The Warrior King

The Warrior King by Abigail Owen was such a good book! I love the bodyguard aspect, but how Samael still had to rely on Meira to help keep them both safe. I was surprised at the reason that brought them together and couldn't stop reading till I found out more about that situation. Meira's phoenix powers so unique and how she used them was fun to read. I'm still swooning over Meria and Samael's story. If you haven't read the Inferno Rising series yet, you are missing out! These dragon shifters and their phoenix mates are amazing!

The Warrior King is book 3 in the series and follows right on the heels of book 2, The Blood King. As stated in my last review, you COULD read this by itself, but you'd take a while to get the grasp of things, and you'd miss a lot of juicy background that really fleshes this tale out; because it's basically one story, just split into four (one for each sister).

The book is written in third person omniscient perspective and from multiple character's point of view, though primarily the leading couple. This installment is Meira's, the reserved and shy of the phoenix sisters, journey. Samael, black dragon clan head of the guard, is her opposite lead. Besides being quiet, their personalities are opposite without being militantly so: Samael is a born leader and drives forward relentlessly when serving his people whereas Meira generally defers to her sisters and follows their lead. Unlike with Kasia and Brand, they didn't so much just work with their opposites, but rather adapted, and that was an interesting twist.

Samael is a born commoner who managed to make his way through the ranks and lead his King's warriors despite his low birth. As we traverse the book, we see why that's so: he really is dedicated and ruthless to a fault. His love and respect for Gorgon, his king, is evident on every page, and in some ways it was painful to read at times because of that. I see it as a sign of a good book when I'm feeling the character in question's emotions, and boy did I feel for this guy.

Meira is the quiet computer hacker of the sisters who's so meek as to be properly described as docile. She agrees to mate the black dragon king Gorgon to further solidify the sisters' allies both because she knows it's what they need, but also because she doesn't believe that fated mates are actually a thing. I find the juxtaposition between that and her absolutely saccharine sweet kindness towards everyone to be intriguing. Of course, taunting fate never gets anyone anywhere good...

The pair go through an even worse bout of 'nope, can't happen; this is bad for the whole' than Brand and Kasia did. Through an interesting twist, the two end up on the run together while Gorgon is missing and their closeness tests both of their resolve like a sledgehammer on glass. How they resolved this conundrum was slightly convoluted, but mostly very sad for me. I cried a little for Samael, honestly.

The book was a world spanning, hold onto your hats, ride that was never still for very long. It had less humor than the previous book, but we met a lot more people as well. I think my favorite thing about the book was watching both characters grow: Samael became more open and Meira bolder. The book progressed the main storyline a good deal and we saw the fruition of the Rotting King's latest ploy as well as more of his depravities. I can definitely say that I am looking forward to his end. I am hopeful, however, that we don't lose as many characters in the next book and that it's not quite so sad.

If you're into contemporary parallel worlds (happening alongside modern times, though in secret), dragon societies with almost human problems, lots of action, a dose of steam with your romance, interesting paranormal creatures, plenty of sisterly love, and an epic tale of revolution, you should give this book a go!

Abigail Owen rocks with the character and world development of her dragons! The Inferno Rising series is loaded with angst, sexual tension, suspense, slow-burn romance, sassy strong heroines and delectable alpha heroes and epic dragon fighting scenes. The Warrior King is a fantastic addition to the series and a page-turner from beginning to end. I loved the connection between Samuel and Meira and I felt so badly for them and what all they had to go through – it’s definitely a rollercoaster ride of emotions with layers of complication from both sides. There are some interesting developments and a few shocks scatter throughout the story, as well as a sweet romance and a few laughs. I’m definitely curious to see what will happen in the next book.

*I received an ARC from the publisher, via NetGalley, and I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

Ohh boy! From the blurb to the last page this book was one raging inferno after another. The author kept up the excitement and danger from her previous books and threw in some curves that no one saw coming. I love the characters! The choices they had to make for the greater good would seem impossible, but in the end they manage to find that elusive HEA that we all seek. The author continues to bring me back with her ability to spin a yarn and, as always, leaves me desperately waiting for the next installment. This book was such a fantastic addition to the series, and I can’t wait to see what she thinks up to top it next.

There are some books that the story and the characters are so rich and three dimensional that I fall into the story and feel an integral part of it rather than just a simple voyeur. The story lives and breathes - it makes you want to hurry up and finish while simultaneously wanting to slow down to make it last. The Warrior King is one of those stories. It has a little bit of everything - sweet moments, fan your face steam, dangerous excitement, cut throat and loyal supernatural creatures, strong family ties, nail biting fight and chase scenes, and even some chuckles, all set against the backdrop of a continuing war between dragon clans.

