The Golden Dynasty (Fantasyland Series) [Kindle Edition]

*Spoilers throughout*

Circe is not having a good day when she suddenly wakes up, no longer in her nice comfy bed in Seattle, but in a strange land where no almost one speaks her language and before she really even processes what is going on she is hunted down and raped by the man who just became her husband.

It's been a long time I have been so conflicted about writing a review for a book because the book is for the most part quite entertaining, but there are so many flaws that I can't in good conscious recommend it. At first I was really intrigued about this new world and these warriors Circe meets, espeically her husband, Lahn, and also about what exactly the golden dynasty is and what importance it has. But the problem is that the writing is so stilted, with pages and pages going to describe Circe's outfits, hair, jewelry, and sex life in detail that much of the "meat of the story" is glossed over. Her husband hits her, rapes her 7 times, if I remember correctly, and imprisons her and I won't even get into his questionable fidelity (although he is faithful after she makes a point of it before that he may or maybe not have gone to the communal slave-whores), but these things are described with about as much detail as you would tell a stranger about a trip to the gynecologist. It is all glossed over and all we ever see of his is this perfect man. The story has so many dark and serious issues and none of them are seriously talked about or addressed, except with the other wives giving Circe hints about how to keep her husband from raping other women by wearing him down sexually and to understand that he only hit you because he was really angry. But because the story was handled in such a breezy way all the violence seemed too graphic and out of place and no only that but I didn't care that these bad things happened to the heroine because none of her pain and suffering was described, but all her emotional pain and suffering is glorified in detail. The whole tone of the book was off because of the content. This content is just plan too dark to make a light book and the author was not willing to add much more than a handful of pages that weren't as light as cotton candy.

Not only that, but what really got me was the plot. There basically is no plot what so ever. Episodic things happen, but with no rising acting, no climax and no conclusion, well other than the inevitable happily ever after for the couple. Despite this books substantial length there is no plot at all outside of the relationship between Circe and Lahn and the various episodic things that happen to them. The idea of the golden dynasty in the end came to nothing. Nothing changed in the world, nothing changed in the characters, there were still slaves at the end, but because Circe calls them "her girls" and buys them clothes suddenly they are happy to be slaves. "The posse," Circe's group of women friends are still basically little better than play things with nothing even close to human rights, being a man is not allow to interfere with another man's private business even if he is watching him cut his wife's throat. But because most of the women are happy and their husbands stopped raping them nightly and now make love to them there are no more problems in the world.

What really boggles the mind is the character of Lahn who is supposed to be very smart, sweet, considerate and a good husband but he refused to stop RAPING other women when he goes out raiding because that is his way. How can you be even remotely civilized yet think rape is ok? Yet, Circe gets Lahn to stop after promising to never ask anything of him again, yet all his other men still go out raping, pillaging and murdering but in her mind everything is ok.

The reason I am complaining so much is that because nothing changed, because the only thing that really honestly happened in the book is that these two feel in love and he managed to begrudgingly vow to sleep with no one else. Even though they are heralding in this golden dynasty nothing is different, and the book just seemed to drag as the same problems came up over and over again, those being that she is over emotional and does irrational things without thinking and he only thinks of the sacrifices he is making towards her, that being fidelity, and him thinking she gives up nothing, while she gave up her entire life in her world to stay with him.

By the end I was annoyed at the lack of progress but many parts are quite entertaining. The writing is not terrible, but I would suggest anyone thinking of getting this book to read the sample because the who book is written in the first person and with all kinds of odd asides and random things thrown in but once I got used to the writing style it was ok, but Shakespeare it's not.

2 1/2 stars.

Circe goes to sleep in modern-day Seattle and awakens in the midst of what she first perceives as a nightmare, but turns out to be cold reality -- or better said, an alternate, more primitive reality to which she has been magically transported. Even more scarily, Circe finds herself a captive, kept in a pen with other women, under the guard of brawny warriors. These men are of the Horde -- the warrior caste of the mighty Korwahk people --, and the women are there for the Bride Hunt, which, as Circe learns, means that the women will be displayed to the participating warriors who will each choose his preferred bride, then chase her down and, if necessary, fight for her with other competing warriors. The winner will then claim his woman by having sex with her, and bring her back to camp as his bride.
Some women in the pen have entered the Bride Hunt willingly, as being a warrior wife is a great honor in the Korwahk culture, but others, like Circe, are there unwillingly, and are understandably appalled at the barbaric ritual. Still, Circe is forced like all others before the warriors and, with her unique golden beauty (she is blonde, and the Korwahk are all dark-haired), draws the eye of the most dangerous barbarian warrior of them all -- their Dax (King) Lahn. And then the Bride Hunt commences and Circe starts running.

The author Kristen Ashley pulls no punches with her narrative. The Horde warriors are daunting and brutal, but they are, in fact, products of their culture: an archaic one which cherishes fierceness and courage.
Circe is a strong woman, one who refuses to be a victim for long, as it is her belief that "What has been has been but what will be is what you make of it." Thus, while secretly plotting to find a way to return home, she starts adapting to her new life, interacting with her husband, Dax Lahn, and her new people, learning about the Korwahk culture and their language. Her husband, though fearsome, is handsome and honorable and strong, and Circe slowly comes to care for him.
The hero, Dax Lahn, is truly awe-inspiring. He is the absolute leader of his people, their king by right of might -- and he is, without doubt, the most formidable and powerful warrior of the Horde. I was impressed that the author had the courage to stay true to Lahn's warrior persona, even when she had to portray his fury unleashed, his ruthlessness in battle, his merciless revenge upon his enemies. I was even more impressed when the author succeeded in redeeming him after his initial acts of violence against Circe and in making it believable that Circe would fall in love with him.

Overall, this was a great read for me. I had my doubts, at first, being that this is a self-published book, and I feared it would have a lot of grammatical mistakes and typos. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. Still, the book could have used some better editing: the writing itself wasn't always the smoothest, there were some confusing scene transitions, and the heroine's modern slang got to be a bit too much. Even so, I loved the creativity involved in establishing the Korwahk world and culture, and I loved the development of the romantic relationship between the main characters. Thus, four stars.

Another great KA read. Fantasy series this time. This bk had way too many positive reviews posted as well as friend rec's to pass up. Circe wakes up in a nightmare in an extremely barbaric parallel universe. Talk about culture shock, not your typical KA read. Despite the story's cruel brutality it still remains a love story. I still can't get over how much I liked this bk despite lots of cringing. Even the language barrier didn't discourage me though I did give up trying to remember what different words and phrases meant and just went with the story. Most was translated either by a character, the author or just by action enough that it wasn't off putting. King Lhan is larger than life, violent, handsome, hot, sexy and totally alpha but as with most all of KA's heroes it was the big guys' sweetness to Circe that that totally captured me. I was so sucked in by the twist and turns and a few surprises that I was extremely anxious near the end. A few of the scenarios I guessed at earlier as something that may happen - and they did, but that didn't take away from the story. I know this review doesn't do the bk justice so all I can say is READ THIS BK. Giving it a 4 star instead of 5 simply because I didn't care for the extreme violence against women. On a more superficial level I wasn't a fan of the H/h short separation. Thankfully KA's separations are brief in terms of pages and always end with a great HEA.