The Warrior King by Abigail Owen

Meira doesn’t believe in fated mates, but even she reaches a point where the intense pull she feels towards Samael can no longer be denied. Trouble is, Meira is already promised to mate another…

What’s it About?

Meira Amon is the most reserved of the phoenixes, finding computers easier to deal with than people and their messy emotions. But she wants revenge against the Rotting King Pytheios for the murder of her parents just as much as her sisters. Offering herself as a queen for their ally, dragon shifter King Gorgon of the Black Clan, only makes sense.

Just one problem…

Samael Veles worked his lowborn ass off to become the fiercest warrior of the Black Clan. He has pledged his life to protect his king at all costs. Yet somehow, in the middle of war, he took one look at a woman in a reflection and gave up his heart. When that woman turns out to be the phoenix promised to mate his king and help bring peace to their kind, he has no choice but to accept it.

Until her fire unexpectedly destroys the king after they’ve wed. Now Samael must choose between his loyalty to his clan and protecting the queen who might be his mate from his people’s wrath, one of which will unlock a destiny no one could have ever imagined…

First Impressions

If there is one thing you can always count on when it comes to an Abigail Owen read, it’s that no two of her books are the same. I’m always surprised by her ability to throw my assumptions about how the story will progress completely off track. We manage to go in directions we never even considered, and meet a whole slew of new characters with whom we can immediately fall in love. One thing I will say is that after three novels in this Inferno Rising series and 4.5 books in the companion Fire’s Edge series, it is getting more challenging with each read to keep the many personalities of dragon kings, phoenixes and shifters in order. Sure, I love each and every one of them, but if I could get a kind of family tree break-down at the start of each book from here on out that would be amazing.

A Connection Which Keeps Them Apart

A poignant feature of Meira and Samael’s relationship is that while they are thrown together just the two of them essentially from page one, they also spend the bulk of the book fighting their feelings for each other. The mere fact that Meira doesn’t believe in fated mates means that she is continuously trying to fight the attraction she feels towards Samael as much as possible. Meira is also promised to mate the king of Samael’s dragon clan, a man who has acted as a pseudo-father figure to Samael over the years. Samael’s inner dragon yearns for Meira whenever they’re in close proximity, a desire which Samael tries to suppress for fear of inciting the anger of his leader and fellow members of this clan. Therefore, even though these two remain spatially close for the majority of the novel, there remains an emotional distance between them which makes it somewhat difficult to connect with them as a unified couple. Seeing as one of Meira’s phoenix powers is to act as an empath, I was hoping that we’d see more scenes of her connecting with Samael on a supernatural plane, but instead we consistently see Meira bemoaning how Samael has shut off his emotions from her. This left me wanting more when compared to some of the previous couples we’ve encountered throughout this gripping series.

*A copy of this book was provided for an honest review*

Series: Inferno Rising, book 3. I am so unbelievably excited to see anything this author will give me, but especially when it comes to this amazing world of phoenixes and dragon shifters.

Final Impressions: This was another great addition to the Inferno Rising series, and I was shocked that after so many novels I can’t always predict where the plot will take me. It’s hard to discuss in detail the various pathways we travers in this particular read without giving too much away, but let’s just say things get off to a fiery start, and end with an epic battle in the sky that plays out like a move in your head.

Smut Level: We have a scene where Meira and Samael are hiding out in an abandoned cabin following a plunge into an icy lake, and they have to heat things up in front of a fireplace to stay warm. Naked. I think we can all guess where this is goinggggggg.

Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $3.99 Kindle Price. Entangled: Amara. 305 Pages.