaining descendant of a powerful bloodline, and she’s hidden her gift for over a decade under her cousins rule. The Blood King (Reis) pays her bride price, with the intention of returning her to his country and hiding her deep in the north where no one else can touch her. He slowly chips away at her walls. Sounds good right?
Well, it’s never really described what her “powerful gift” is. Like, we know that it’s some kind of light that can kill a bunch of people which would make her valuable in battle. But that’s all we get? Idk, we know she has some sort of power but it doesn’t come in handy until literally the last 6 pages.
Reis also has a power that’s never described until like the last third of the book - he is able to control people’s hearts. It’s not like revealed in a good way, it’s more so brought up throughout as if we were supposed to know about it the whole time. For whatever reason, he’s enamored by Mirielle. Sure, at the beginning I can see why. But they go on this months long journey to get back to the North and they BARELY TALK. Like yes, she’s all guarded and traumatized, but they almost never speak!!! They get married and he feels really protective over her, but I just can’t for the life of me understand how he is in love with her and how she feels the same way.
Also, Mirielle did nothing this entire book!!!! The synopsis said “Mirielle learns to navigate the wide world” ummmm no she doesn’t???? She got sick for multiple weeks so I’ll give her that, but after she travels with Reis, Dane, Kellan, and Lettie, she still doesn’t have much skill to show for it. Like she just exists to be cold and make Reis all worried. This book was like one long camping trip, but not in a good way. They set up camp here, ride through the day to the next place, set up camp, get warm by the fire bc she’s freezing cold, pack up the next morning, rinse and repeat.
There’s also some war???? We literally don’t learn anything!!!! I decided to read this book because I saw the author post on the romantasy subreddit and I thought it seemed interesting, but it just all fell flat. The characters were very surface level. It was also written in third person which is fine, but it felt like we were flipping between the characters’ inner monologues frequently, like the reader is just omnipresent. Not a big fan of that in this book.
September 29, 2026
First time I am bothering to review a book because... Goddamn.
I don't know whether this book was written with AI, but either way it needed an editor or really ANYONE to tell the author that you cannot, absolutely cannot have non-con sexual violence in a book without clear warnings to readers. I would talk about how shit the writing is (it's genuinely atrocious) or how bad the characters are (one or two funny quips aside, every character sucks) or the pacing and character building (the FMC has what genuinely feels like less than 100 words spoken throughout 300 something pages) but none of that matters. Any book written by an author who doesn't respect her readers enough to add a goddamned trigger warning does not deserve your money, time, attention, care or respect. I WISH it was a DNF for me, but I was stuck on a plane and this is what I had.
I don't know whether this book was written with AI, but either way it needed an editor or really ANYONE to tell the author that you cannot, absolutely cannot have non-con sexual violence in a book without clear warnings to readers. I would talk about how shit the writing is (it's genuinely atrocious) or how bad the characters are (one or two funny quips aside, every character sucks) or the pacing and character building (the FMC has what genuinely feels like less than 100 words spoken throughout 300 something pages) but none of that matters. Any book written by an author who doesn't respect her readers enough to add a goddamned trigger warning does not deserve your money, time, attention, care or respect. I WISH it was a DNF for me, but I was stuck on a plane and this is what I had.
October 3, 2026
This was just… bad.
It started out okay, if by okay you mean torture, but the first bit you actually see a bit about Mirelles character. Impossible situation, she manages to hide her “magic” under extreme torture, her cousin is a twisted manic.
Then Big Bad Blood King arrives and he is so big and bad people literally stop. They wouldn’t dare stop him cause he is just so big and bad, he doesn’t even need guards.
He buys her, then they leave. Then nothing.
A whole boring bunch of side characters is introduced that are so one dimensional I can’t even remember all their names.
Kallan?? The wacky friend, is a toddler as he can’t boil water without burning it and walks into trees.
