{"id":28505,"date":"2024-12-25T01:22:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-25T07:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/?p=28505"},"modified":"2025-06-11T08:41:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T13:41:05","slug":"pale-court-liv-zander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sadieforsythe.com\/wp\/pale-court-liv-zander\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Pale Court Duet, by Liv Zander"},"content":{"rendered":"

I picked up a copy of Liv Zander’s King of Flesh & Bone<\/a> as an Amazon freebie and then purchased Queen of Rot & Pain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"pale<\/p>\n

Worse than a ruthless king… is a king obsessed.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

Isolation, darkness, and rotting flesh,<\/em>
\nSurrounds me, suffocates me,<\/em>
\nBut I am the vile ruler who controls it all.<\/em><\/p>\n

I long for warmth,<\/em>
\nYet, all that I touch,<\/em>
\nIs cold.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, she stumbles into my domain,<\/em>
\nLost and frightened,<\/em>
\nAlone and confused.<\/em><\/p>\n

And I terrify her even more.<\/em><\/p>\n

She calls me the devil,<\/em>
\nSo I show her pleasure,<\/em>
\nLike only the devil can.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am the heat that stirs her flesh,<\/em>
\nThe longing that trembles her bone.<\/em><\/p>\n

She begs her body to refuse,<\/em>
\nTo escape my embrace,<\/em>
\nBut I am her master,<\/em>
\nThe puppeteer of passion.<\/em>
\nI am the King of Flesh and Bone.<\/em><\/p>\n

Welcome to my court, little one.<\/em><\/p>\n

My Reviews<\/h1>\n

King of Flesh and Bone:<\/strong>
\nI went into this one knowing it’s a dark romance, so I won’t do anything more than warn readers to check their triggers. The whole first half (more, really) is full-on non-con\u2014not dub-con dressed up as non-con, but full-on non-consensual in every way. It’s not gratuitous, but it is what it is.<\/p>\n

Having said all of that, once the relationship moved past that (which it does quite abruptly), I enjoyed the last half enough to purchase book two. I’ll grant that there really isn’t anything new and exciting. If you read any number of darkish romances, you’ll likely be able to predict the plot points. He’s not likable on the outside, but his internal monologue is. She has a backbone and seems bright enough, but I don’t feel like we got to really see her as much more than a victim until toward the end. Then the whole thing ended on a cliffhanger in the middle of what I would have otherwise called the third-act breakup.<\/p>\n

\"pale<\/a><\/p>\n

Queen of Rot & Pain:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I dragged myself through to the end of the series. I accepted, during book one, that rapey is the name of the game. It’s non-con-central over there. But by the end, you get a sense of Ada as a woman, respectably clawing out some agency in a bad situation, and Enosh starts to show his soft underbelly. (He really wants to be a sweet, loving guy.) So, when the book ended on a cliffhanger, I decided to continue to the end. Unfortunately, there’s the big misunderstanding trope, and Enosh goes right back to rapey, but this time, angry rapey. I mean, it’s a dark romance. It’s not like I’m on some high horse about this. It just got redundant and harder and harder to root for the characters. By the end, I was kind of just shrugging at it all. It’s an entertaining enough read, but I’m kinda happy to be done with it, too.<\/p>\n

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Other Reviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recent Reads Reviews \ud83d\udcda King of Flesh and Bone & Queen of Rot and Pain<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n