Review: Read like Game of Throne Dothraki fanfiction but I loved it.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 9, 2014
--  “The night of your claiming, even in the moonlight, I could see you spirit shining from your eyes. You hold your spirit close to the surface for all to behold and it is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”I debated on this one a few days. I was going to give it a 3 star review but it is days later and I’m still thinking about this book so I’m going to bump it up to 4 stars. This will not be a book for everyone. I think this will be a love it or hate it type of book specifically because of how brutally it starts out. By that I mean the premise of finding a wife by claiming a woman in a hunt is barbaric and some people won’t be able to get past that. Plus our Hero is King of a warrior tribe and he can be a total alpha male douchebag at times. But I liked how this book was written and the lifestyle of the horde warriors was very well explained that any of the violence in the story made sense.--  “He’s a husband, he’s a king, he’s a man but above all, my queen, always remember, above all, he …is…a warrior.”A few reasons for me that this gets a bumped up rating is that it is different than a lot of the other fantasies I read. This is an Adult Fantasy/Romance and the heroine is in her 30s which I loved. The love story is central to the plot and there are plenty of sexy times throughout also a plus for me. There are a lot of things I found very reminiscent of George RR Martin’s Dothraki tribe in the very popular Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire) series, there are enough differences that it is a new story but it could almost be fanfiction of ASoIaF. I couldn’t help comparing the Horde to the Dothraki and I honestly I pictured Lahn the King of the Horde as Khal Drogo from the HBO series. I couldn’t help myself and that could have led to my additional enjoyment of the story.Circe is from Seattle and wakes up surrounded by a bunch of other women all dressed in the same white attire. She has no idea how she got there and then when she finds out why all the women are there she is horrified to say the least. Claimed by the king Lahn she starts her amazing journey, what starts out as a loathing and hate turns into something more. Circe is strong stubborn and stands strong against Lahn, when he is a jerk she calls him on it and tames a part of his savage creature. It is a dichotomy to have such a savage War Lord be entirely sweet to his bride, well most of the time, but he is a war lord and that leads to some terrible mistakes as well.--  “I could not dream a better you.”……..”A better wife, a better queen. Not even in a dream could I create better than you.”The whole thing was different than I expected and it walked a fine line. This could have been a book I absolutely hated since it had some serious testosterone going around. But I liked the stubborn Circe that stood up to Lahn. I enjoyed them learning each other’s language and culture. Cicre changed the Horde a little, not all of it but a lot. She was a little too stubborn at times be he was a jackass at times so that seems fair. There is some cheesiness at times but I enjoyed it too much to care.If you liked the story of Khal Drogo and Darnerys Targaryen from ASoIaF and would enjoy a spin on that story than this is probably right up your alley. If you couldn’t stand the brutality of Dothraki then you most likely wouldn’t enjoy this either.This is Book 2 of a series but it can be read as a standalone.