Romance, what romance? Mirelle is sick and then she is just nothing. There is no conversations between them, no building of a relationship, just her being weak and traumatised and Blood King being over the top caring.
I DNF at 65% and still have no idea about what this “magic” is and don’t care.
It started out okay, if by okay you mean torture, but the first bit you actually see a bit about Mirelles character. Impossible situation, she manages to hide her “magic” under extreme torture, her cousin is a twisted manic.
Then Big Bad Blood King arrives and he is so big and bad people literally stop. They wouldn’t dare stop him cause he is just so big and bad, he doesn’t even need guards.
He buys her, then they leave. Then nothing.
A whole boring bunch of side characters is introduced that are so one dimensional I can’t even remember all their names.
Kallan?? The wacky friend, is a toddler as he can’t boil water without burning it and walks into trees.
Romance, what romance? Mirelle is sick and then she is just nothing. There is no conversations between them, no building of a relationship, just her being weak and traumatised and Blood King being over the top caring.
I DNF at 65% and still have no idea about what this “magic” is and don’t care.
September 28, 2026
This book was recommended everywhere on Reddit and in various romantasy blogs. It was a debut novel so I gave it a chance.
Overall, this books reads incredibly anticlimactic. I swear nothing happened! It’s a debut novel so I’ll give my review with that in mind.
First off, I really had a hard time with the main female lead. I understand she lived a sheltered life but she comes across incredibly timid with that being her entire personality. This wouldn’t bother me if her decisions lined up with her personality.
Second, there were a lot of scenes that were just not my fav. Also for this book covers multiple characters and there’s no flow to who’s mind you’re in or what chapter is covering who.
I have no ties to any of the characters and I feel like I couldn’t enjoy the story.
Now, I’m seeing a lot of AI allegations. I’ll let you make up your mind.
Overall, this books reads incredibly anticlimactic. I swear nothing happened! It’s a debut novel so I’ll give my review with that in mind.
First off, I really had a hard time with the main female lead. I understand she lived a sheltered life but she comes across incredibly timid with that being her entire personality. This wouldn’t bother me if her decisions lined up with her personality.
Second, there were a lot of scenes that were just not my fav. Also for this book covers multiple characters and there’s no flow to who’s mind you’re in or what chapter is covering who.
I have no ties to any of the characters and I feel like I couldn’t enjoy the story.
Now, I’m seeing a lot of AI allegations. I’ll let you make up your mind.
October 4, 2026
Started the book because I loved the description of him falling fist, but after the chapter 5 was completely lost, confused and super annoyed with how the characters were displayed. There was little to no dialogue from the FMC, let alone her point of view or her inner monologue. There were several scenes where it could have been better explained, but there wasn’t any and it would skip straight to the next scene with vague explanations. Little to nothing about FMCs powers and I just had to skip around the book for the most part. Just very disappointed
October 8, 2026
After seeing this book hyped on Reddit, I was excited to read this book. However once it came out and I attempted to read it, I couldn’t get past the first chapter. The book really could have used an editor or something. To which now seeing all of the other red flags that this book has from other reader’s reviews, I don’t feel like I am missing much.
September 25, 2026
❌ DNF at 48%, Mirielle and Reis, had to stop reading it because it was leaning a little too why-choose when Dane came into the picture and that’s not my vibe
September 22, 2026
This was a good surprise. A TikTok find that kept what it promised. A soft FMC and a hulking MMC who allows himself to be vulnerable. Plus fun side characters with great banter. At the end of the book the FMC starts to come into her power and I cannot wait to see where this goes in the next instalment.
September 1, 2026
Such a fun combination of a broody possessive MMC and a soft powerful FMC. Absolutely LOVED the cozy winter vibes this book gave! Need the next book ASAP
September 26, 2026
Good read
General info:
• Soft, painfully shy, and sheltered (but formerly abused) FMC
• Protective and patient MMC. Strength under control
• Dynamic for the first half is like a bull trying to learn to navigate a china shop without breaking his beloved china.
