sultrytartreviews's reviews
467 reviews

I love getting to see their switch action and fantasy fulfillment! 

A sweet and steamy peek back into Bitch and Xander’s bedroom. I love their dirty talk so much!

I want to start off by saying that I always enjoy going back to Orc Mountain! I love the set up and the previous characters so much that it does tend to make me have a better time, even if I am not totally jiving with something in the current book. And although this was the longest Orc Sworn book yet, I did not feel overly burdened by this. However, I did waffle quiet a bit for how I was going to rate this story. This throuple is low on my list of favorite lovers and the parts that shined for me were more related to the outside relationship points.

Likes:
-I loved seeing more cultural elements. Fenn is truly talented at weaving the orc's history and individual cultures into the stories she tells. I was especially excited to see more sex toys and how they factored into the mating rituals.
-The whole trading post and integrating Kitty into a translatable skill was really interesting and I love it when the women get agency along with their HEAs.
-There was SO. MUCH. STEAM. Fenn is also very adapt at making all the steamy scenes feel integral to understanding her characters and their relationships. She is also VERY good at writing hot, hot, hot spicy scenes. 
-I don't have personal experience going through substance abuse or seeing it in those close to me, but I did like the way Thrain's journey was portrayed. It felt intentional and well thought out. It wasn't easy and it took hard work from everyone to make his sobriety a reality.
-We get to take a break from the formula of the previous books and avoid a big deception storyline. There are still smaller things, but it is not a big story moment like in the past books. I liked mixing it up and I felt it made more sense for these characters.
-I am in love with Thrak and Drammar and I want them to get a novella. The character growth they had as side characters?!?! The fact that Thrak calls Drammar

Possum

AAAHHHH!!!!!!!!

Dislikes:
-Although Kitty was around for all aspects of the relationship, it really felt like she was a third wheel to most of the emotional growth Thrain and Varinn had (both individually and together). At the very end we were given some more back story to Kitty that I would have loved to explore and expand on. 
-While I enjoyed Varinn's character...I really think we missed out on getting to know him deeply like we did with Thrain. Varinn is a combination of some sketched out ideas and then assumptions I made based of details (like he blushes a lot). I think where his personality suffered was from the role play in the steamy scenes. There is SO MUCH of this side shown of him that there isn't time to explore who he is outside of the bedroom. Most of this detail is provided from other characters telling us about things he has done or how they see him.
-This book was long.....and I don't think it needed to be this long. Almost half the book was the three MCs getting to know each other in steamy scenes that seemed very similar. Trust me, I am not one to usually cut back on sex in my books. However, it just felt like treading water until the story picked up more. Thus, part of my issue with reviewing because I DIDN'T MIND READING IT. Really. I just think as a whole work, I would have edited a lot of the first 50% out. 
-I would have liked to seen some of the later bit of conflicted woven into the overall story more. I think there were some interesting aspects to the

kidnapping and orc discontent storyline

but it all felt very much like a last minute inclusion. 


Basically, even though this book will not be making my favorites for this series I still enjoyed being back with the orcs and seeing my old friends.

I received an ARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

This book was fine. And I'm sad it didn't fit better for me because the premise was so unique and interesting. I was so excited for an F/F (Sapphic, WLW) romance that was historical and included pirates...and a monster angle?! 

Perhaps if this novella had focused in other areas or narrowed it's activities, the romance wouldn't have suffered so much. While both the MCs were strong willed and interesting, there wasn't anything to pull them together or for me to understand why they would make a good couple.

Adding on that the monster element wasn't really explored/expanded on/or even described as well as I'm used to seeing. It was a bit of a let down for me. The pirating was exciting, featuring the Be Gay Do Crimes trope well. 

This was such a lovely story of two life long friends falling in love. It was sweet, adoring, hysterical, contemplative, and frank. There are many series angles to the story, but those elements do not take away from Will and Martin opening up to each other in such a quiet and beautiful way. I personally didn't need any of the storyline that was creating conflict. I was happy enough to watch these two traipse through the countryside and give each other little love tokens. 

Although I am using modern labels for characters who didn't have this, I'd say Martin is gay and likely on the demisexual spectrum and Will is likely bi or pansexual. Martin's disability rep is referred to as 'consumption' in the book, but basically he has been ill his whole life, experiencing weakness, fevers, trouble breathing, and being bed ridden.