Ann Aguirre

Books: Fantasy | Romance

Ars Numina: The Leopard King (2016)

Ars Numina

The Leopard King (2016)

This was the book I ended up reading after I finished the Brandywine Investigations series, which I really enjoyed. I opened several books, and nothing piqued my interest, so I ended up with this.

At the end of chapter one it was clear this was going to be a boinking book. OK. Fine. Whatever. The world-building is interesting, so carry on.

Dom Asher fled Ash Valley for the retreat after he was unable to deal with his grief after the murder of his wife. But she was killed three years ago, and his pack needs him now. So the second sends his sometimes-sorta-girlfriend, Pru, after Dom, with the implication that she bring back Dom or die trying, because its time to renew the peace accords, and the second, Slay, isn't up to the job.

First things first, I really liked the world-building here. The Animari , the Eldritch and Golgoth and interesting species, living in world where we hear that humans exist but we see nothing of them.

I also really liked Pru, who had been made to feel she had less worth because she could not shift, yet believed strongly enough to do what was right.

"Why do I suddenly think that arguing with you will prove impossible?" Pru grinned.

"Just accept that I'm always working for your welfare, and there will be no need for troublesome independent thought."

I really disliked Slay, Pru's former lover, who was a possessive asshole who–despite being second in the pack–doesn't have the balls to stand up to his mother.

"It wasn't even me," Slay said in a broken voice. "I didn't give two shits whether Pru could shift. My mother just gave me so much grief when I mentioned a permanent bond… think of our bloodline and what about your status as second that I figured it wasn't worth the drama. She can't live forever, right? And that's a fucking weak path to happiness, I know."

He couldn't be bothered to put a ring on it, but pitches a fit when someone takes Pru from him.

Wah wah wah.

Go to hell Slay.

But, whatever, Pru isn't with Slay, and cares about him as a friend, because she's a super nice person. Fine. I can live with that.

Then war breaks out because reasons, which suddenly made the story way more interesting! The secondary characters are well-done and as I said, the world-building was very good. So I'm getting invested because of that battles and the deaths and so on.

Let me remind you for a second, I read on an eReader.

So, Dom and Pru work things out and get married in the middle of the wreckage of the world and… The End.

Wanna learn more about the war and the other characters? There will be five more books to resolve all this, all of which will be a quarter boinking, that could have been spent on character building and furthering the story of the war.

Also, she left a kid in a coma.

So, I liked the world building, but not enough to read five more books of boinking, boinking, and more boinking.

Published by the author

Rating: 5.5/10