This is a series, called Royal Blood. There are two books in this series, the first is called Obsession which is 284 pages and the second is Hunger which is 183 pages It is written by Alexis Calder.

The genre is paranormal and is written in first person POV from the heroine and anti-hero perspective.

I give this series a 4 out of 5. I really enjoyed the dialogue between the characters and felt that the reactions and responses were relatable (you know…for a paranormal). The reason for .5 point is for the repetitive phrase, “There must be something wrong with me”. It was repeated so many times I actually started counting and gave up at around 20 halfway through the book.

I get it.

There’s something wrong with you. The other .5 is for the second book…it read like it was rushed. I also did not like some of the mistakes, in the first book there is a character referred to as Jimmy, but in the second they referred to him as James. What was the reason for that? It took me a hot second to figure it out and validate in my head that it was the same person, but it’s confusing to change a name to that. There was also an odd typo where they referred to the protagonist as Ivy versus Isla. And it wasn’t a nickname, because it only happened once.

General Thoughts/Possible Spoilers

I’ve been on a paranormal kick so for the next few weeks you’ll see a lot of reviews for this genre. On to my general thoughts. The protagonists are Isla and Dante. If you aren’t familiar with the genre paranormal oftentimes they are dark and if you aren’t into fighting or death as being a normal part of your romance reading this genre may not be for you.

1. The world-building was interesting. I appreciated the concept of having “wards” in place to separate a whole magical community from the normal human one (yes, I know, not much different from Harry Potter, but I’m used to reading books where the supernatural is a bit more ingrained in human society)
2. I enjoy series books, but I prefer they can almost be standalone. This one was a saga, so it was two books centered around the same character. Considering the length of book two it felt more like the author just couldn’t tie up the book in one.
3. The sex scenes were…okay. They weren’t frequent (not that they have to be), but they also didn’t feel intense enough for the few that existed.
4. I really appreciated that the author called out the characters had other sexual relationships. Many times it almost feels like the characters aren’t having sex with anyone and then BAM they meet their love interest and it’s just them.
5. 100% preferred the first book to the second. The first one felt more well thought out with flow and story and the second was…well…flatter. Like the author just wanted to end it. lol…as a writer myself I get it. Sometimes you just need it to be over
6. All in all, I enjoyed the book and I really enjoyed the author. Expect to see more reviews around her.