by Lilah Dubois
Aketa is a very unlikely heroine, almost always silent, hiding her face, a farmer’s daughter whose family is not kind to her. But she draws the eye of Moregon, one of the Zinah’s, a warrior but also a slave to the Priestess who is now Queen. A bride is being sought for him, a bride who is able to deal with his need for a strong hand. Will Aketa be the one to be accepted as the best choice for Moregon?
First I should explain that I have not read the previous two books of the ‘Zinahs’ series by Lila Dubois, this one looked interesting and it showed up in my feed. I didn’t have issues with missing background of what had gone before, though I am sure readers of the first two books are more familiar with the background of how the Zinahs were trained and the way the Priestess became Queen. It would also probably have shown more background of the other Zinahs that have a significant role in the book. But I could follow the story well.
This is a ‘reverse bdsm fairy tale fantasy novel’. I wasn’t sure what reverse bdsm is and I’m still not sure, but I know I liked this book a lot. It is indeed a fairytale with somewhat poetic language, but clear and direct language where it needs to be so. The sex scenes were hot but I never got the idea that the story was second to them. The plot of having a number of women compete for Moregon’s hand, and that they needed to learn about power play in order to make him happy was a very unique one and it gave reasons for quite a few interesting scenes.
I did think it might have been nice to see Aketa act as a Domme and not just as someone who was watching or being dominated, but the writer chose to go in a somewhat different direction, where both Aketa and Moregon were more able to be happy together without whips and chains than was expected for Moregon. The ending was relatively open, it didn’t end with a great wedding scene. Instead, it made me wonder about the directions Moregon might have found himself changing and what Aketa would be like as Moregon’s wife. If the author decides to write a sequel about these two, I will be sure to read it too, and I’ve also decided to look at her other books.