One Savage Crown

Battle for the Dark King, Book 3

By: V. S. Winters

Narrated by: Hollie Whitmore, Robert Kelly

Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

Heavy is the head that wears the crown...especially in the fae realm. 

One Savage Crown is the final instalment in this sexy, dark fae romance trilogy!  

My name is Eden Blaive, high queen of the Fae Kingdoms, specifically the Elven Kingdom of Kilora. War is no longer on our doorstep; instead it’s pounding right against our walls with a fury behind its fist. 

When Nija pulled her people from mine and King Rowan’s Kingdom, she basically declared war. Now we're forced to come up with a plan - and Fenris, my long-lost biological father, is the key to my plan working. 

The only problem is he hates Rowan - and I’m not sure he can see past that. The truth is, I’m scared. Scared to change. Scared for Rowan to change. Scared for anything to change. But the reality is...you can’t fight fate.

©2020 V. S. Winters (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd

2.5 stars, so far

I have about 2.5 hours left in this book and I’m almost to the DNR point. I own and have listened to the first two books in the series, all in order over the last week. Honestly, the first book was ok (maybe 3.5 stars) and I saw the reviews on Amazon got better for each successive book so I took the plunge. I wish I hadn’t. The 2nd book was marginally better than the 3rd but this book is really not that good.
1st-male narrator sounds really creepy, especially when narrating the intimate scenes. It kind of worked in the beginning because Rowan was an unknown quantity then but after they’re married it’s just bleh. It’s definitely partially the writing though because the female narrator in the same scenes sounds like a hormonal teen.
2nd-why does she sound like a hormonal teen when in the first book she comes across as a loving and reasonably responsible mother figure to her sister? Possibly the excuse in this book is because she is hormonal but that would be an excuse. I’ve been through pregnancy and it can make you a little crazy but it doesn’t make you stupid.
3rd-The character inconsistency from the first book to this one is really baffling. This is the daughter of a cop. She watched her mother take off as a kid, she quit school to take care of her family, she holds down a job, she takes the transition from the human world to faerie remarkably well. That’s a chick who should have some street smarts and one I was interested in reading about. As the books go on she gets weaker and more naive-who does that? Only a character with no growth. The only thing I hate more than a naive female heroine is one who is naive AND stubborn. Who decides “I can do this” then falls flat on their face, berates herself for it, then proceeds to fall back into overinflated self-confidence? Who thinks “I just can’t tell my DH I’m pregnant because he might get mad at me for waiting two days to tell him” (because waiting even longer is not going to make him mad at all-eye roll). There are so many instances of the heroine waffling around, I could write paragraphs on the subject.
News flash: you can be highly empathetic and still have common sense, especially when you’ve been raised by a cop.
Those are just some of the reasons this book is making me angry. I sat down to write this review when I found myself saying “This is getting really old” out loud to myself.
Whether I finish it or not, it deserves the rating just for making me crazy enough to have to take time out of my super busy schedule today just to vent.

I didnt like it.

waste of damn time. skipped a lot and ended up not finishing. The heroine was an idiot. why is it when the hero and the heroine get together the heroine weakens the hero and end up acting really stupid. owe dont kill scot oh I have to keep a secret from my husband like what the hell a waste i swear I want a refund.

Um...Its ok, in general

I finished this book a few weeks ago but I wanted to let it sink in first before I actually wrote a review. I have a bad habit of writing reviews as soon as I finish a book only to realize later on that what I originally thought is in direct conflict with how I now feel about a story. I wanted to give myself time to allow the story to settle and my mind to work over everything.

So, overall, the story is fine. It was a bit frustrating trying to remember all of the details from the other two books so I could follow along with this one. Usually, authors will give you a quick review of at least the previous book so as to jog your memory on what is going on in the new book. No such luck with this story. So I felt a little lost in the mud for a the first few chapters and I am honestly still not completely sure I remember all of the needed details.

There are elements of the story that can be really good, but they just aren't. The grand reveals can be figured out well before they are revealed in the story. The plot twists aren't very "twisty." The ending is at best lackluster. There just seemed to be so much build-up just for it to kind of fall flat. Things that could have been resolved in the story to make it more interesting were either not even touched upon, or they were done so very briefly.

For the most part, the narrators do a great job. The lady's attempts at male voices is a bit exaggerated. She slows down immensely in order to sound like a different character. If I am honest, if this book were to be re-narrated, I would much rather prefer the male narrator handle the sex scenes. Hearing the female narrator trying to do a male voice during sex bordered on comical. It made some of the more steamy moments a little cringy. At least for me it did.

Overall, the story is fine. I don't hate it and I don't want my money back. But, its not a story I will come back and listen to again. The first two books are much better than this last one, in my opinion. The narrators are fine, except the one thing I mentioned above, lol. So, I will call this ok.