The Warlord by Gena Showalter

If you like your paranormal with lots of intense staring while dry-humping, then this one is for you. Gena Showalter brings us another installment in her Lords of the Underworld series…or does she? This is actually a first in a new series, Rise of the Warlords, but plenty of familiar places and faces are here.

I have liked Showalter’s representation of the Harpies through the previous series, they have been the most badass women to grace the pages of her worlds (the other women aren’t bad, the harpies just stand out). Taliyah carries the same capable, exceptional, self-sufficient air as her mother and sisters. Her need to win every battle is a bit extreme, but it does get results.

I was also a fan of the new mythology of Astras and what that species is capable of. (Think Thanos, but in multitudes of loyal brothers-in-arms and they create realms instead of destroying them). I suspect the next books in this series will be about the other men we met in this army and hopefully more of the Harpies.

To me, the biggest surprise was not the copious forbidden-but-necessary-sex, which is a Showalter staple, but the emotional vulnerability of the stoic characters revealed, not in the final seconds, but gradually throughout the book.

There is still too much male-centered pleasure for my liking, but considering that I DNF’d The Darkest King, this was a serious turn in a better direction. Roc took Taliyah’s emotional well-being into consideration so much more frequently than any of the previous male characters have. Slow clap for that.

So, if you have never visited a Gena Showalter realm before, I say, start here. It’s a great primer with excellent emotional support between the characters. -Sky

————

I really have nothing to add that Sky didn’t already say, but this book definitely made me want to get naked…I…I think I need to confess that… I’m hot for Alphaholes. I didn’t want to be, but a book hasn’t turned me on in a while and this one did. I think I like the idea of being bossed around. Don’t like it in reality, but my fictional romances enjoy it. I like a big, strong, muscle-y male type. There, I’ve said it. (Or maybe my body just reacts to a Lords of the Underworld book). -Ford