Showing posts with label The Golden Dynasty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Golden Dynasty. Show all posts

Monday, February 10, 2014

Review: The Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley

Title: The Golden Dynasty
Author: Kristen Ashley
Release Date: August 22, 2011
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 421
Source: Purchased from Amazon


Synopsis:
Circe Quinn goes to sleep at home and wakes up in a corral filled with women wearing sacrificial virgin attire - and she is one of them. She soon finds out that she’s not having a wild dream, she’s living a frightening nightmare where she’s been transported to a barren land populated by a primitive people and in short order, she’s installed very unwillingly on her white throne of horns as their Queen.

Dax Lahn is the king of Suh Tunak, The Horde of the nation of Korwahk and with one look at Circe, he knows she will be his bride and together they will start The Golden Dynasty of legend.

Circe and Lahn are separated by language, culture and the small fact she’s from a parallel universe and has no idea how she got there or how to get home. But facing challenge after challenge, Circe finds her footing as Queen of the brutal Korwahk Horde and wife to its King, then she makes friends then she finds herself falling in love with this primitive land, its people and especially their savage leader.

My Thoughts:
I don’t even know how to describe how much I loved this book. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, a lot. I was happy and devastated, and sad as well. Not many books have the ability to bring out all those emotions in me.

We start off with Circe about to be picked by a Korwahk warrior to be his bride. She has no idea how she got there. All she remembers is going to sleep in her bed in Seattle and the next thing she knows she is running for her life in a different universe. She is wearing different clothes; she doesn’t know the language and the culture. She thinks it is a dream and wishes strongly to wake up in her own bed back in Seattle. Through The Wife Hunt, Circe is picked by Dax Lahn, the king of Suh Tunak to be his bride, the queen of his people. It is a hard adjustment for her at first but through challenges she begins to accept the culture of the Korwahk, and little by little she begins to find her footing.

I first decided to read this book because in one of the reviews I read, someone compared it to Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones. They were my favourite couple and their story did not have a happy ending. As soon as I started reading this book, I found it was similar in ways but also very different. I LOVED it! I am so happy I read it.

This book is so magical, I still can’t stop thinking about it. I stayed up almost a whole day because I wanted to finish the story. After that, I read my favourite parts again and again. There is something captivating about how Circe and Lahn overcome their language barriers; Circe overcoming The Wife Hunt , the brutal way she was became Lahn’s wife and of course the culture which is nothing what she is used to. I have to say she did a great job adjusting, not many people would be able to and not as quickly.

I loved learning about the customs, the ways and the traditions of the Korwahk as much as sometimes it frustrated me. Some of their ways were just barbaric and brutal and downright cruel. For example, a warrior can do anything he likes, ANYTHING, with his bride. Some things were hard to stomach but it worked in the storyline and made the story all that more believable.

This is definitely one of my favourite books by Kristen Ashley. This will definitely be one my all time favourites. I know this story will be one of the books I go back to because I want to relive every feeling I had when I first read it. Kristen Ashley has this way of weaving a story and molding it to be unforgettable. Bravo, Kristen Ashley, Bravo!

Favourite Quotes:
I could not dream a better you.” 
Oh my God. 
Oh… my… God. 
Did he just say that? 
I stared into his warm eyes. 
He just said that. 
And that was so sweet, so unexpected but so welcome, my breath arrested and all I could do was continue staring at him. 
He wasn’t done. “A better wife, a better queen. Not even in a dream could I create better than you.” 

"I gave up a world for you." 

“Then I whispered, “I love you, my Lahn,” and heard the swift hiss of his intake of breath. Then he buried his face in my neck and whispered back, “Loot kay hansahnalay na, my Circe.” And I love you, my Circe.” 

My Rating:
5+++stars out of 5

Raquel
xoxo

Sunday, February 2, 2014

In My Mailbox (30) & Stacking the Shelves (36)


Welcome to this week's In My Mailbox. In My Mailbox (IMM) is hosted by The Story Siren, who was inspired by a fellow book blogger Alea of Pop Culture Junkie. It features books I have bought or received for review.

Stacking the Shelves by Tynga`s Reviews is about adding books to my shelves I received during the past week whether it is physical or virtual.

Bought from Amazon:

The Golden Dynasty by Kristen Ashley

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Making Faces by Amy Harmon

I got awesome books this week! I just finished reading The Golden Dynasty and I cannot tell you how much I loved this book. My review will be up sometime this week. I have been hearing a lot about Cruel Beauty so I decided to buy it. I bought Making Faces because one of the book blogs I follow says it is a great book and I value her opinion so I am excited to start this one as well. 
There should be some great books coming out this month. Should be great!

Raquel
xoxo