Meira and Samuel’s love story has all the feels - expect to gasp, laugh, grit your teeth, and cry. Samuel is the Captain of the Guard for Gorgon, the king of the black dragons, who Meira has offered to mate to help solidify the alliance between the black, gold and blue dragons. Meira, one of four Phoenix sisters, is an empath who can teleport through mirrors. At the very beginning of the book, on the day of the mating ceremony, Samuel is made the Viceroy of War for the black dragon clan and swears to protect Meira as well as King Gorgon. A vow he has to almost immediately act upon following the mating ceremony between Gorgon and Meira when Gorgon seems to be destroyed by Meira’s phoenix fire. She and Samuel escape and travel through mirrors to try to discover what has happened to Gorgon so that Meira can fulfill her promise to be fully mated to him. As the war between the dragon clans continues to rage, Samuel and Meira learn to operate as a team through the many dangers and enemies they face, but their growing attraction makes it difficult to remain on their individual paths chosen for duty - to mate Meira to the black dragon king, destroy the red king and bring peace to dragonkind.

On their way to their HEA, Samuel and Meira have to both learn to let down their walls, to let go of their pasts, their perceptions of themselves, and where they thought they were supposed to go in order to embrace a life neither one thought was possible. I am excited to hear what happens next for the dragon shifters and whether the evil ruthless red king will be defeated and balance restored to dragonkind.

Sprinkled throughout this beautifully paced story of Meira and Samuel’s HEA, there are also a number of secondary characters introduced - some are new to the series and some are from earlier books in the series or from the Fire’s Edge series, a parallel story arc. Rather than being overwhelming or detracting from the main love story, these characters are central to the unfurling of Meira and Samuel’s dance of love and passion and the arc of the dragon war. We learn enough about who the secondary characters are in the story along with just enough of their stories so that they’re fully developed characters in their own right. Samuel and Meira’s story is book 3 in the Inferno Rising series. It is a stand alone but the series has a story arc that weaves the books together. To get the full richness of the story I suggest you read them all..

4/5 stars

POV: Meira and Samael Pacing: quick read Steam: Instant attraction, slow burn with open door scenes Tropes: Forbidden love, fated mates

Synopsis: Meira is a more introverted character that loves computers and used to living in a castle with gargoyles. She offers herself as phoenix queen to help her sisters and their kings ally with the black clan against Pytheios. Samael is a black dragon, close to the black dragon king and unfortunately believes the woman promised his king he's sworn to protect is his true mate. When the black king goes up in flames after the mating ceremony, so does everything else and sends the black clan in turmoil.

Overall: I really enjoyed the third story in this series! Meira and Samael had such a good slow burn chemistry that had a bit of forbidden love trope. There was instant attraction, but because she was promised to another, they were both trying to suppress that attraction. I enjoyed how they slowly became lovers which doesn't happen a lot with the fated mates trope. The world building itself was well done just like prior works in the series! I loved reading about the gargoyle's castle and their world which we only received glimpses of before. Overall, I really loved this story and the chemistry made it one of my favorites in this world so far!

*Thank you so much to Entangled Amara publishing and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars - I liked it

Meira Amon has pledged to mate the dragon shifter King Gorgon of the Black Clan, the only problem is that she is extremely attracted and drawn to Samael Veles, the king's right hand man.

This book picks up shortly after the previous book ended. Meira is pledging herself to Gorgon but things don’t go as planned when he is kidnapped. This starts an adventure with her and Samael to find him and stop any attacks from the red king. This book involves a lot of jumping around to new places and seeing Meira grow more into her future role as queen.

Meira was a good heroine. She was tech savvy and was willing to sacrifice her happiness for her sisters. She definitely acted more rash like Skylar and Kaisa than I was expecting her too. Samael was extremely protective of Meira and really cared for her. My biggest issue with him was that he was so honorable he would lie to his king and ignore fate just to keep some semblance of honor. I understood he was an honorable man but I think he took it too far. Also I felt Meira forgave him a little quickly for it.

Overall, I enjoyed the continuation of this story. I am interested in seeing what is going to happen next since it will be the last sister's story and the battle is really heating up.

Ok let me start out by saying this was another good book added to an already awesome series. Good but not great. I absolutely love this world Mrs. Owens has created and I have eagerly awaited each book release. It has love, action, thrilling moments that keep u in the edge of your seat. It has one really horrible villain that u just hate with a passion right along with the characters. And even better is that, even tho u know it has to have a happy ending, u almost fear it won't. U almost fear that the bad guy will win. Oh gosh I really hope the bad guy doesn't win! For myself I judge that as traits of a great writer. When they can draw u in and make u feel different things for the different characters they write about and that u never really know what's gonna happen next. But that being said I was not as impressed with this book as the other two. There were moments were I was confused on what was happening. There were also several moments where the actions of some characters didnt make sense or were pointless. Like leaving before a big battle cause u were too weak to fight only to turn around and join the battle two pages later even tho nothing had changed?? It was a waste of time, energy and power. This book just didn't seemed to be as well planned out or flow as well as the others. I found myself skipping paragraphs just to be finished with scenes. And honestly I'm a little upset with what happened to a certain character in Argentina. I still highly recommend this series. And I still very much can't wait for the next book in the series. Angelika and Airk maybe?? I just can't help but be a little disappointed