• Multiple/universal POV
• Does contain gore, attempted SA (not mmc), and dealing with trauma
He falls first (pretty much right away)
Spice lvl 3: language is not graphic
‐------------------
My thoughts:
Good start to a story. Looking forward to where it leads. I like the overall dynamic of the group. Not a high stakes read. Felt cozy (while dealing with the FMC's past trauma). It was nice to see her evolve out of her initial shell. I look forward to seeing future growth (please stay soft. I'm tired to kick ass, I-can-do-it-myself women).
Reis and Mirielle are adorable. The dynamic between Lettie and Kellan is great too. The soup on fire scene made me smile.
I don't really like that the POV seems to change on a dime and is not specified. Like in one page, no breaks, I'll see what the FMC thinks, then some secret the MMC has that neither should know. Comes off sloppy and at times confusing to me.
The overall flow of the story seemed a little disjointed in the first 30%. Got better as it went on.
Also saw "___ knew it." alot. Felt repetitive.
Overall still 5* for the story, especially MMC and FMC dynamic. Was a breath of fresh air to me.
General info:
• Soft, painfully shy, and sheltered (but formerly abused) FMC
• Protective and patient MMC. Strength under control
• Dynamic for the first half is like a bull trying to learn to navigate a china shop without breaking his beloved china.
• Multiple/universal POV
• Does contain gore, attempted SA (not mmc), and dealing with trauma
He falls first (pretty much right away)
Spice lvl 3: language is not graphic
‐------------------
My thoughts:
Good start to a story. Looking forward to where it leads. I like the overall dynamic of the group. Not a high stakes read. Felt cozy (while dealing with the FMC's past trauma). It was nice to see her evolve out of her initial shell. I look forward to seeing future growth (please stay soft. I'm tired to kick ass, I-can-do-it-myself women).
Reis and Mirielle are adorable. The dynamic between Lettie and Kellan is great too. The soup on fire scene made me smile.
I don't really like that the POV seems to change on a dime and is not specified. Like in one page, no breaks, I'll see what the FMC thinks, then some secret the MMC has that neither should know. Comes off sloppy and at times confusing to me.
The overall flow of the story seemed a little disjointed in the first 30%. Got better as it went on.
Also saw "___ knew it." alot. Felt repetitive.
Overall still 5* for the story, especially MMC and FMC dynamic. Was a breath of fresh air to me.
October 19, 2026
Had to DNF about halfway through. I feel like it wasn't fleshed out enough and it was more the Blood King's story than the FL. There wasn't any chemistry and the sex scene was really awkward and maybe a fade to black would be warranted. There wasn't enough interaction between the two. Also I wished their powers were explained more.
September 25, 2026
This was SO good!! I’ve been waiting impatiently for this to be released, basically keeping a mental countdown. Reis & Mirielle: adorable, wonderful, cozy
Kellan & Lettie: chefs kiss, I want more, love a reformed rake
Dane: I liked him enough as a character to wonder if this was going to enter why-choose territory. He’s just too delish. He has so much depth and the tent scene (you know which one) had me screeching internally.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this amazing book! I rarely can finish books in their entirety without audiobooks but I devoured this. I cannot wait for the next book in the series!
Kellan & Lettie: chefs kiss, I want more, love a reformed rake
Dane: I liked him enough as a character to wonder if this was going to enter why-choose territory. He’s just too delish. He has so much depth and the tent scene (you know which one) had me screeching internally.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this amazing book! I rarely can finish books in their entirety without audiobooks but I devoured this. I cannot wait for the next book in the series!
October 30, 2026
I'm taking a guess but this book feels like it was written by AI. The lackluster dialogue and the plot just seemed kinda meh? Also there is a trigger warning page but if the sexual assault is between the fmc and mmc that needs to be stated and not be generalized.
September 27, 2026
Boring, uninspired writing and setting. Main characters are basically one note and barely any dialogue between them.
DNF
DNF
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews